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Keywords: Siberian merchants, personal sources, travel diaries, Russian Empire, economic development, international trade.
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Komleva, E. V. “Travel Diaries of Siberian Merchants of the Late 18th–19th Centuries: Peculiarities, Issues and Information Potential.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 4, no. 4, 2022, pp. 198–215. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2022-4-4-198-215

Author: Evgeniya V. Komleva
Information about the author:

Evgeniya V. Komleva, DSc in History, Institute of History of the Siberian Branche of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolaeva st. 8, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia, National Library of Russia, Sadovaya 18, 191069 St. Petersburg, Russia.

ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6975-3516

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: September 12, 2022
Approved after reviewing: October 18, 2022
Published: December 25, 2022
Issue: 2022 Volume 4 No. 4
Department: Textual Criticism. Source Study
Pages: 198–215
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2022-4-4-198-215
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/MSEOXE

UDK: 821.161.1.09"19"

Acknowledgements:

The reported study was funded by the Russian Science Foundation according to the research project no. 22-78-10135 (https://rscf.ru/project/22-78-10135/).

Abstract:

The article characterizes the corpus of travel diaries created among the Siberian merchants in the late 18th–19th centuries, reveals the features, problems and information capabilities of this type of sources. Compiled both by the will of the travelers themselves, and by order of the authorities standing over them, often subsequently published, merchant diaries were originally intended for the reader, often a representative of the state administration, and aimed not just to describe the road, but to fix the difficulties of the way, natural obstacles, features of certain settlements, to give recommendations to the authorities and merchants. All this makes the travel records of merchants valuable sources on economic history, the history of international relations, ethnography. The surviving texts testify to the significant role played by merchants in the study and economic development of remote areas of the Russian Empire, the formation of a network of land and water communications in Russia, the development of international trade. Unlike men’s texts, which were oriented to the interlocutor from the very beginning, women’s travel notebooks and albums were characterized by a focus on the inner world of the author, a description of personal experiences, attention to the details of everyday life.

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