ABSTRACT
Modernism began to grope for an alliance with religion, and would-be mysticism. The banner of modernism was first raised by two poets: Dmitry S. Merezhkovsky and Minsky. Merezhkovsky was one of the founders of "The Religious-Philosophic Society" which provided, a meeting ground for the "God-seeking" intellectuals and the more advanced representatives of the Church. His attempts to imbue the revolutionary movement of 1905 with a religious depth and meaning were also a failure. And since the revolution of 1917 was not in keeping with his religious-philosophic scheme, he would have nothing to do with it: it was all the work of Antichrist. The interest in religion, became vogue. So did the interest in occultism, indulged in by the most talented of all the Russian decadents, Fyodor K. Sologub. Like Gogol, Sologub regarded vulgarity as something which has a metaphysical existence of its own, and is beyond man's control.
