A Room of His Own: The Life and Work of Akim Volynskii

Abstract

W hen the complete history of Russian modernism is written, the name of Akim Lvovich Volynskii (1863-1926) will surely receive the acclaim it deserves. most controversial literary critic of his time and the editor during 1891-1898 of the pioneering journal vestnik, Volynskii published books on Dostoevskii and Leskov, and then went on to become a Renaissance art scholar and an eminent chronicler of the Russian ballet. Briusov claimed: Severnyi vestnik, under Volynskii's leadership, became the front-line fighter which sacrificed its life in order to open the way to the entire army. And it is with gratitude and even a certain piety that we now pronounce his name.' following year, in 1905, Belyi asserted: The names of Volynskii, Rozanov, Merezhkovskii, Minskii are dear, unforgettable names: they are our teachers. In them we find echoes of everything that excited us in the days of our youth.2 Yet despite Volynskii's seminal role in the reevaluation of values and in the formation of the modernist ethos which radically altered the direction and quality of Russian artistic expression, his activities have been at best underappreciated and at worst misunderstood. At least three factors are responsible for this.