Early XIX Century Research Articles

Sketch 'God the Father beholding dead Christ' of Vladimir L. Borovikovsky as a synthesis of the western European and the Orthodox tradition

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky, little Russian icon painter and St. Petersburg portrait painter, combined western European painting language and the Orthodox religion in his creativity. The sources of the painter's susceptibility to western European influence lie in his Ukrainian origin — the atmosphere of active interaction of Orthodox and Catholic cultures developed in Little Russia of XVIII. At XVIII—early XIX century icon and temple painting was approaching secular art and came under influence of European baroque and academism. Religious painting, that is the subject of the study, occupied an important place in the creativity of the painter. Master's icons and pictures demonstrate nontrivial iconographic, conceptual and dogmatic solutions. The sketch 'God the Father beholding dead Christ' from collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery is example of an original thought of the artist, who based it on the western European composition scheme, but gave it new meaning. The study theme is exploring features of interpretation by V. Borovikovsky of Catholic the Holy Trinity iconography. In order to identify specific motifs and ideas borrowed from Western European art and the Orthodox iconography of the Otechestvo (the Fatherland), which influenced the composition of the sketch, a comparative iconographic and stylistic analysis of works with similar iconography was carried out: with a fresco from the church in Marino (Rome) attributed to Guidoreni, and a painting by P.P. Rubens 'The Holy Trinity'. The iconographic analysis showed connection between of the sketch and wester European scheme 'God the Father contemplating the dead Christ', which goes back to iconographies 'God the Father holding a Crucifix' and Pieta, and to orthodox iconography Otechestvo. V. Borovikovsky rethinks traditional motifs, typical for the European painting (motifs of parental grief and reminder of sinfulness) and for the Orthodox icon painting (motifs of triumph over death). Stylistic analysis showed that the master formulates his own interpretation of the images of God the Father and God the Son, unifying both the Orthodox and the western European approaches. V. Borovikovsky borrows reception of relationship the Sabaoth and Christ as loving the Father and the Son, but doesn't borrow tragic reception of the plot, replacing it with the idea of the comprehensive divine love and the triumph over death. Thus, V. Borovikovsky combines icon symbolism and immediacy of realistic painting.

ВЫДАЮЩИЙСЯ ЗАКОНОИСКУСНИК РОССИИ

This article refers to the role of Z. A. Goryushkin in the development of Russian jurisprudence in the late XVIII – early XIX centuries. His contribution to the systematization of the legislation of that time and the training of law specialists is analyzed. Estimates of his work by well-known researchers of the past and present are given.

Urban and Environmental Territories Emerging from Sacred Water Sites in Edo-Tokyo

Low birth rate and increased longevity, population decline, repeated disasters, and now the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic can all be considered issues faced by cities in the XXI century. One characteristic these problems have in common is that they require a restructuring of cities based on the following question: How do we find an appropriate scale for cities while pursuing a future wherein the urban mechanism supports society rather than the economy? A hint for the historical investigation of this question can be found in the position of sacred sites such as shrines. For example, at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, many cases were reported of villages' traditional shrines being located just out of the tsunami's reach, and thus avoiding damage. Over the villages' long histories, people constructed sacred sites in safe places, visualising and identifying the appropriate range for these territories based on the area's topographical characteristics and experiences of disaster. When considering the relationship between urban territories and shrines, it should be noted that sacred sites of this kind enshrined a variety of water deities. The emergence of urban and environmental territories in Edo has been elucidated by plotting water deities and sacred springs that shared a close connection to historical figures through the comparison of ancient and current maps, tracing rivers and aqueducts via a combination of topographical and geological maps, and conducting fieldwork. The significant differences between these and early XIX century shubiki maps or administrative district perimeters are proof that the traditional and environmental boundaries acknowledged since ancient times were more important for people's activities than administrative ones. The early modern city of Edo completely reconstructed sacred sites that had existed since ancient or medieval times and imbued them with new meaning. In light of this, rediscovering the historical concept of territories could provide hints on their appropriate range with a view to the solution of current problems related to population decline and disaster recovery, both in Tokyo and in other Japanese cities.

