Foreign literature in the Russian province: places of storage, distribution and reading circle of the nobles of the 19 – early 20 century (based on materials from Kursk and Tambov provinces)

Importance. The book business, which includes bookselling, book publishing, as well as the collection, processing, storage of books and the guidance of reading, was an essential element in the enlightenment, socio-political and economic development of Russia. The nobility played an important role in the development of this sphere, broadcasting Western experience and knowledge. The relevance of this work is due to the fact that book and library science are among the key civilizational tools. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, they played a crucial role in the process of Russia's social and economic development. The nobles were actively involved in these processes.

Methodology and Sources. In the course of the research, both general scientific and special historical research methods are applied. Historical-comparative, historical-typological, problematicchronological, retrospective and a number of other methods were used. In particular, the historical and typological method made it possible to identify groups of foreign publications, their places of concentration and turnover in the Russian province of the 19th – early 20th century. The geographical scope of the study is limited to the territories of Kursk and Tambov provinces. This allows us to focus on specific examples of the dissemination of Western European literature in the Russian province, and to study in more depth the specifics of knowledge transfer from abroad.

Results and Discussion. The study analyzes the places of storage and circulation of foreign literature, the main sources of replenishment of the book collections of Russian nobles in the 19th – early 20th century. Often, the first acquaintance with a foreign composition took place in the home library. Subsequently, the range of reading in a foreign language expanded during his studies at gymnasiums and universities. The biography of B.N. Chicherin allows a fairly clear analysis of the stages of acquaintance with Western European knowledge and their reception. Nobles could also replenish their book collections in specialized shops and shops. Printing houses also played an important role in the dissemination of foreign works in the province. The alternatives were mainly postal and rail shipments of books. Libraries, represented by household meetings of the nobility and literary collections in gymnasiums and universities, provided the basic knowledge of the nobility.

Conclusion. During the quantitative analysis of the sample from the “Alphabetical Lists of works reviewed by foreign censorship’ for 1893, it is revealed that books in circulation are books in English, German, French, Italian, Polish, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Hebrew, Polish, Latin, “in Slavic dialects” and in some cases, even Esperanto. Among them, publications in German (52.4 %), French (21.8 %), English (8 %), and Polish (7 %) prevailed. At the same time, the share of banned books in the total sample is 11 % in January and 11.7 % in February 1893.

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