Russkaya Mysl
The anonymous author of the "Russkaya Mysl" review saw Gippius's poems as "either musings (what about, is usually hard to say) cast in uneasy forms, or occasional images, vaguely unpleasant." Angel Bogdanovich labeled the author "a narcissistic decadent... coquettish, mannered and playful," who was engaged in "buffoonery bordering on indecent mockery." Pyotr Yakubovich in "Russkoye Bogatstvo" wrote: "Our poetess is quick to profess her love for herself, God and the Devil; it is only the people that she invariably despises." As for her 'fake religiosity', as he put it, it amounted to "a mere version of those decadent versifiers' affectation that drove them to sing paeans to the devil, the evil, vileness and harlotry," he opined.