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Abstract:

The article examines the theme of the coming of the “end times” in D.S. Merezhkovsky’s articles of 1905–1907, one of the periods of his prolific activity in periodicals. Social turmoil seemed a precursor of a religious revolution to the writer. In spite of Merezhkovsky’s involvement in the political agenda, his articles are rich above all in apocalyptic imagery. The idea of the world’s end emerges in various contexts, its appearance in the text ranging from brief citation to extended interpretation and inclusion in broad textual formations. Analysis of quotations drawn from John the Apostle’s Revelation indicates that apocalyptic vocabulary was reduced to several images: beast from the earth, new heaven and new earth, millennial kingdom and Babylon. These are scattered throughout the articles, acting as keywords establishing the semantic context that is meant to be reproduced each time. Merezhkovsky regarded the realization of the chiliastic idea of a thousand-year kingdom as possible in the near future, once the Russian monarchy was uprooted and the church became free. Therefore he had an optimistic outlook on the tragic and bloody events of the First Russian Revolution, discerning gleams of a future religious upheaval in the midst of social cataclysms. In the Revelation he identified a metaphorical depiction of a cosmic-scale catastrophe, which signified the transition to what lay at the end of history — towards apocalyptic Christianity, the Third Testament, the kingdom of the Holy Spirit.

Keywords: Merezhkovsky, N. Morozov, Apocalypse, Chiliasm, Periodical Publications, Millennial Kingdom.