Varvara Malakhieva-Mirovich’s Philosophical Quest

Abstract

Poet, essayist, philosopher and translator Varvara Malakhieva-Mirovich was close to the circle of
writers and philosophers of Russian religious and philosophical Renaissance, she knew L. Tolstoy,
P. Florensky, E. Gertsyk and others. In her youth Mirovich was fascinated by theosophy, L. Shestov
and F. Nietzsche′s philosophy. Inspired by Shestov she became the translator of William James’s
“The Varieties of Religious Experience”. At the core of Mirovich’s worldview lies Manichean
opposition between light and dark forces, which she identifies with spirit and matter. Death in the
context of such dualism is regarded as redemption and liberation from matter and embodiment, and
life – as preparation for the afterlife. Mirovich could not find her place in the Soviet surroundings,
reality seemed to her corrupted with coarseness, materialism, and prose of everyday life. This
world outlook got manifestation in Mirovich’s poetry, which in its literary form and techniques
was close to the Lianozovo artistic group. Ideologically, spiritually and emotionally she lived in
a pre-revolutionary past among those who were close to her, i.e. thinkers and writers of the Silver  Age. The article deals with intellectual biography of Varvara Mirovich and covers main themes of
her work: the duality of human nature, which combines low and sublime; the cruelty of natural laws
that condemn people to mental and physical torments, aging and death; existential experiences of
loneliness, desolation and love.