The article describes the miniatures of the manuscript of The Ladder from the sacristy of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius (Russian State Li-brary, F. 304/III, No. 20), which preserve 21 images of the "Monastic Feats" cycle. The manuscript was likely produced between 1524 and the 1530s in Moscow or the surrounding lands. A textological method was used to analyze the images, allowing the classification of cultural monuments and the recon-struction of their history. The iconographic features of the images are identi-fied, their literary sources are indicated, features going back to the prototype of the cycle as well as individual signs unique to the miniatures of this codex are revealed, and the monument's place in the history of the cycle is deter-mined. All the scenes preserved in the miniatures of Manuscript No. 20 recur in the later tradition of the Monastic Feats cycle and probably characterize the prototype of the cycle, which was created in Moscow no later than the last quarter of the 15th century a period known in Russian cultural history as a time of expectation of the end of the world. The impetus for the cycle's crea-tion was a Byzantine codex containing an illustrated Penitential Canon, which inspired the Russian artist. The connection between the Monastic Feats cycle in this manuscript and other works of art is mediated by a lost manuscript. Likely through the same lost monument, the manuscript is connected to the prototype. The earliest stage of the Monastic Feats cycle on Russian soil is as-sociated with the Moscow lands. The closest genetic ties of the manuscript are with the preserved painting on the southern wall of the western gallery of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin (dated 1547-1551), executed on the order of Sylvester, a priest of that cathedral. The application of the tex-tological method to the iconographic "Monastic Feats" cycle allows the identi-fication of poorly preserved fragments of images. Thanks to this method, it was possible to identify a half-lost image discovered in 2023 during the resto-ration of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. The textological method of analysis can be fruitful not only in philology but also in historical and cultural studies of art monuments.
Nineteenth-century German travel writings about Montenegro form an important segment of the broader Western European discourse on Montenegro and represent a large body of texts that have not been studied to date; only the most famous of them have been translated into Montenegrin. Western travellers began to visit Montenegro more frequently only during the reign of Petar II Petrovi & cacute; Njegos (1830-1851). The first German to visit Mon-tenegro and Njegos at that time was Heinrich Stieglitz, who arrived in Cetinje, the capital of Montenegro, in 1839. He paved the way for other visitors and had a strong influence on the way the general German discourse on Montene-gro was observed, interpreted, and shaped. He wrote two travelogues about this South Slavic country: the first was published under the title A Visit to Montenegro(Ein Besuch auf Montenegro, 1841) and the second under the title Istria and Dalmatia(Istrien und Dalmatien, 1845). His travelogues are stories of encounters with a world beyond the authors' own comfort zones and cover a variety of knowledge from all spheres of Montenegrin public life, serving as a fundamental document in the study of prejudices, stereotypes, and all sorts of "otherness" of Montenegro in relation to everything that Stieglitz under-stands by European culture. Accordingly, the writer provides detailed observations on economic and infrastructural backwardness; examines cultural and religious diversity, lifestyle, and barbaric customs (including beheading enemies and blood feuds), as well as burial traditions; and describes houses and people, their mental and physical capabilities. The main stumbling block -and the main culprit for the rejection of the "otherness" of Montenegrin society, despite fascination with the personality of the Montenegrin bishop - was Montenegro's relations with Russia. In his first travelogue, Stieglitz tried to be positive, a friend of Montenegro, since he defended this country from some of the earlier attacks by his compatriots. However, this dream of a heroic country in the Balkans that courageously repelled all attacks of the Ottoman Empire was shattered when he encountered Montenegrin reality and the Montene-grins' love for Russia, which he heard about firsthand from the Montenegrin ruler himself and from his fellow countryman. That is why, in the first travelogue, Russia is presented as a negative image and a danger lurking from the East, and Montenegro is described in many fragments in a very tendentious way. In the second travelogue, hatred of the Slavs, fear of Pan-Slavism, and Montenegro's traditional ties with Imperial Russia reached their peak, creating an extremely negative image of Montenegro and Montenegrins.
The article examines Vasily Zhukovsky's self-presentation within the European cultural milieu during his first journey abroad in 1820-1822. The study traces how the combination of two key dimensions - Zhu-kovsky's poetic talent and his court position shaped the perception of the Russian poet in Dorpat, Berlin, Dresden, Jena, and Weimar. It is shown that Dorpat, with its university atmosphere, Baltic intellectual traditions, and close ties to German culture, became a crucial preparatory stage for Zhukovsky's integration into the intellectual environment of Germany. Drawing on exten-sive correspondence, diary entries, and album autographs, the author recon-structs Zhukovsky's network of contacts with Dorpat scholars, Prussian mon-archs, German poets, and artists. Special attention is given to how his person-ality was received by such figures as Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, Jean Paul, Ludwig Tieck, Caroline Humboldt, Karl Br & uuml;hl, and Sulpiz Boisser & eacute;e. The analysis demonstrates that European contemporaries regarded Zhukovsky not only as the official tutor of the Grand Duchess but also as a gifted poet and a refined connoisseur of art, emotionally and spiritually open to intellectual exchange. The article traces the formation of Zhukovsky's image as a cultural mediator between Russia and Germany, perceived in Europe through the lens of poetic sensitivity, aesthetic receptivity, and the capacity for deep intercul-tural interaction. It underscores that his meeting with Goethe in 1821 repre-sented the culmination of his journey and was preceded by a broad network of contacts that laid the groundwork for the poets spiritual affinity. Ultimately, the author concludes that Zhukovsky's journey abroad was far more than a diplomatic mission or courtly escort of the Grand Duchess. It became a pivot-al stage in his creative biography, strengthening his role as a mediator be-tween Russian and German literature and shaping a distinctive European re-ception of his personality and work.
