Journal archive

Abstract: The roots of the ethnographic style, which was formed in the Russian literature in 1820s — the beginning of 1830s, is examined in the article. It is usually traced to the works of V. I. Dal and his «school» established in 1840–1850-s. But Russian magazines of the beginning of the 19th century showed a great interest to ethnography not only of Russian nation but also of other numerous nations of the Russian Empire. The magazine «Notes of Fatherland» («Otechestvennye zapiski») of P. P. Svinjin is one of them. The image of «internal» and «external» borderlands of the empire was one of the tasks of the magazine. Its frequent author was Orenburg poet and military official P. M. Kudryashev. He wrote in the genre of the «eastern» story — Bashkir, Kazakh, Kalmyk, Tatar and Russian sometimes (the South Ural). Hhis stories were built on a combination of entertaining love-adventure plot with ethnographic elements. Kudryashev knew the life and customs of the Bashkirs quite well because of the Orenburg garrison was on the Bashkir land. In his stories he gave the example of depiction of these people, and other popular writers followed him. These stories were often published in Kazan magazine «Zavolzhsky Ant» in 1830-s.