Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal

Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal
Born 17 February 1866
Saint Peterburg
Died 17 October 1907
Saint Petersburg

Lydia Dmitrievna Zinovieva-Annibal (Russian: Лидия Дмитриевна Зиновьева-Аннибал) (1866–1907) was a Russian prose writer and dramatist.[1] Annibal was her mother's maiden name.

Biography

She was born to a noble family. Her grandfather was Senator V.N. Zinoviev, her uncle was General V.V. Zinoviev and her brother, A.D. Zinoviev became the Governor of Saint Petersburg. Her mother was the Baroness Weimar and a descendant of Abram Petrovich Gannibal.

Most of her education was from private tutors. She did attend the Saint Petersburg women's gymnasium for a short time, but was expelled for being "obstinate". In 1884, she married one of her tutors, Konstantin Shvarsalon. Under his influence, she developed an interest in socialism and became associated with the Narodniks. Clandestine meetings were often held at their home.[2]

In 1893, she fled to Rome, where she met the poet Vyacheslav Ivanov. Two years later, Ivanov divorced his wife, but her husband refused to consent and their divorce proceedings dragged on for three years. During the 1900s, after returning to Saint Petersburg, she and Ivanov hosted the literary salon "Среды Иванова" (Ivanov Wednesdays, better known as "On the Tower", from its location).

She died of scarlet fever. Her grave at Nikolsky Cemetery has been lost. In 1913, Ivanov married Lydia's daughter, Vera, from her marriage with Shvarsalon.

Zinovieva-Annibal was associated with the Silver Age of Russian Poetry. Her short novel Tridsat'-tri uroda (Thirty-Three Abominations) was one of the few works of its day to openly discuss lesbianism.[3]

Works

  • Torches (1903)
  • Rings (1904)
  • Thirty-Three Abominations (1907) short novel. Transl. by S. D. Cioran in The Silver Age of Russian Culture.
  • The Tragic Menagerie (1907) stories.
  • No!' (1918)

References

  1. ↑ Chris Tomei, 'Lidia Dmitrievna Zinov`eva-Annibal', in Katherine Wilson, ed., An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers, Vol. 2, 1991, pp.1382-3
  2. ↑ Mentioned in an essay by Georgy Chulkov and a study by Tatyana Nikolskaya
  3. ↑ Adele Marie Barker and Jehanne M. Gheith, A History of Women's Writing in Russia (Cambridge University Press, 2002: ISBN 0-521-57280-0), p. 195.

Further reading

  • Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature
  • P. Davidson, The Poetic Imagination of Viacheslav Ivanov


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