О ФОРМИРОВАНИИ РУССКОГО НАУЧНОГО ЯЗЫКА ВО ВТОРОЙ ПОЛОВИНЕ XVIII – НАЧАЛЕ XIX ВЕКОВ

Studying the history of the Russian language of science is necessary primarily to understand the trends and prospects of its development. The language of Russian science today is heavily influenced by English, which is due to the requirement to write articles for journals in English, and to numerous international conferences where even Russian scientists make reports in English, as well as to the spread of terminology in English, in place of the conventional Russian terminology, which for many seems a marker of “novelty” in approach. It is possible to change the approach only if we understand the tendencies in the Russian scientific language at different stages of its historical development. This article is devoted to one of the earliest periods in the formation of the Russian scientific language – the second half of XVIII – early XIX centuries. It was during this period that the first Russian scholars appeared, writing in their native language. And the increasing translation activity leads to the appearance of quality works of a scientific nature (encyclopedias, academic books, and dictionaries) – and these works become a reference point for the emergence of original scientific texts. Finally, in 1783 the Russian Academy was founded, and its first work was the Dictionary of the Russian Academy (1789-1794). The article analyzes certain features of the scientific language at that period and their reflection in the current scientific language. The author concludes that the formation of the science language in XVIII – early XIX centuries was contradictory: the scientific language sought to avoid morphological and syntactic innovations and at the same time the vocabulary of the language sought imagery and vividness, which led to the formation of terminology with its internal form in the Russian language.

The image of a secular young man in light comedy of the late XVIII – early XIX centuries

The subject of this research the comedies “Secular Event” (1826), "The Talker" (1817) by N. I. Khmelnitsky, "The Heiress" (1824) by A. I. Pisarev, "Young Spouses" (1815) by A. S. Griboyedov, and “Feigned Infidelity” (1818) co-authored by A. S. Griboyedov and A. A. Zhandra. The goal lies in revealing the traits of a secular young man reflected in light comedy of the late XVIII – early XIX centuries. The research employs the following methods: 1) motivic analysis for determining the main motivation of the hero; 2) cultural-historical for establishing correlation between the literary tradition (image of a secular young man) and the real historical type. The novelty consists in the fact that this article is first to analyze light comedy of the late XVIII – early XIX century for the purpose of revealing the traits characteristic to a secular young man. It is established that the embodiment of the image of a secular young man is characterized with the motif of “the fictitious and the true”.  The hero is most interested in his own gain. He is willing to comply with the rules of the secular game in order to maintain the external decency. In the work of "Young Spouses" by A. S. Griboyedov, Arist in his reasoning comes to justification of infidelity, considering it a secular norm. Therefore, the hero of the salon comedy pursues his goals by means of deception, justifying it by the norms the privileged circles.

Early Pages of the Wallenberg Family History (Late XVII - Early XIX Centuries)

Early Pages of the Wallenberg Family History (Late XVII - Early XIX Centuries)

КОРМЩИК-ГРУМАНЛАН ФИЛАТ ВОЖЕВОЛЬНЫЙ: ЭТАПЫ БИОГРАФИИ В КОНТЕКСТЕ РОССИЙСКОГО ОСВОЕНИЯ АРХИПЕЛАГОВ И ОСТРОВОВ АРКТИКИ

The author examines the biography of the skipper Filat Vozhevolny, the son of Semen, who was engaged in fishing in the archipelagos of Spitsbergen (Grumant) and Novaya Zemlya in the late XVIII – early XIX centuries. The study of the biographies of individual fisherman-hunters makes it possible to understand the peculiarities of the organization of fishing, to identify personal and professional qualities, without which it was impossible to participate in long and dangerous expeditions to the polar archipelagos. Filat Vozhevolny went fishing from Onega and Arkhangelsk merchants, Vygoretsky old Believer community, and in 1808-1810 he sailed to Novaya Zemlya under the flag of the White Sea Company. In the personality of the skipper, knowledge of navigation, fishing and hunting was combined with adventurism and a penchant for risk, which endangered the life of not only himself, but also of the artel entrusted to him.

