Fiction About Siberia in the Book Collection of G.K. Tyumentsev

The article continues the series of publications devoted to editions of fiction from the personal library of the Siberian (Tomsk) bibliophile, local historian, teacher G.K. Tyumentsev. The group considered in this article consists of editions of fiction about Siberia. The aim of the article is to identify the place of these editions in the book collection of Tyumentsev, a typical representative of the Siberian intelligentsia of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, as well as his principles and personal preferences in collecting the considered part of the library. The research is interdisciplinary, bringing together literary studies, book studies and sociology of literature and culture. Books about Siberia from Tyumentsev's library, a number of which contain reader's notes, are considered through the prism of the relations of their collector to the literary and publishing process of Siberia and Central Russia, the contemporary sociocultural environment, as well as in connection with his participation in the formation of regional book culture. The study of publications of fiction about Siberia from Tyumentsev's library in the aspect of the stated problem proves his deep and long-term interest in fine literature on this topic and shows his principles of selection of such publications in his collection. Firstly, Tyumentsev presents a wide chronological range of artistic literature about Siberia: these are editions of the 1820s-1890s, among which are original publications of many editions taken from the capital's magazines and sewn into convolutes. Secondly, Tyumentsev paid attention to literary and art publications prepared in the printing houses of the capital and of Siberia, including Tomsk, which could also influence the choice of books for the collection. It is also characteristic that Tyumentsev collects books by authors whose life was somehow connected with Siberia as a small homeland (for example, N.I. Naumov, N.S. Shchukin), a place of public service (A.I. Martos, V.I. Sokolovsky, etc.) or a place of serving a sentence of exile (V.G. Korolenko, V.L. Seroshevsky, G.A. Machtet). The problem-thematic palette of the books about Siberia is very wide: from the conquest of Siberia to the acute social, moral and ethical problems of modernity of the region and its peoples. Tyumentsev was also interested in the work of the Narodnik (Populist) writers. The choice of books in terms of genre and style is also indicative: these are small and medium epic genres. Finally, the study suggests that Tyumentsev's attention to mass literature, growing by the end of the 19th century, is quite consistent with the trends of the time in Russian culture and literature. In general, describing his personal interests, Tyumentsev's collection of literary and art books on Siberia reflects the Siberian literary and publishing processes, dialogue with the developing Russian literature and publishing, and reader's interests and the culture of reading of a Siberian in the second half of the 19th century.

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