Гуманитарные и юридические исследования (Sep 2021)
CAUCASUS IN SERVICE BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORICAL AND LITERARY HERITAGE OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL D. I. ROMANOVSKY (1825–1881)
Abstract
The paper is performed in the view of the concept of the historical biography of “less prominent people”. We study the Caucasus life time and investigator activity of the General D. I. Romanovsky with the reference to the biography studies method. Based on contemporary memoirs and archive documents the study intends to show the role of the Caucasus in his evaluation as a military activist and a scientist. We pay specific attention to his historical and literature manuscripts analysis dedicated to the Caucasus issues. We show their impact on the foundation of narratives collections together with the history studies of the Caucasus studies.Romanovsky’s service in the Caucasus Military Corpus together with his talents and literature gifts determined his contribution into the complex process of the Caucasus studies and its popularisation for the whole Russian society. He tried to interpret the reasons of some historical events he participated in and explain them to the public. He could be hardly marked as a professional historian consider his main papers. Then again the results of his activity and his main book “Caucasus and the Caucasus War” were the first example on generalisation and introduction to the public the data on ethnic and cultural diversity and geopolitical significance of the region. They showed the historical events when the region became an integrated part of the Russian state together with making a reader acquainted with the main participants of the process. The ideas told by Romanovsky about the starting point of the Caucasus War, reasons for the clash and civilisation mission of Russia influenced the foundation of the Imperial concept of Russian-Caucasus attitudes and their assumptions in the official narrative at the turn of XIX–XX cc.
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