Visions of Ukraine in the Travel Records of the Baron August von Hackstagusen

The article investigates the purpose and process of a trip, which was conducted by Baron August von Haxthausen into the interior of the Russian Empire during 1843-1844. The scientific heritage of A. von Haxthausen was examined by various researchers, but most of them studied his works exclusively in the context of agricultural and socio-economic issues of Russia and Germany. However, the trip of A. von Haxthausen itself and his observations concerning ethnographic and religious peculiarities, social and cultural aspects of life of the local population were practically never explored before. The research was conducted based on two volumes of A. von Haxthausen's work «The Russian Empire, its People, Institutions, and Resources», with the primary focus being on his travelling through Ukrainian ethnic territories. In the course of the investigation, it was established that the purpose of Baron's trip was to explore the agricultural system of the Russian Empire, as well as receive further insight into different aspects of daily life, culture, and traditions of the local population. In addition, A. von Haxthausen demonstrated a great interest in various monuments, such as religious constructions, palaces, and educational institutions. His choice of the monuments was significantly influenced by what was popular among other travellers to visit in the late XVIII - early XIX centuries. Due to Baron's communication with people of different social classes certain changes in his attitude towards the imperial realities were induced, making it more objective and comprehensive. A. von Haxthausen was substantially interested in the living conditions of foreign colonists, particularly of Mennonites – his compatriots. While travelling, Baron clearly identified the ethnicity of each people of the Russian Empire. His ethnic classification was predominantly based on the language, physical features, and traditions of the population. All the data, which was collected by A. von Haxthausen in the course of the trip, including his observations and impressions, was later transformed into a three-volume work «The Russian Empire, its People, Institutions, and Resources», further laying the foundation of changes in the imperial society.

Dynamics of “Transdanubian settlers” in Bessarabia in the early XIXth century: migration processes and natural growth

The population dynamics of Transdanubian settlers in Bessarabia during the first half of the XIXth century is a significant matter that can be addressed within historical demography. This paper uses its methods and employs the potential realization forms in the population’s age-andsex structure – a model or mode of the community demographic reproduction amid the large-scale migration. The research results are based on a comparative analysis of three variants of the population’s natural growth coefficient, calculated by us. The first one is applied to larger time intervals where birth and death rates are unknown; the second is for annual intervals where the total birth and death rates are known in absolute data. The third one is based on the birth and death rates variability, calculated for individual colonies. The author concludes that the investigated period is the time of community formation through resettlement and adaptation to the new Budzhak realia, its stabilization, and evolution in the region due to internal potential. The period 1818–1835 is a stage in population resource formation. In 1835–1850, the community develops demographically through self-reproduction without the intervention of migration factors. In 1850, the community totals 82,200 people due to demographic growth and birth rate. Obviously, the demographic potential of the group in the first half of the 19th century was quite strong.

Карта растительности памятника садово-паркового искусства «Осиновая роща» (Санкт-Петербург)

This article continues a series of publications devoted to vegetation mapping of existing and prospective specially protected natural areas of St. Petersburg. The “Osinovaya Roshcha” is a monument of garden art of the late XVIII–early XIX centuries. It is located on the northern border of St. Petersburg in a picturesque kame landscape, where sandy hills alternate with small bogged depressions and lakes. The landscape park of the Levashov-Vyazemsky estate was created in the forested area dominated by spruce, pine and birch. Since the 1780s oak, linden, ash, larch, fir, Siberian, Weymouth and other pines were planted there (Isachenko, 2004). A large-scale map of the actual vegetation of the “Osinovaya Roshcha” park and the adjacent territory was compiled for the first time. The natural forest, bog and meadow plant communities are characteristic features of the northern part of the area. The broad-leaved and coniferous trees, planted in the central part more than 200 years ago, have formed various plant communities, including mixed stands of local flora species and introduced trees. The southern part of the park is occupied mainly by broad-leaved introduced forest stands. Vegetation is divided into three sections in the map legend — natural, introduced, and formed by both native and introduced species. Each section represents vegetation types (or groups of types) (forest vegetation, mire vegetation, etc.); then forest communities are subdivided into classes of formations and formations, bog communities — according to the types of water-mineral nutrition. The mapped units are associations, subassociations and their variants, identified according the ecological-phytocoenotic classification. Territorial units — ecological series and combinations of plant communities — were also used in the map legend. Short-term secondary communities formed under various ecological (mainly anthropogenic) factors are subordinate to conventionally primary ones. They are indicated by indices at the legend numbers. Various types of shading were used on the map to distinguish natural and introduced vegetation. The vegetation map of the “Osinovaya Roshcha” represents a diversity of plant communities: they are forest (spruce, pine, birch) and bog (lowland, transitional, upland) communities typical of the region, as well as old-growth larch (Larix sibirica) and broad-leaved (oak, linden, elm, mixed composition) forests formed by introduced trees. Last ones are rare for the region. The plant community of Carex brizoides, found in the park, is of great interest among the communities of herbaceous plant introducers. This sedge is a rare species for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, which probably like the Poa chaixii was used for sodding the park soils.

