Russian fiction of the first half of XIX century in the book collection of count G.A. Stroganov

Since 1880 the ancestral library of Stroganov counts, numbering over 22 thousands of book volumes, is stored in the stock of Scientific library of Tomsk State University. The last owner of this library was the well-known diplomat and statesman, the count Grigory Aleksandrovich Stroganov (1770-1857). Many significant works in various branches of knowledge are represented in his library. In general, these are the publications issued during the period from XVI till the middle of XIX century in West-European languages: French, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, etc. The task before us was to discover all the books published in Russian language inside the Stroganov book collection. Therefore the object for consideration in this article is the collection of works of art by Russian authors from the 1 half of XIX century. During the examination of the structure of this collection it was determined that G.A. Stroganov formed it for over fifty years in two phases. In period from 1804 to 1826, when Stroganov lived and worked abroad, there were few publications in Russian. Among them there are single intravital editions of I.A. Krylov's collections of fables, the collection of rhymes by V.L. Pushkin, etc. In period from 1827 to 1857 Stroganov had a permanent residence in Russia and gave more attention to the acquisition of books in Russian language. In this period the library was replenished with the editions of single works by V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, M.Y. Lermontov and many others. The performed analysis of the structure of the collection led to the following conclusions. Firstly, Russian fiction of that time is represented inside it in publications of the best writers and poets of Russia from the 1 half of XIX century. Secondly, the structure of the collection fully reflects the level of interest of Russian aristocrat to the contemporary fiction and directly represents his reading circle. In this connection the examined collection is undoubtedly of a great historical and cultural interest.

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