Ancient themes in Russian symbolist publicism: a case study of the Vesy magazine

The significance of this research lies in the need to understand the role of the antiquity theme in Russian publicism, particularly its influence during the Modernist period in early twentieth-century Russian culture. The aim of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of publications in Vesy (Libra), the most prominent Russian Symbolist magazine of that era, where authors actualized ancient texts, images, and motifs as a variant of a peculiar reception of ancient culture by Russian culture within the context of Russian Modernism. By employing statistical analysis, the study reveals the discontinuous dynamics of ancient heritage reception across the magazine’s six-year run and explores the factors contributing to these trends. A content analysis of the articles demonstrates that Russian authors, through the prism of the ancient code, addressed the issues related to art criticism, aesthetics, and literary criticism in their writings. Ultimately, the research indicates that the ancient themes featured in the magazine were successfully integrated by the authors of the articles into the system of Symbolist art, which the authors believed enhanced the extravagance and aesthetic depth of their works.