The Realization of a Childhood Dream of a Manor in P. D. Boborykin’s Novel “Vasily Terkin”

JATS XML:

BibTEX:

Research Information Systems Citation Format:

Download:
PDF
Funding Sources:
The study was carried out at IWL RAS with financial support from the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 22-18-00051-P, https://rscf.ru/proj ect/22-18-00051/
For citation:
Skorokhodov, M. V. “The Realization of a Childhood Dream of a Manor in P. D. Boborykin’s Novel ‘Vasily Terkin’.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 8, no. 2, 2026, pp. 304–319. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-2-304-319
Abstract:
P. D. Boborykin’s novel “Vasily Terkin” (1892) is considered one of the first works in Russian novelistic literature to explicitly address environmental issues, in which the sustainability of the natural world and human well-being are largely determined by the preservation of forest resources, clean, deep rivers, and well-maintained estates. Drawing on P. D. Boborykin’s unfinished memoirs “For Half a Century” allows one to discern autobiographical elements in the novel. The ideas expressed by the novel’s characters are linked to the practical activities of Russian entrepreneurs at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, who created highly profitable farms on the basis of old estates and adjacent forest plots, which included poultry and livestock farms, flower nurseries, and nurseries for exotic plants. This article analyzes the descriptions of dachas and estates presented in the novel. The theme of “estate and forest,” so relevant to the work of P. D. Boborykin, would be developed in the works of Soviet writers in the 20th century, and would become even more significant for Russian prose writers in the 21st century.
Keywords: P. D. Boborykin, Russian literary manor, manor and forest, novel, “Vasily Terkin,” memoirs
Author: Maxim V. Skorokhodov
Information about the author:
Maxim V. Skorokhodov, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25 A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6390-5670

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received: January 15, 2026
Approved after reviewing: March 18, 2026
Published: June 25, 2026
Issue: 2026 Volume 8 No. 2
Department: Russian Literature of the 18th–19th Centuries
Pages: 304-319
DOI: Visit Website
EDN:
https://elibrary.ru/XAULCE
UDK: 821.161.1.09"19"
Publication Type: Research Article

References

Andreeva, V. G. “Romany P. D. Boborykina ʽKitai-gorod’, ʽVasilii Terkin’ i epicheskii roman vtoroi poloviny XIX veka” [“P. D. Boborykin’s Novels ʽKitai-Gorod’, ʽVasily Terkin’, and the Epic Novel of the Second Half of the 19th Century”]. Izvestiia vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenii. Seriia: Gumanitarnye Nauki, vol. 5, no. 2, 2014, pp. 102–106. (In Russ.)

Bogdanova, O. A. “ʽMy rozhdeny, chtob skazku sdelat’ byl’iu…’: usadebnyi mir v ro- mane G. Sh. Iakhinoi ʽDeti moi’” [“ʽWe Were Born to Make a Fairy Tale Come True...’: The Estate World in G. S. Yakhina’s Novel ʽChildren of Mine’”]. Izvestiia Rossiiskoi aka- demii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka, vol. 83, no. 5, 2024, pp. 53–63. (In Russ.)

Bogdanova, O. A. “Tema usad’ba i les v literature sotsialisticheskogo realizma kontsa 1940-kh — nachala 1950-kh gg. (K. G. Paustovskii i L. M. Leonov)” [“The Theme Es- tate and Forest in the Literature of Socialist Realism of the Late 1940s — Early 1950s (K. G. Paustovsky and L. M. Leonov)”]. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, vol. 31, no. 3, 2025, pp. 8–18. https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-3-8-18 (In Russ.)

Bogdanova, O. A. “Usad’ba i voina v ʽPovesti o lesakh’ K. G. Paustovskogo” [“Estate and War in the ʽTale of the Forests’ by K. G. Paustovsky”]. “Oni srazhalis’ za Rodinu.” Literatura i istoriia [“They Fought for their Homeland.” Literature and History]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2025, pp. 929–939. https://doi.org/10.22455/978-5-9208-0822-6-929-939 (In Russ.)

Ilchenko, N. M., and M. A. Mynova. “Obraz Volgi i osobennosti ego vospriiatiia v vospominaniiakh P. D. Boborykina ʽZa polveka’ i romane ʽVasilii Terkin’” [“The Image of the Volga River and Its Perception in P. D. Boborykin’s Memoirs ʽFor Half a Century’ and the Novel ʽVasily Terkin’”]. Kazanskaia nauka, no. 7, 2025, pp. 229–232. (In Russ.)

Skorokhodov, M. V. “Simvolika vishnevogo sada: mezhdu kommercheskim proek- tom, usad’boi i dachei” [“The Symbolism of the Cherry Orchard: Between a Commercial Project, a Estate and a Dacha”]. Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 6, no. 3, 2024, pp. 196–215. https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2024-6-3-196-215 (In Russ.)

Fedosova, S. S. “Semantika lokal’nogo prostranstva v povesti P. D. Boborykina ʽV na- persnikakh’” [“The Semantics of Local Space in P. D. Boborykin’s Novel ʽIn the Compa- nions’”]. Russkaia klassika. Sbornik nauchnykh statei [Russian Classics. Collection of scientific articles], issue 6. Moscow, MAKS Press Publ., 2026, pp. 187–198. (In Russ.)

Yanina, P. E., and E. S. Bol’shakova. “Ekologicheskaia problematika v romane P. D. Boborykina ʽVasilii Terkin’ i ee rol’ v formirovanii obraza geroia svoego vremeni” [“Ecological Issues in P. D. Boborykin’s Novel ʽVasily Terkin’ and Its Role in Shaping the Image of a Hero of His Time”]. Sreda. Kultura. Tekst. [Environment. Culture. Text]. Nizhny Novgorod, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod Publ., 2023, pp. 58–65. (In Russ.)