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY OF N.I. ILMINSKY AMONG THE CHUVASH

On the basis of available sources and literature, the confessional situation among one of the non–Russian peoples of the Middle Volga region, the Chuvash, is investigated. If in the XVIII – early XIX century while carrying out conversion of the non-Slavs (that was the name for non-Russian peoples before the revolution) to the Orthodox the Senate and the Synod gave privileges to the newly baptized and resorted to harsh punitive measures against those who refused, then from the middle of the XIX century the ways of dealing with the unbaptized and those who have fallen into Islam are changing dramatically. Missionaries are gradually coming to the opinion that it is necessary to speak with the non-Slavs in their language, to train priests and teachers from their environment, and also to take into account their traditional holidays and rituals. For example, the priests equally named Turӑ both the Chuvash deity and the Orthodox supreme God. This trend continues to this day. In order to reflect the peculiarities of the Orthodox enlightenment of the Chuvash and to protect them from Islam, the author of the article uses the phrase “indigenization/”alienation” of Orthodoxy.” The creator and the engine of this whole system in Kazan, Simbirsk, Samara, Vyatka, Ufa and Orenburg governorates was N.I. Ilminsky. As a result, the Chuvash began to accept Orthodoxy consciously.

On the History of the Anglo-Russian Confrontation in the Western Caucasus

The article examines the scale and methods of the anti-Russian military-political activity of British emissaries in the Western Caucasus in the first half of the 19th century. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time in the work the intelligence activity of British “traveling” agents in the Western Caucasus is subjected to a special study, as an independent, gaining strength way of fighting in international contradictions for the Caucasus. The relevance of the topic of the proposed article seems to us indisputable due to the incompleteness of international rivalry and the eternal Eastern question. Russian Empire in the late 20s — early 30s XIX century. took possession of all legal rights to the North-West Caucasus and outlets to the Black Sea. With its confident military successes and new territorial accessions, Russia threw a serious challenge to the European powers, and especially England, the dominant power on the European continent at that time. One of the most important tasks of England is to nullify all the achievements of Russia in Turkey and prevent its consolidation in the territory of the Western Caucasus. England, adhering to the favorite method of “raking in the heat with someone else’s hands”, and in Circassia is testing its effectiveness. Since the 30s. XIX century. Numerous British agents flooded the Caucasus, turning the Circassians against Russia. The Black Sea coast of the Caucasus has become a place of uninterrupted supply of weapons to the mountaineers. As a result of the work, the author comes to the conclusion that the sources considered in the work can represent a scientific basis for confirming the involvement of Britain in anti-Russian agitation in the Western Caucasus. The uninterrupted supply of weapons to the highlanders organized by British agents helped to maintain military tension and a fighting spirit in Circassia.

Garnisaires in France during the Napoleonic Wars: regulation of repressive measures for maintaining conscription

The Institution of garnisaires was intended for providing lodging to bystanders in the homes of residents in order to comply with the requirements of the government. In France of the early XIX century, it was implemented as a repressive measure to ensure conscription of the recalcitrant. The article describes the legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires in conducting conscription in France of the period of the Consulship and the First Empire. The object of this research is the Institution of garnisaires in the early XIX century; while the changes in legal regulation of this institution throughout the ruling of the First Consul and Emperor Napoleon I. The article employs the normative legal acts of the early XIX century: imperial decrees, governmental acts, executive orders and instructions of the officials of the central and local administration; as well as contextual analysis of legal acts, comparative-historical, and chronological methods. Taking into account that the topic of legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires is poorly covered, the article comprehensively analyzes the content of the fundamental legal acts, determines the peculiarities of stern measures applied for maintaining conscription at different stages of the reign of Napoleon I. The conclusion is made that the legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires during the indicated period has evolved from the first attempts to establish the practice of lodgment as repression, initially not implying specific restrictions, to introduction of more balanced and detailed regulation of the institution with a range of restrictive measures. The formation of legal framework of the institution was completed by 1807–1808 with issuing of the decrees of the Emperor and instructions of the Director General of Military Conscription Jean-Girard Lacuée.

