Libmonster ID: RS-598

Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1975. 576 pp. The print run is 7000 copies. Price 3 rubles 39 kopecks.

This publication of documents is the first volume of a three-volume publication prepared according to the plan of scientific cooperation of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and the Institute of History in Belgrade. The editorial board consists of V. G. Karasev, S. A. Nikitin (editor - in - chief), I. V. Churkina from the Soviet side, I. Kochi and V. Matula from the Czechoslovak side, and N. Petrovich from the Yugoslav side. Compiled by V. Matula and I. V. Churkina.

The reviewed volume is a collection of letters from Russian and foreign Slavic public and political figures covering issues of relations between Russia and the Slavic peoples of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. The variety of issues raised in the correspondence makes it interesting for a wide range of specialists - historians, cultural and scientific historians, literary critics and linguists. The published letters concern many aspects of the national-political, social and cultural development of the southern and Western Slavs in its most diverse manifestations, as well as the attitude of participants in the national movement of these peoples to official Russia, their relations with certain circles of the Russian public, mainly Slavophiles.

The latter circumstance, which is very important for understanding the socio-psychological environment in which the published correspondence originated, is primarily explained by the addressee's personality. M. F. Rayevsky, who was rector of the Russian embassy Church in Vienna for more than 40 years, was an educated and very active person, and was a prominent figure in the development of Russian-Slavic relations in the 40s-80s years of the XIX century. He was well aware of the importance of the Slavs of Austria-Hungary and Turkey to Tsarist Russia in its policy on the eastern question. Rayevsky's worldview was close to Slavophil circles. The Slavic Committees actually made him their representative in this region of Europe.

The archive of Raevsky 1 was still out of the attention of researchers and was almost never used by them. Rayevsky's correspondents were outstanding people in many ways, as evidenced by the full list of them given in the publication, they were representatives of all (except Poles) of the Slavic peoples of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, which again is explained by the addressee's personality and position, those departments (the Synod and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and circles of Russia that he represented.

The value of the materials published in the volume is determined primarily by the fact that among Raevsky's correspondents there were many interesting and significant personalities. There are also well-known scientists and public and political figures (these concepts, however, were often combined). Palacki, V. Ganka, K. J. Erben, L. Stuhr, J. Bleijweis, M. Mayar, I. Y. Strossmeier, A. F. Hilferding, N. A. Popov, V. I. Lamansky and many others. It would be unfair, however, to limit ourselves to just the names mentioned. Sometimes the letter of a little-known petitioner is of no less interest for understanding the psychological climate of that era than the pic-


1 The main part of the documents of the Raevsky archive is kept in the Department of Written Sources of the State Historical Museum in Moscow, other parts - in the Archive of Foreign Policy of Russia, the Department of Manuscripts of the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House) in Leningrad and the Department of Manuscripts of the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library in Leningrad,

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lania is a venerable correspondent. Finally, despite all the relatively strict etiquette of the time and the restrictions imposed by both the title and the post of the addressee, many letters show the individuality of the authors, which is difficult to replace with any descriptions and comments (V. Bogishich's quarrelsome nature, A. Hilferding's sociability and good knowledge in all matters, and the ardent patriotism of the editor of the Dubrovnik "Shop" G. Nikolaevich, cordiality of L. Shturu). Many of the Slavic correspondents write in Russian, and quite fluently at that, while the Slovenian M. Mayar writes in the common Slavic language he invented .2

A significant part of the letters is interesting in terms of the history of culture and science, and especially Russian-Slavic relations. Political subjects are affected to a lesser extent, sometimes it is one or two phrases that do not reveal anything, sometimes you have to catch hints between the lines, guess the subtext. Of considerable interest, for example, are the testimonies of V. Ganki about the preparation of the Slavic Congress of 1848 in Prague and the desire of the Czechs to have the text of his appeal ("testament") to the Slavic peoples in Russian. In a large set of letters related to the organization of an Ethnographic exhibition in Moscow in 1867 and the trip of Slavic public figures to Russia in this regard, there is a number of evidence that the formation of a two-pronged Austria-Hungary was met mainly with hostility in the Slavic lands, that the Austrian authorities assessed this trip as a political demonstration and reacted accordingly her. Despite this, the response to the invitation to take part in the exhibition and send exhibits was very broad and significant precisely among the "Austrian" Slavs (see letters of V. Lamansky, J. Golovatsky, J. Bleijweis, K. Blavatsky, etc.). Erben and others), which led to a certain rise in ethnographic research and national consciousness in many western, southern and Eastern Slavic lands.

The predominant subject of letters - sending books, asking for or transferring books, etc. Difficulties in postal communication and censorship obstacles imposed by the Vienna and St. Petersburg governments complicated the process of exchanging books, scientific and artistic literature, without which the cultural development and strengthening of ties between Russian and foreign Slavs was extremely difficult. Raevsky was an indefatigable intermediary, transfer authority, and sometimes just a generous donor. The facts of exceptional attention of Russian scientists (I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, A. S. Budilovich, A. F. Hilferding, etc.) to local Slavic libraries, care for their acquisition and sending Russian books to the Slovenian "reading room" in Gorica (p. 66), to the National Croatian Theater in Zagreb (p. 84), to the National Library of the Republic of Croatia (p. 84) are indicative. monasteries and churches of Old Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (p. 124) and many other places. A teacher from Sofia, S. Filaretov, asked to send him 200 copies. short Russian grammar by A. Kh. Vostokov or N. I. Grech (p. 444) , Slovenets F. Erjavec needed Russian books on zoology to develop Slovenian zoological terminology on a Russian basis (p. 65). Ganko explicitly stated: "We need scientists or scientific-like Russian books in the museum, so as not to separate in terminology, but rather to connect; our young workers in science come to the museum to look for such vyrozov (that is, terms. - Rec.) ...this is especially what doctors want" (p. 116).

