The Siberian Journey of Vasily Zhukovsky and Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich in 1837

The article investigates regularities of psychological perception and image constructing of Siberia \nby V.A. Zhukovsky and tsesarevich (crown prince) Alexander Nikolaevich during their travel across \nRussia in 1837. On the materials of the travelers’ letters, diaries and the 19th century periodicals, the \nauthor of the article shows the formation of two versions of Siberia’s image. Alexander Nikolayevich’s \nperception leant in many respects on cultural models familiar to him and provided mostly by the \ntradition of travel-writing ranging widely from the initiation archetypes to Russian practices of \nprovince revision. Zhukovsky, on the contrary, demonstrated the ability to separate the devices of \nliterary travel from the circumstances of the real journey. The former he applied, when the voyage \nstarted, in his translation of the eastern story “Nala and Damaianti”. It is shown in the article that \nthe travel of the heir to throne was a marking event and it was included in the process of symbolic \nannexing of the isolated territory which was typical for imperial culture of the first half of the 19th \ncentury: the discourse of Siberia which was being created in the cultural centre was subjected in a \nlarger degree to the idea of the integral imperial space. In the heir’s notes about the travel the words \nof Siberians became the frame for this symbolic annexation. Seeing the future the czar for the first time \non his land said: “hitherto Siberia was a peculiar land and now it became Russia

Ancient history · Art · Literature · Russian literature · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Discourse Analysis and Cultural Communication · History · Logistics and Transportation Systems · Psychology