Dance as a Solemn Ritual

Born Ḥayim Flekser in Zhitomir, Russian Empire (today in Ukraine), Akim Volynsky attended gymnasium in St. Petersburg. Volynsky received his law degree from the University of St. Petersburg in 1889. He did not remain in the legal field but turned instead to literature and cultural criticism. In 1892, together with the poets Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius, Volynsky took over control of the journal Severny Vestnik, transforming it into the primary organ for incipient Symbolist and modernist trends in Russian literature. A proponent of philosophical idealism, Volynsky published essays on the works of prominent figures including Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Drawn to theater and dance after Severny Vestnik folded in 1899, Volynsky became an important ballet critic. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, he led the Leningrad office of the Soviet Writers’ Union from 1920 to 1924. During this period, he edited an Encyclopedia of Russian Jewry, founded the Russian Choreographic School, and administered a publishing house.