This article examines Alexander Pushkin's "Notes on Reading the Description of the Land of Kamchatka by S.P.Krasheninnikov" from the perspectives of image-making and historical imagination. The research mate-rial includes Krasheninnikov's monograph, two summaries ("About Kamchat-ka" and "Kamchatka Affairs (from 1694 to 1740)"), and a draft of Pushkin's proposed article, which is analyzed here within the ideological and historical context of its time. The methodological basis of the article draws on works by A.V. Vdovin, V.M. Zhivov, and V.B. Zemskov on the forms of presenting social and nation-building processes in fiction; by A.V.Remnev, N.N.Rodigina, M. Khodarkovsky, Y.K. Chistov, and A.M.Etkind on the narratives of Rus-sian colonization; as well as a significant body of work by Russian Pushkin scholars. At the center of this research is Pushkin's conception of the article on Kamchatka and the Russian explorers. The analysis reconstructs the logic of the writer's conceptual and literary reception of Krasheninnikov's mono-graph. The following notions are of primary significance: the connection of the peninsula's history to the context of the conquest of Siberia; the transformation of the ideological and narrative nature of the original source; the des-ignation of V.Atlasov as Kamchatka's "cultural hero"; and the portrayal of Russian explorers as "reflections" of Ermak. It is shown that Krasheninni-kov's approach aligns with imperial ethnography, which focuses on exotica and is preoccupied with "rational" taxonomies based on it. Reworking this material, Pushkin seeks to historicize it and to integrate multiple actors from various processes, as if working within a framework where empire is a political force that tends to manage "the different," while the nation is an entity that tends to manage "its own." A comparison of the sources allows us to conclude that Pushkin used two narrative strategies. The summary "About Kamchatka" is auto-associative in nature and, contrary to the original source, creates an ef-fect of the personal narrator's presence on the peninsula, thereby bringing the narrator and his readers closer to the Russian historical figures who visited Kamchatka (Fedot Popov, Vladimir Atlasov, Stepan Krasheninnikov). "Kam-chatka Affairs," on the other hand, focuses on the tradition of classical and modern historiography - Herodotus's Historiesand N.M. Karamzin's History of the Russian State. Through editing and by constructing a system of motif-plot rhymes and references to folklore and historical writings about Ermak, Pushkin creates a two-dimensional text in which the history of the conquest of Kamchatka reveals the history of the conquest of Siberia, and behind the im-ages of the new explorers the victor over Kuchum becomes visible.
The article examines a crisis period in the evolution of Zhu-kovsky's literary reputation (1820-1825). On the one hand, it demonstrated stability, but on the other, it was regularly subjected to attacks, both public and "intra-guild." The zenith of his reputation came with Zhukovsky's first European journey, during which he constructed a new authorial meta-plot of transcendent search, realized both in his lyric poetry and in his travelogues; and, benefiting from the patronage of the House of Romanov, he was able to establish contacts both in the courtly circles of Germany and among its cultur-al elite. Upon returning to his homeland, however, Zhukovsky found himself under growing public disapproval due to accusations of servility - even though he did regularly avail himself of the system of supreme patronage for financial, literary, and personal ends. The spreading critical opinions were supported by Zhukovsky's specific authorial strategy, which implied his with-drawal from current polemics and the assumption of a position as a literary maitre, for whose works and support ordinary men of letters had to compete. Special consideration is given to the poet's relations with the circle of pub-lishers of Polyarnaya Zvezda[Polar Star], particularly A.A. Bestuzhev. Bestuzhev, while actively receiving assistance in the form of texts (his own and his friends') for publication and help with various censorship difficulties, criticized Zhukovsky ever more sharply in private letters to various corre-spondents; in early 1824 he became the author of the famous epigram "From a shroud he dressed in livery..." Running parallel to this reputational plot, the article examines the shifting relationship with F.V. Bulgarin. Bulgarin began his path in major literature with active polemical support of Zhukovsky in a dialogue with O.M. Somov in 1821. The critic consistently expressed public approval thereafter as well. However, starting in 1823, when Bulgarin lost the contest for the newspaper Russkiy Invalid [Russian Invalid] due to the inter-ference of literary maitres (N.M. Karamzin and Zhukovsky), his gradual dis-crediting of opponents began - through indirect means: pamphlets, parodies, and subsequently denunciations. Zhukovsky's literary reputation in the first half of the 1820s also included a number of other important aspects, which will be examined in the second article of this cycle