Turkic-language interpretations of Quran from Bashkiria of the XIX century as literary monuments

The subject of this research is the literary-aesthetic characteristics of interpretation of Manzil written by Bashkir theologians Bahadirshah al-Qaynawi and Taj ad-Din ibn Yalchigul: the presence of coherent narratives based on the authorial approach towards the interpreted text, literary-aesthetic interpretations of plots and images reflected in the Quranic text directly, intertextual connections of interpretations with the works in other genres. The goal of this article lies in determination and description of the meaningful literary-aesthetic characteristics of interpretations of Manzil. The following tasks are resolved within the framework of this research: 1) determination of the key characteristics of the Tafsir genre, 2) revelation of the role of works under review for the tradition of the Turkic-language interpretation of Quran, 3) description of the literary-aesthetic characteristics of the interpretations by Bahadirshah al-Qaynawi and Taj ad-Din ibn Yalchigu, 4) translation of fragments of their interpretations that are significant from the perspective of literature into the Russian language. The scientific novelty and practical importance of this publication lies in introduction into the scientific discourse of two previously unexplored literary monuments that have not been translated into the Russian language. This significantly broadens the knowledge on the literary process in Bashkiria of the early XIX century. The author concludes that the interpretation of Quran fragments should be viewed in the context of evolution of Bashkir literature of the pre-national period. This opens great potential for studying their intertextual correlations with Turkic-language literary of the earlier period in the genres of “chronicles”, “history of the prophets”, and “miracles of the created”, as well as with sententious literature of the later period.

Natural Law in Editions of the 18th Century from the Library of the Irkutsk Theological Seminary as a Historical Source

The article gives a historical and book review of Western European publications of the XVIII century on natural law, preserved in the Scientific Library of the Ural State Law University (previously in the collection of the library of the Irkutsk Theological Seminary). Books are considered as a complex historical source with an inexhaustible source-study potential for studying the history of book culture. The facts of the history of the formation of the Irkutsk Theological Seminary library fund at the end of the XVIII – early XIX century and the geography of the spread of the ideas of lawyers of Western Europe, obtained by studying readers’ records, library labels and book signs, are presented. The article not only presents bibliographic descriptions of book rarities of the Enlightenment era (five books in 13 volumes), but also describes in detail all traces of their existence. As a result of the study, the picture of the development of book distribution, librarianship and reading in Siberia in the XVIII–XIX centuries is supplemented.

Revision and cassation in French military courts of the late XVIII – early XIX centuries: on the legal nature of permanent councils of revision

This article contains material on the history of the Permanent Councils of Revision – bodies of military justice in France of the late XVIII – early XIX centuries, which is examined in the Russian historiography for the first time, as well as poorly studied in the French historiography. Leaning on the legislative acts and works of the French lawyers of that time, analysis is conducted on the procedure for the formation of the councils of revision, and determination of their judicial competence. The article also raises the question on correlation of the concepts of “revision” and “cassation” in French military justice of the end of revolutionary and post-revolutionary eras. Consideration of the provisions of French jurisprudence of the early XIX century allows concluding that the concept of “revision” could also include cassation of court judgments. Comparison of the permanent councils of revision, which carried out the functions of cassation of court decisions, with the Cassation Tribunal (in the imperial time – the Court of Cassation) did not allow to equate these bodies, which were created separately for military and civilian justice. Having a different procedure for the formation of bench of judges, the permanent councils of revision were granted the limited authority to conduct cassation and were not of equal importance to the Court of Cassation.

С. С. Уваров и его нереализованный проект устава Санкт-Петербургского университета (1819 г.)

The article deals with an important subject, which seems to have fallen out of the field of research, which is connected with the development of a draft special charter for the St. Petersburg University in 1819–1823. This project was developed personally by S. S. Uvarov, who was then a trustee of the Saint-Petersburg educational district. The aim of the work is to reconstruct the content of this lost project, which was based on the traditions of German free science, based on the materials of its discussion in the Main Board of Schools. This episode clearly reflected the triumph of religious- conservative attitudes in the policy of the Ministry of Public Education, which prevented the implementation of S. S. Uvarov's plans to "arrange" a European-level university in the capital of the empire, combining an educational organization on the model of German universities, a special faculty structure and management, more centralized than what was provided for by the university charters of the early XIX century.

