Two centuries of the Russian classics Two centuries of the Russian classics 2686-7494 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-4-136-169 Research Article Articles Natural and Urban Spaces of Little Russia and Novorossiya in the Travelogue On the Glorified River by N. S. Filippov Zhdanov Sergey S. red@rusklassika.ru 25 12 2025 7 4 136 169 N. S. Filippov N. V. Gogol Ukraine Little Russia Novorossiya Kyiv Kremenchug Ekaterinoslav space city image Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The paper examines the representation of natural and urban spaces of Little Russia and Novorossiya in the travelogue On the Glorified River by N. S. Filippov. The research reveals the author’s reliance on the ideas of the idyllic and natural Little Russian topos in Russian literature of the 19th century. It gighlights intertextuality of Filippov’s travelogue, in particular, the influence of Gogol’s text on it. Sky and river topoi are attributed to the natural spaces of the work. The image of the Dnieper River is of key importance and cross-cutting, connecting descriptions of particular urban spaces into a single whole. The idyllic image is associated with the motif of the “wonderful Dnieper.” The Dnieper anti-idyll is defined by the motifs of unattractiveness, boredom, danger, and human intervention, which, in turn, actualizes the desecrated paradise motif. Finally, the third hypostasis of the Dnieper is represented by the locus of rapids, marked by motifs of both beauty, courage, and danger, chaos, mortality, and infernality. Urban space representations are associated with contrasting idyllic and sacred Kyiv with images of other cities. Abashev, V. V. “ʽKartiny’ Viazemskogo” [“ʽPaintings’ of Vyazemsky”]. Russian Literature, vol. 53, no. 1, 2003, pp. 1–12. (In Russ.) Abashev, V. V. Perm’ kak tekst v russkoi kul’ture i literature XX veka [Perm as Text in Russian Culture and Literature of the 20th Century]. Perm, Perm University Publ., 2000. 404 p. (In Russ.) Antsiferov, N. P. Radost’ zhizni byloi… Problema urbanizma v russkoi khudozhestvennoi literature. Opyt postroeniia obraza goroda — Peterburga Dostoevskogo — na osnove analiza literaturnykh traditsii [Joy of the Old Life… The Problem of Urbanism in Russian Fiction. An Essay on Constructing the City Image, Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg, Based on the Analysis of Literary Traditions]. Novosibirsk, Svin’in i synov’ia Publ., 2014. 656 p. (In Russ.) Bashliar, G. Voda i grezy. Opyt o voobrazhenii materii [Water and Dreams. Essay on the Imagination of Matter]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo gumanitarnoi literatury Publ., 1998. 268 p. (In Russ.) Bulkina, I. Kiev v russkoi literature pervoi treti XIX veka: prostranstvo istoricheskoe i literaturnoe [Kiev in Russian Literature of the First Third of the 19th Century: History and Literature Space: DSc Dissertation]. Tartu, 2010. 213 p. (In Russ.) Vasil’eva, T. A. U istokov ukrainofil’stva: obraz Ukrainy v rossiiskoi slovesnosti kontsa XVIII – pervoi chetverti XIX veka [At the Origins of Ukrainophilia: Image of the Ukraine in Russian Literature of the End of the 18th and the First Quarter of the 19th Century: PhD Dissertation]. Tomsk, 2014. 232 p. (In Russ.) Dordzhieva, E. V. “Obraz goroda v reprezentatsiiakh puteshestvennikov: na primere vospriiatiia Ekaterinoslava XIX – nachala XX veka” [“City Image in Representations of Travelers: Based on the Example of Ekaterinoslav of the 19th and 20th Centuries”]. Sovremennoe pedagogicheskoe obrazovanie, no. 3, 2024, pp. 316–322. (In Russ.) Zhdanov, S. S. “ʽNekhai zhe moskvichi k provintsiiam surovy…’: obraz Kremenchuga v traveloge I. M. Dolgorukogo” [“ʽLet Muscovites be Harsh to Provinces...’: Image of Kremenchug in the Travelogue by I. M. Dolgoruky”]. Slavianskiia literatury v kantekstse susvetnai [Slavic Literature is the Essence of the World]. Minsk, Belarusian State University Publ., 2024, pp. 31–37. (In Russ.) Zhdanov, S. S. “ʽPiitecheskaia Malorossiia’: ukrainskaia prostranstvennaia obraznost’ v traveloge ʽPutevye pis’ma iz Anglii, Germanii i Frantsii’ N. I. Grecha” [“ʽPoetic Little Russia’: Ukrainian Spatial Imagery in the Travelogue ʽTravel Letters from England, Germany and France’ by Nikolai Gretsch”]. Imagologiia i komparativistika, no. 22, 2024, pp. 180–201. https://doi.org/10.17223/24099554/22/11 (In Russ.) Zhdanov, S. S. “Prostranstvennye obrazy liminal’nogo Iuugo-Zapada Rossiiskoi imperii (na materiale ʽPutevykh zapisok po Rossii’ M. P. Zhdanova)” [“Spatial Images of the Liminal South-West of the Russian Empire (Based on ʽTravel Notes Across Russia’ by M. P. Zhdanov)”]. Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 6, no. 3, 2024, pp. 30–63. https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2024-6-3-30-63 (In Russ.) Zhdanov, S. S. “Travestiinaia gorodskaia Malorossiia v traveloge ʽSlavny bubny za gorami, ili puteshestviie moe koe-kuda 1810 goda’ I. M. Dolgorukogo” [“Travesty of Urban Little Russia in Travelogue ʽFamous Drums Beyond Mountains, or my Journey Somewhere in 1810’ by I. M. Dolgorukiy”]. Nauchnyi dialog, no. 13 (9), 2024, pp. 239–268. https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2024-13-9-239-268 (In Russ.) Kriukova, O. S. Romanticheskii obraz Ukrainy v russkoi literature XIX veka [Romantic Image of Ukraine in Russian Literature of the 19th Century]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2017. 125 p. (In Russ.) Lebedeva, O. B., and A. S. Ianushkevich. Obrazy Neapolia v russkoi slovesnosti XVIII – pervoi poloviny XIX vekov [Images of Naples in Russian Literature of the 18th and the First Half of the 19th Centuries]. Salerno, Collana di Europa Orientalis, 2014. 436 p. (In Russ.) Lotman, Iu. M. “Simvolika Peterburga i problemy semiotiki goroda” [“Symbolism of St. Petersburg and Problems of Semiotics of the City”]. Uchenye zapiski Tartusskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Trudy po znakovym sistemam 18. Semiotoka goroda i gorodskoi kul’tury. Peterburg [Scientific Notes of Tartu State University. Works on Sign Systems 18. Semiotics of the City and Urban Culture. Petersburg]. Tartu, Tartu State University Publ., 1984, pp. 30–45. (In Russ.) Marchukov, A. V. Obraz Ukrainy v russkom soznanii. Nikolai Gogol’ i ego vremia [Image of Ukraine in the Russian Mind. Nikolai Gogol and his Time]. Moscow, Regnum Publ., 2011. 294 p. (In Russ.) Mednis, N. E. Venetsiia v russkoi literature [Venice in Russian Literature]. Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk State University Publ., 1999. 392 p. (In Russ.) Nazarenko, M. I. “Sokrashchennyi rai. Ukraina mezhdu Gogolem i Shevchenko” [“Reduced Paradise. Ukraine Between Gogol and Shevchenko”]. Novyi mir, no. 7, 2009, pp. 160–172. (In Russ.) Ovchinnikov, D. P. Malorossiia i malorossiiskii tekst v tvorchestve N. V. Gogolia [Little Russia and the Little Russian Text in the Works by N. V. Gogol: PhD Dissertation]. Shuya, 2019. 332 p. (In Russ.) Panov, A. S. “Ambivalentnost’ obraza Odessy v reprezentatsiiakh russkikh i amerikantsev v pervoi treti XIX veka” [“Ambivalence of Odessa Image in Russians and Americans Representations in the First Third of the 19th Century”]. Vestnik RGGU. Seriia: Politologiia. Istoriia. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia. Zarubezhnoe regionovedenie. Vostokovedenie, no. 2 (4), 2016, pp. 110–119. (In Russ.) Petrova, E. B., and T. A. Prokhorova. “Sevastopol’ i ego blizhaishaia okruga v sochineniiakh moskovskikh puteshestvennikov po Krymu kontsa XVIII – pervoy poloviny XIX veka” [“Sevastopol and Its Immediate Area in the Writings of Moscow Travelers in the Crimea of the Late 18th and the First Half of the 19th Century”]. Uchenye zapiski Krymskogo federal’nogo universiteta imeni V. I. Vernadskogo. Istoricheskie nauki, vol. 1 (67), no. 1, 2016, pp. 48–77. (In Russ.) Rudikova, N. A. Obrazy Parizha v russkoi i frantsuzskoi literaturakh kontsa XVIII – serediny XIX vv.: dialog kul’tur [Images of Paris in Russian and French Literature of the Late 18th and mid­19th Centuries: Dialogue of Cultures: PhD Dissertation]. Tomsk, 2011. 222 p. (In Russ.) Toporov, V. N. Peterburgskii tekst russkoi literatury: isbrannye trudy [Petersburg Text of Russian Literature: Selected Works]. St. Petersburg, Iskusstvo Publ., 2003. 222 p. (In Russ.)