Expedition to the Vladimir Province 1855 in the Сreative Biography of S. V. Maksimov

Abstract

The article is devoted to the journey of the writer-ethnographer S. V. Maksimov in the Vladimir province, which took place in the summer of 1855 during his first large expedition — in the Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Vyatka provinces. Despite the fact that Maximov’s impressions were not immediately reflected and formed into a framed text, they had a significant impact on the writer’s work. Comparison of the first published archival manuscript of Maximov, dedicated to the crafts of Sudogodsky district, and the books “In the East” (1864), “Siberia and penal servitude” (section “Prison Dictionary”) (1871), “Wandering Russia for Christ’s Sake” (1877), “Winged Words. It is not for nothing and not for nothing that the word is said and will not break until the century” (1899), as well as the involvement of sources used by Maximov, demonstrates the features of the writer’s creative laboratory, the transformation of factual material into an artistic text. The study of the results of Maksimov’s journey allows to speak about the significant role of the trip both for Maksimov’s creativity (in terms of the accumulation of aterial to which he will repeatedly refer, the formation of the principles of writing and ethnographic work, etc.) and for the local history of the Vladimir Region.

Keywords

• s. v. maksimov
• vladimir province
• sudogda
• ethnography
• crafts
• ofen
• travel