Dmitry Pisarev wrote the articles "Lapses into Immature Thought" about the narratives "Childhood", "Adoloscence", "Youth" and "Old Nobility" regarding the novel "War and Peace".
G. Adamovich in his article “Merezhkovsky” recalled that “if a conversation was really lively and if there was tension present, then sooner or later Merezhovsky would fall back on his favourite subject - the significance and meaning of the Gospel.
"His name was on everyone's lips, all eyes were turned on Yasnaya Polyana: the existence of Leo Tolstoy was felt in every fiber of the spiritual life of the country, every minute of the day", recalled P.P.
Merezhkovsky very openly expressed support for the churches' position, however, he noted in a letter to the Chairman of the Neophilological Society, Alexander Veselovsky, "My attitude towards Tolstoy, although entirely censored, is not hostile, rather sympathetic."
Merezhovsky defines Tolstoy's main artistic technique as a transition "from visible to invisible, from external to internal, from physical to spiritual" or at the very least, "instinctual".
As a substantiation of his thesis, Merezhkovsky developed the idea that L. Tolstoy offers the reader a lot of artistic details which help to reveal the inner essence of each hero.
[8] On exploring the "hidden acts" within Tolstoy's works, Merezhovsky notes that the author perceives his craft to be "imperceptible, too ordinary" to present as unusual.
This came about after February 6, 1901 (shortly before the publication of "Definition"), when Merezhovsky read the paper "Leo Tolstoy's attitude towards Christianity" at the Philosophical Society of Saint Petersburg Imperial University.
The reading, which took place in the Council Hall of the Saint Petersburg Imperial University, lead to a heated debate that dragged on well past midnight.
After graduating from a historical and philological course, Mr. Merezhkovsky quickly assimilates himself into "good society" - he publishes his poems in the "Bulletin of Europe" and other reputable magazines.
Zobnin writes) "real persecution, with personal insults and ridiculous but effective historical parallels" against Merezhovsky; for example, Merezhkovsky's paper was deemed an invocation of "St. Bartholomew's Night" ("Eastern Review" 1901, No.
Protesting, Merezhkovsky penned a letter to the editorial offices of the capital's newspapers, in which he pointed out the unacceptable pressure being exerted on him - condemning it as the "oppression of public opinion."
The letter merely caused a fresh wave of mockery: “In one of Garshin's stories, a lizard hatches, whose tail has been torn off 'for her beliefs.'
The dissertation "Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky" was published for a year on the pages of Mir Iskusstva and caused persistent irritation among the conservative readers, who considered Merezhovsky's views regarding Russian classics as unacceptably "liberal".
[13][14] Pozanov wrote: "Merezhovsky bared his chest to Tolstoy, like a Hellen to a Barbarian, with true sincerity and great artistic strength.
"[15]Nikolai Berdyaev who, as a whole, classified Merezhovsky's work to be of high quality, nevertheless noted in his article "New Christianity" that the author "never fully understood or truly appreciated" L.Tolstoy.
[12] Much of Merezhovksy's work (principally highlights such as "Eternal Companions", his research on "L.Tolstoy and Dostoevsky", and his work on Gogol) was perceived as great literary events; his book on Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, already appreciated by those "close" and relatively "distant" at the time of its creation, was subsequently (despite many fundamental and private disagreements) praised more than once as a landmark for the evolution of Russian criticism and literary studies.
Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at ru:Л. Толстой и Достоевский; see its history for attribution.