The Ideological and Spiritual Paradigm of Z. N. Gippius' Social Activity in the Context of the Silver Age

This article focuses on social activities, the specifics of Zinaida Gippius' world view, and her influence on the formation of consciousness of the Russian intelligentsia at the turn of the 20th century. The study is based on the use of primary sources: diaries, memoirs, letters, articles, both by Gippius and her contemporaries. These sources have been analyzed in a comparative manner to provide the greatest degree of objective insight into the social and political processes that were taking place in Russia and the role of Gippius in them. The reasons for the failure of religious and philosophical activities of Z. Gippius and her closest companions D. Merezhkovsky and D. Filosofov are justified in the article. The idea of implementing the Main, which was to create a modernized church on the basis of the formation of a new religious consciousness, did not resonate with her contemporaries. Gippius' personal qualities, her exaggerated selfesteem, her fanatical conviction in the truth of her own ideas, which in fact turned out to be false, her belief that the need to spread these ideas gave her the right to control people's fates by bending them to her will, alienated from her even her supporters. Her numerous contacts with representatives of different social groups helped Gippius to correctly assess the social and political situation in the country and develop her attitude to it. Taking into account Gippius' authority and influence among the Russian intelligentsia, without exaggerating the results of her social activities, we can definitely say that she contributed quite a lot to the formation of public consciousness, which makes her personality interesting for our contemporaries as well.