Zlobin, Vladimir Ananievich (1894-1967) | University of Illinois Archives

Name: Zlobin, Vladimir Ananievich (1894-1967)

Historical Note: Vladimir Ananievich Zlobin (1894-1967) was born in St. Peterburg. He was a student of law at the St. Petersburg University when he became interested in poetry. As a young author he was introduced to Dmitrii Merezhkovskii and Zinaida Hippius, and shortly afterwards became Hippius' personal secretary. He joined the couple when they fled Soviet Russia in 1919 and settled in Paris. He continued to work for them as a secretary, simultaneously publishing his own poetry and essays in Russian émigré newspapers and journals. Zlobin was a member of the editorial boards of several literary journals, among them Novyi korabl' (The New Ship, 1927-- 1928) and Vozrozhdenie (Renaissance, 1949 --1974). After the death of Merezhkovskii (in 1941) and Hippius (in 1945) he became the executor of their estate. Zlobin inherited Hippius' and Merezhkovskii's archive (part of it was acquired later by A.Ya. Polonskii, the antique dealer from Paris), as well as copyrights on their literary works. Zlobin's first volume of poems entitled Posle eio smerti (After Her Death), dedicated to Hippius appeared in 1951. His book Tiazhelaia dusha (The Difficult Soul), which contained his memoirs on Hippius and some general reflections on her life and work, was published posthumously in 1970.