Alexander Ostrovsky’s participation in the “literary expedition” of the Naval ministry (new archival materials)
- Authors: Vdovin A.V.1
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Affiliations:
- National Research University “Higher School of Economics”
- Issue: Vol 84, No 2 (2025)
- Pages: 23-32
- Section: Articles
- URL: https://journal-vniispk.ru/1605-7880/article/view/294525
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/S1605788025020028
- ID: 294525
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Abstract
The article reconstructs the history of playwright Alexander Ostrovsky’s participation in the “literary expedition” of the Naval Ministry along the upper Volga in 1856–57 on the basis ofarchival documents from the Russian State Archive of the Navy, the Bakhrushin Central State Theatre Museum, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Institute of Russian Literature RAS, and the Russian State Historical Archive. For the first time, the role of the writer’s brother Mikhail Ostrovsky, as well as Ivan Turgenev and officials of the Naval Ministry Dmitri Obolensky and Dmitri Tolstoy in the organization of this trip is identified and described. New sources allowed to correct widely accepted version of Ostrovsky’s cooperation with the magazine “Marine Collection”. Two unpublished letters of Ostrovsky to the official institutions of Tver province are published for the first time. In conclusion, a unique set of “common people’s anecdotes” of the first half of the 19th century, collected by the writer during the expedition, is described.
About the authors
Alexey V. Vdovin
National Research University “Higher School of Economics”
Author for correspondence.
Email: avdovin@hse.ru
Doct. Sci. (Philol.), PhD, Professor at the Faculty of the Humanities
Russian Federation, 11 Pokrovsky blvd., Moscow, 109028References
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