Many letters are devoted to the issue of holding professorships and other positions in Russian universities and gymnasiums. They contain interesting biographical details concerning the Croat V. Bogisic, professor at Novorossiysk University in 1869-1870, the Slovak E. Cherny, a well-known expert on classical antiquity and a Moscow teacher (since 1863), the Slovenian M. Mayar, who sought to move to Odessa in 1870, the Slovak L. Michatka, a specialist in classical antiquity and Slavic a lexicographer who emigrated to Russia, and a number of others. All these letters provide valuable material for the history of Slavic philology, the formation and development of Slavic studies in the scientific centers of Russia.

South Slavic stories are more meaningful than West Slavic ones. Interesting letters that talk about the emigration of Slavs from Austria-Hungary and the readiness to turn it from west to east, to interest


2 Note in passing that in the publication, letters written by Czechs and Slovaks in their native language, but in Cyrillic, are transmitted in Latin, but for some reason letters written in Russian in Latin are not transmitted in Cyrillic (pp. 476-477).

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it has the tsarist government. It is interesting that the high-ranking Russian correspondent of the Raevsky Synod, A. P. Akhmatov, expressed concern that seminarians from Slavic countries would not establish contacts with Russian revolutionary students. This letter was written in the midst of the Polish uprising of 1863 (pp. 25-26). The wariness of representatives of the Russian conservative-pan-Slavist camp in relation to foreign Slavs is also expressed in a letter from the chamber maid of Honor A.D. Bludova, who stated in 1850 that "most of the Czechs are imbued with freethinking and an overly liberal German spirit" (p. 52). It is also noteworthy that the Slavophil and charitable activities of this countess aroused the suspicions of the tsarist government. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs opened a "Case on the secret agents of gr. Bludova" (p. 55).

The publication is prepared at a high professional level. In the preface, the authors set out the main methodological premises from which they proceeded. They point out the importance of this publication, which will help not only to expand the range of sources available to researchers, but also often to highlight in a new way the numerous aspects of the social development of the Slavic peoples of Austria-Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula, their relations with Russia. At the same time, as the authors rightly point out, letters from Russia shed light on the attitude of Slavophil circles towards Western and southern Slavs.

The preface, however, does not answer the question about the principles of material selection, which is the main one when evaluating publications of this kind. The" List of M. F. Rayevsky's correspondents", which is included in the appendix, shows how small a part of the huge archive of Rayevsky is occupied by the letters published in the volume. So, it contains only one of the two letters of P. P. Negosh, there are no letters of the Serbian writer P. Atanackovich, Russian scientists I. Snegirev, A. Veselovsky and many others. Of the 52 letters of V. I. Lamansky, only 5 are given, and of the 86 of A. F. Hilferding - 13, of the 84 of the Serbian Metropolitan Michael - 10. V. Ganka probably sent the greatest number of letters to M. F. Raevsky - 171 (16 of them are published). In cases where the number of emails is very significant, you could give them a more general description.

It is difficult to judge letters that are not included in the publication, but some of those selected by the authors could be omitted without prejudice. Of no interest, for example, is letter No. 340, which only informs us that K. Kuzmana was awarded the Order of St. John the Baptist. The authors also identified Raevsky's notes, reports, and letters, but it is not known whether they will be included in subsequent volumes (there are no such materials in the reviewed volume).

Noting that the bulk of the published letters date back to the 50s-70s of the 19th century, the authors of the preface conclude that these letters were written "in conditions determined primarily by two major events in the European history of this time - the revolution of 1848-1849 and the Crimean War" (p. 6). For the range of issues of the publication, the authors of the The transformation of Austria into a dualistic Austria-Hungary in 1867 and the formation of the German Empire in 1871 should also be considered among the events that were of major importance for the national and political development of the Slavic peoples under the rule of Austria (as well as significant events on a pan-European scale).

The notes that accompany each letter help you understand the context in which it was written, provide the necessary explanations, and are usually done quite competently. However, some notes could be shortened or deleted without prejudice. Note No. 1 to the letter of A. Y. Vrtyatko (No. 73) comments on the phrase of the letter about Palatsky's well-being, which in itself is not so significant, by quoting excerpts from Palatsky's letter to Rieger, which do not add anything to Vrtyatko's information. The note to Ganki's letter (N 83) repeats the appendix published immediately. Note No. 1 to letter No. 189 is essentially unsuccessful: "The Old Stepmothers were called conservative representatives of the so-called National Party, led by the moderate liberals F. Palatsky and F. D. Rieger." It was Palacki and Rieger, who at that time were conservatives, and were the leaders of the Old Stepmothers.

A. A. Kraevsky's letter of 1869 concerns false rumors about the contact allegedly established by A. I. Herzen with Raevsky in order to prepare his return to Russia. It is known that Herzen is very sharp

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reacted to this slander. Krayevsky mentions that, according to rumors, "it was not Herzen the father, but Herzen the son", meaning, of course, A. A. Herzen (the younger). In the index of names appeared with reference to this text "Herzen-father, rich landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev". Not to mention the fact that I. A. Yakovlev never bore the surname Herzen, he died in 1846 in Russia and could not have been the object of the rumors presented by Kraevsky.

In general, the entire complex of scientific reference applications: indexes of names, periodicals, geographical names, a terminological dictionary, as well as a biographical reference about Raevsky and a list of his correspondents - deserves approval.

The next two volumes will be published in Czechoslovakia (vol. 2) and Yugoslavia (vol.3).

N. D. Ratner, N. I. Tolstoy

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