Nietzschean myth and crisis of nietzscheanism in creative works of D. S. Merezhkovsky: case study of "Christ and Antichrist" trilogy

The aim of the article is to reveal dynamics in interpretation of the key ideas of Nietzsche’s philosophy, which was typical for the Russian religious philosophy of the late 19th - early 20th centuries by the case study of D.S. Merezhkovsky’s Christ and Antichrist trilogy. The Nietzschean theme of the trilogy is considered in the context of the crisis period of the Silver Age of Russian literature and culture. It is proved, that just the transitional, crisis nature of these period preconditioned the widespread mythologization of the Nietzsche’s philosophy. By hermeneutic analysis of the Christ and Antichrist trilogy the authors distinguish a number of stages, which represent a dynamic general model of meditation on the Nietzsche’s philosophy. The model can be equally applied both to the individual original understanding of D.S. Merezhkovsky and substantially to the Nietzschean tradition in general, which emerged in the Silver Age.