From population dynamics to resource exploitation: an introduction

The paper was suggested by a brief note of the second author about the application of the Hubbert curve to predict decay of resource exploitation. A further suggestion came from the interpretation of the Hubbert curve in terms of a specific Lotka Volterra (LV) equation. The link with population dynamics was obvious as logistic function and LV equation were proposed within the demography science field. Mathematical population dynamics has a history of about two centuries. The first principle and model of population dynamics can be regarded the exponential law of Malthus. In the XIX century, the Malthusian demographic model was first refined to include mortality rate by Gompertz. In the early XIX century the model was further refined by Verhulst by introducing the standard logistic function. The previous models only concern the population of a single species. In the early XX century, the American demographer Lotka and the Italian mathematician Volterra proposed a pair of state equations which describe the population dynamics of two competing species, the predator and the prey. This paper is concerned with the single and two-species fundamental equations: the logistic and LV equation. The paper starts with the generalized logistic equation whose free response is derived together with equilibrium points and stability properties. The parameter estimation of the logistic function is applied to the raw data of the US crude oil production. The paper proceeds with the Lotka Volterra equation of the competition between two species, with the goal of applying it to resource exploitation. At the end, a limiting version of the LV equation is studied since it describes a competition model between the production rate of exploited resources and the relevant capital stock employed in the exploitation.

Robert Owen: businessman, economist-theorist and science fiction writer (to the 350th anniversary of his birth)

Introduction. Robert Owen is a very prominent figure in the history of economic thought in England in the early XIX century. His talent was evident as an economist-theorist and in his organizational skills, which allowed Owen to make significant improvements in the textile industry.Purpose is to generalize the economic views of a prominent economist in conjunction with his experimental and reformist activities in production in order to create an «ideal labor community» that will improve the world of capitalism, provide high profits for entrepreneurs and prosperous lives of employees. Analyze the views of the scientist on the ways and means of creating a future society.Methods. The methodological basis of the study are such general scientific methods as analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction, which were used to assess the views and recommendations of the scientist to improve existing social relations; historical method – to understand the causes and essence of the evolution of views on existing society and the importance of moral and educational education; positive and normative methods – to study the common and distinctive features in the views of the future social order of the representatives of utopian socialism.Results. A large number of works by R. Owen have been studied and it has been found that his social utopia and reformist activities were contradictory, his «projects» were mostly unrealistic, but same time had a significant impact on the labor and trade union movement in England and the development of economic thought. The scientist found that private property was the cause of many crimes and misfortunes. It was found that R. Owen had been focused on trying to make practical changes, develop specific proposals for the restructuring of society, improving working conditions and living conditions of workers. He saw the possibility of improving the living conditions of employees in the organization of community work, the effectiveness of which he tested during the famous experiment in New Lenark. According to R. Owen, a good society should be based on science and governed by simple and healthy principles of equality and justice.Discussion. The prospect of further research lies in a deeper and more detailed analysis of individual works of the famous economist, that will help to understand the logic of his way of thinking and give a more objective assessment of the contribution of R. Owen in the development of world economic thought.

Образ русской знатной дамы в поэзии Шарля де Линя

The article considers a series of poems by Prince Charles de Lin (1735–1814), dedicated to Russian women of the Catherine era. The novelty of the research is that these poems have not yet been studied and published in Russian. A description of the Prince de Lin’s relations with Russia is presented. The list of poetic messages of the “Russian cycle”is given. Information is given about the personalities of the addressees-representatives of the highest (titled) Russian aristocracy of the second half of the XVIII and early XIX centuries. The circumstances of the creation of individual poems, which caused their pathos, are indicated. A genre classification of works is proposed — madrigals, poems in albums, humorous songs. The above quotes indicate the collective image created by Prince de Lin of a high-class Russian lady of the end of the Enlightenment era. It is a whimsical combination of grandeur, coquetry, piety, courtesy, and artistic taste. With all the unique personality of each addressee, we see the personification of beauty and tenderness, refinement and kinship. The generally idealized view of the enlightened Belgian on the Russian high society of that era, when emancipation and cosmopolitan education of noblewomen were already more than a century old, has a certain historical significance and deserves attention in the light of the dialogue between the two cultures.