Abstract: “Excerpt of the Diary of 1857” by Leo Tolstoy is considered in the article in the context of Russian travel literature. Correlation of Leo Tolstoy's text with Russian travels of the 1840s – 1850s helps to identify patterns in the representation of Switzerland. The specificity of the image of this country makes it possible to describe the ideological background of Leo Tolstoy's text and to understand how real impressions and the traditional Swiss code are refracted in the “Excerpt”. In the texts of Nikolay Karamzin, Nikolay Gretsch and Andrey Glagolev, there are similar and at the same time dissimilar ideas about this country. The evolution of the concept of nature and culture is considered on the basis of texts that have not previously attracted the attention of researchers. The result is a refinement of the imagological model of the travelogue, when someone's opinion turns out to be a means of comprehending new beliefs.
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