Abstract

This paper analyzes the diaristic notes of two prominent representatives of the Russian diaspora in Paris, Ivan Bunin and Zinaida Gippius, in search of an answer to the question of what gave hope to them during World War II. An analysis of the diaries shows that hope became a value that allowed its authors to survive the spiritual crisis. In the subsequent periods of the war, the main source of hope for them was the process of writing and creativity, which they saw as a weapon in the fight against transience, the sense of meaninglessness and loneliness. Bunin and Gippius wanted to leave themselves in the word, believing it to be eternal. In a borderline situation, the act of writing became, for them, the main form of confirming the continuum of their self and sometimes the only form of creative expression.