The Phenomenon of N. D. Khvoshchinskaya-Zaionchkovskaya as Viewed by the Narodnik Historian V. I. Semevsky

Abstract

The present research featured a retrospective analysis of the historical identification of the image of a famous Russian writer Nadezhda D. Khvoshchinskaya, undertaken by a narodnik historian Vasiliy I. Semevsky. The study was based on archival and published sources, i.e. materials of personal origin (letters, memoirs), periodicals, as well as Semevsky’s biographical sketch and scientific works. The research involved the method of critical analysis of historical sources; the method of specificity, which determined the selection of sources; a semantic analysis of sources by comparing the analyzed data with information from other sources. Semevsky’s subjective descriptions made it possible to interpret his own views on such topical issues of social development as the place and role of women in society and the problems of education of the younger generation. The historian did not analyze artistic merits of Khvoshchinskaya’s works, but presented an exhaustive bibliographic list. The author characterizes V. I. Semevsky’s assessments in relation to various stages of N. D. Khvoshchinskaya’s activity as a writer and literary critic. An ambiguous from the point of view of morality introduction into scientific circulation of a number of sources of personal origin by the author of the biography is shown. The paper ends with the conclusion that Semevsky, as the first biographer of N. D. Khvoshchinskaya-Zaionchkovskaya, could set himself three tasks: (1) prevention of the writer’s oblivion; (2) a kind of ideological privatization, presentation of her views as close to the populist movement (the so-called Narodniks); and, (3) characterization of Khvoshchinskaya as a sample of a working woman and a bearer of ideal ethical principles that were close to those of Semevsky himself.