Siberian Merchants as a Factor in the Formation of the Cultural Landscape of the Region in Nikolay Naumov’s Essays and Stories of the 1870s–1880s

Abstract

Siberian merchants as a special social and cultural phenomenon that played a role in the formation of the cultural landscape of the region was reflected in several works of the Russian literature of the 18th and 19th centuries. An important place among them belongs to the stories and essays of the Siberian writer Nikolay Naumov created in the 1870s–1880s and included in the pantheon of populist fiction. These works can be attributed to the texts of “local consciousness”, and they were quite actively studied in the Soviet and post-Soviet times. At the same time, the image of Siberian merchants in Naumov’s works that addresses the problem of regional identity in the context of national identity remained practically unexplored. Important factors in the study of this image in the works of the writer-official Naumov are the interaction of his literary and official activities; the ideology of Siberian regionalism, whose member he was a that time; and the ideology of populism, which also had a strong influence on him. Accordingly, the aim of the article is to analyze the features of the depiction of Siberian merchants in Naumov’s works of the 1870s–1880s as an implication of the archetype, the national type of a merchant in Siberian plots. The analysis carried out in the context of the mutual influence of the various social fields occupied by the writer demonstrates the dominance of the pragmatic possibilities of Naumov’s works over the literary ones. Focused on creating a “reality effect”, all the stories are characterized by essay beginning, abundant use of facts, real events, specific details of everyday life. However, with all his efforts to focus his gaze on the material and its reliability, Naumov certainly and quite clearly communicates his ideological conception to the reader. As a rule, the presented image of the Siberian merchant class is completed and consistent, and therefore rather superficial and schematic, extremely typified. Moreover, the image of the Siberian merchant miroed (lit. “world eater”; exploiter) is part of the collective image of the miroed, which also includes kulaks and officials. The influence of the field of public service can be traced both in the subject matter of the works and in their poetics. In particular, they contain an autobiographical image of the hero-narrator (official), and they are also characterized by clearly defined temporal and spatial boundaries, which strengthens the essay element. Telling the reader about the ethnography and geography of Siberia, the writer (through the hero-narrator) draws attention to its “natural” merits, on the one hand, and persistently voices the idea, which performs a cycle-forming function, that Siberia’s natural well-being and harmony is violated by human intervention often coming to Siberia from outside, on the other. Accordingly, Naumov sees the common role of officials and writers in the development of Siberia as the protection of Siberia from predatory exploitation, which is not typical for the region, and from the destruction of lasting values.