Был ли Кузмин “русским денди”?

Abstract

The article is concerned with Mikhail Kuzmin (1872–1936), who for some period of his life has been perceived by his contemporaries as an embodiment of the dandy. During the period of close contacts with Viacheslav Ivanov and poets and artists, who attended the famous Ivanov “Tower” (the apartment, which became the Salon of Russian modernism), Kuzmin changed his appearance radically. Before the acquaintance with the poets of Ivanov's circle the Russian style was dominating in the tastes and style of Kuzmin's dress, but then that changed dramatically and Kuzmin started to wear fashionable European dress. It should be noted that the idea of Kuzmin as a dandy was based not on the facts, but on the latest memoirs of his younger contemporaries. This article is based on documentary sources: diaries and letters of Kuzmin and his views expressed in critical articles. Kuzmin himself was prone to self-reflection and evaluation of dandyism in his critical articles.