“Lithuania” and “Russia” in the Reflection of Travelogues: from Karpini to Herberstein

Abstract

The so-called travelogues, that is, “notes” (“legends”) of foreigners about the Russian state, are considered. The main attention is paid to the representation in these literary works of the spatial representations of their authors in connection with the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the Lithuanian-Russian state). The relevance of the study is due to the lack of demand for travelogues, despite the fact that they found themselves in the field of vision of large, sometimes famous historians. Another aspect of relevance is shown — the topicality of the study of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania itself and the travelogues, as such. The results of a comparative analysis of the spatial perception system of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by the authors of travelogues up to the famous “Notes” by Sigismund Herberstein are presented. In this regard, first of all, the idea of the relationship between “Lithuania”, “Russia” and “Muscovy” in the geographical space of Eastern Europe is analyzed. It is concluded that the spatial representations of those who traveled through these territories or wrote on the basis of available information changed over time, reflecting, albeit in a distorted form, the complex processes of socio-political and ethnic development that took place in Eastern Europe, where the so-called Kievan Rus’, there were new, young states: the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia, which actually grew up on the same ethnic basis.

Keywords

• grand duchy of lithuania
• travelogues
• spatial memory