Лирическое наследие молодого В.М. Жирмунского

Zhirmunskiiʼs archive contains a number of note-books with poems written around 1910. From his earliest diaries during his years as a pupil of the Tenishev School (1905–1906) it is clear that Zhirmunskii at first was only interested in civic poetry. Gradually, however, and under the influence of his friend V.V. Gippius, he started to write in the tradition of the symbolists. In Zhirmunskiiʼs poetry the main themes are love and religion. The present article traces the brief career of Viktor Zhirmunskii as a poet and provides background information about the poems published in the recent Zhirmunskii Special Issue of Russian Literature (LXXII-III/IV, 1 October/15 November 2012, pp. 291–349).