“Where the Paradise Bird Gamayun Sings in the Trees”: Professor F. I. Buslaev’s Collaboration in M. N. Katkov’s Publications

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Perevalova, E. V. “ʽWhere the Paradise Bird Gamayun Sings in the Trees’: Professor F. I. Buslaev’s Collaboration in M. N. Katkov’s Publications.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 8, no. 2, 2026, pp. 208–233. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-2-208-233
Abstract:
The article examines the participation of the famous literary historian and art critic Professor F. I. Buslaev in the publications of the authoritative conservative journalist M. N. Katkov, and explores his little-known journalistic writings in the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti,” the weekly “Sovremennaya Letopis,” and the magazine “Russkiy Vestnik.” The article reveals that the basis of their long-term collaboration was the affinity of their socio-political and aesthetic views, their shared commitment to European culture and science and to the classical heritage, as well as their rejection of a utilitarian and pragmatic approach to art. The article provides a detailed analysis of Buslaev’s journalistic texts from the 1860s and 1870s, which focused on the cultural and social life of European countries, as well as the traditions, customs, and daily lives of Europeans. Of particular interest are Buslaev’s Italian essays and correspondences, where he uses Roman history and architecture to explore the idea of “the rebirth of an ever-renewing life from the collapse and ruins of the past.” The article suggests that Buslaev’s correspondences from Italy, published in “Moskovskie Vedomosti”, became one of the sources of the “Italian theme” in Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina.”
Keywords: F. I. Buslaev, M. N. Katkov, “Moskovskie Vedomosti,” “Russkiy Vestnik,” “Sovremennaya Letopis,” Italy, Rome, journalism
Author: Elena V. Perevalova
Information about the author:
Elena V. Perevalova, DSc in Philology, Associate Professor, A. N. Kosygin Russian State University (Technologies. Design. Art), Malaya Kaluzhskaya St., 1, 119071 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5580-651X

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received: January 16, 2026
Approved after reviewing: March 22, 2026
Published: June 25, 2026
Issue: 2026 Volume 8 No. 2
Department: Russian Literature of the 18th–19th Centuries
Pages: 208-233
DOI: Visit Website
EDN:
https://elibrary.ru/UUCHEY
UDK: 821.161.1.09"19"
Publication Type: Research Article

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