This anthology of critical and theoretical writings on Russian Symbolism—most of which appear in English translation for the first time—charts the entire course of the movement from Merezhkovsky’s 1892 manifesto on the decline of Russian literature through the so-called “crisis” of Russian Symbolism. The fierce polemics that characterized Russian Symbolism were not limited merely to aesthetic matters, but were virulently ideological battles that questioned the very essence of the new art. Some viewed Symbolism as only an artistic system, while other demanded that Symbolism be considered a world view, as something spiritual and greater than mere art.