Russian Emigrants and European Night (Vladimir Weidle and Vladislav Khodasevich)

Abstract

The article discusses the life, fate, and relationship of two thinkers – a philoso­pher, art critic, cultural historian Vladimir Weidle and poet, essayist Vladislav Khodasevich. Based on their works, the article analyzes the signs of a “sunset phenomenon”: lowering the spiritual and cultural level of society and establish­ing the unlimited power of ideocracy. The author shares the opinion of M. Al­danov that the state of culture is determined by a decrease in the difference in mental growth between the “mass” and the “elite”, which is achieved in two ways: either by increasing the level of “masses” or by lowering the level of “elite”. Europe of the XXth century. definitely chose the second way. This sce­nario was seen in the activities of the leader of the October coup in Russia and Weidle, and Khodasevich. According to Weidle, the best guarantee of success for the revolution was the extermination of the ruling and cultural stratum, and Lenin received this guarantee from the people. Khodasevich is even sharper. He also did not endure aesthetically Lenin. Modernism and formalists sang Hosanna Lenin. And his attitude to these areas was sharply negative. The article examines Khodasevich’s claims to a formal school, his identification of the con­nection between formalism and “social order” in literature, which then led to the literature of “socialist realism”. The author concludes this article with an archival publication – a letter from Weidle Khodasevich