On the background of a newspaper debate

Periodical publications play a significant, though not essential role in D. S. Merezhkovsky's legacy. Not all of the writer's articles scattered across periodicals of the early 20th century have been identified and republished. Yet studying their origins, mapping their versions and variants, examining the sources reveals little-known circumstances of the disputes around key issues of Russian thought of that age. One such article is "Red Riding Hood" (1908). It is examined in the context of the debate over Russian statehood. The article was written in response to PIS. Struve's famous publication "Great Russia. From Reflections on the Problem of Russian Might" (1908). By publishing it at the beginning of his cooperation with the Rech ' newspaper, Merezhkovsky utilized an opportunity to make a clear return to newspaper debate, from which he had been effectively ruled out due to his emigration. His strategy as an author was to simultaneously print "Red Riding Hood" in Rech' and its abridged version, "Freedom Above Motherland", in the daily news outlet Poslednie Novosti. Merezhkovsky objected to Struve's ideas about the necessity of strengthening statehood, a fair resolution of the "Polish" and "Jewish" issues and the intelligentsia's turn away from "banal radicalism". He questioned the validity of the monarchy's existence in light of an unfinished revolution and asserted a widespread opposition to the state among the intelligentsia. The responses to Merezhkovsky, penned by Struve, prince E.N. Trubetskoy and S.A. Kotlyarevsky, exhibit an attempt to point out the difference between motherland and monarchy, state and power, church and faith, as well as disappointment with the radicalism of an intellectual ready to destroy his country for an abstract idea. Merezhkovsky's replies to Struve and Trubetskoy reveal an essential trait of his journalistic style. Using inaccurate quotations and interpreting them freely, Merezhkovsky avoided direct answers, instead driving the reader towards his own concept of the "new religious consciousness", which contradicted his opponents' viewpoints. Struve put an end to the debate, conceding that he struggled to keep it on point with Merezhkovsky, even though they were united by a common attitude to culture. Merezhkovsky's article "Christianity and State" struck a chord with Trubetskoy. His forgotten article "Rally Religion and Rally Methods (A Response to D.S. Merezhkovsky)" likewise dealt not so much with his opponent's arguments as with his polemical techniques, which obscured the viewpoint. Reconstruction of the debate over statehood and the inclusion of little-known publications in the analysis serve to illuminate the alignment of Russian thought prior to the appearance of the Vekhi collection (1909). The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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