Source studies and methodological aspects of creative laboratory of D.S. Merezhkovsky (preparatory materials for the “Belinsky testament”)

For the first time, the article analyzes in detail the preparatory extracts of D.S. Merezhkovsky to the “Belinsky Testament”, which are stored in the Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) (IRLI RAS) and are valuable for understanding the writer’s creative laboratory, “exposing” the principles of his work with sources, including the epistolary heritage of the critic, historical and literary studies and ego-documentary materials about him. It is established which publications Merezhkovsky cited his sources from, their qualitative assessment is given in the context of the Silver Age (with the involvement of little-known reviews from pre-revolutionary periodicals), as well as from the point of view of modern scientific ideas. An attempt is made to explain the choice of the writer, including against the background of the discussion about Belinsky’s “legacy” that unfolded in the early twentieth century between Yu.I. Aikhenvald, E.A. Lyatsky, Ivanov-Razumnik and others; establish explicit and hidden roll calls with its participants, as well as differences from them. The composition and nature of the extracts are studied (for Belinsky’s letters, their dating and the list of addressees are specified), the author’s ways of structuring of quotes are described. Particular attention is paid to the types of distortions of the “foreign” text by Merezhkovsky, their typology is proposed, and the forms of transformation are studied. The problem of selecting cited material for inclusion in the final text of the “Belinsky Testament” is solved in close connection with the author’s intention to recreate the image of Belinsky - an “ascetic”, “martyr”, “imaginary atheist” with an “unconscious search for faith”, whose “testament” is in reconciliation “tragic contradiction between the religious and social elements”.