Siberia as perceived by Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum graduates of the Pushkin's era

The perception of Siberia by four Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum graduates of the Pushkin's era reveals various ideological, behavioural and aesthetic concepts related to the imperial, colonial and national components in Russian history and literature of the first half of the 19th century. A.D. Illichevsky (1798-1837), whose father was governor in Tomsk, lived in Siberia in 1818-1821, where he perceived himself as a frontier man and constructed his behaviour according to the model of a "Petersburger in the province", pursuing cultural goals. His poems and letters form the basis for the cultural myth about the Lyceum and its students of the Pushkin's era. М.М. Speransky (1772-1839), the "godfather" of the Lyceum and Siberian Governor-General in 1819-1821 and the author of the "Siberian Code" intended to change Siberia with the help of reforms, to turn this huge space from the colonised outskirts into a full-fledged territory within the Russian Empire similar to its European part. The cooperation with Speransky and G.S. Batenkov (1793-1863) in the development and management of Western and Eastern Siberia had a great influence on the perception of this region by Illichivsky and F.F. Matyushkin (1799-1872). As an officer and researcher, Matiushkin is perceived simultaneously as an ideologist and practitioner in the development of new territories of the Russian Empire. In his reception of Siberia Matyushkin focuses on its colonial status and lagging behind the centre in terms economy and culture, that is why he sees Siberia as "Russia in a hundred years." In the perception of Siberia, he also adhered to the transcontinental concept, according to which Western and Eastern Siberia could become the centre of a united Euro-Asian-American continent, a connecting space between the Old and New Worlds. Matyushkin's letters about his stay in Siberia in 1820-1823 resemble a travel diary and reveal the writer's individual experience of space and time in Siberia in their mutual correlation and in comparison with Central Russia. Of all the Lyceum graduates of the Pushkin's era, the Decembrists I.I. Pushchin (1798-1859) and V.K. Kuchelbecker (1797-1846) had the longest connection with Siberia. Pushchin, who had lived in Siberia for thirty years, from 1827 to 1856, perceived it through the image of the family. In exile, he first perceived Siberia as a prison house, a "family of prisoners", "Petrovsky zavod Union." Later, in 1839-1855, living on a settlement in Turinsk and Yalutorovsk, he wrote about the "Siberian family", "inmates", the craft brotherhood. In Pushchin's federalist project of 1845, Siberia is drawing closer to the American States. The basis for this convergence is the absence of serfdom in it and the availability of rich natural resources. Kuchelbecker's perception of Siberia is refracted through his existential experience and receives a predominantly aesthetic interpretation, connected with the inability to give himself entirely to poetry and poetic creativity ("They took my time and leisure, so I cannot create"). In his reception of Siberia Kuchelbecker assigned an important role to the religious and philosophical principle, due to which his poetry developed a "higher", "timeless" point of view, which is in many respects connected with the poet's appeal to metahistory and Eternity. This stance is revealed, in particular, through the peculiarities of the author's perception of space. The reception of Siberia by the Lyceum graduates of the Pushkin's era is inseparable from the "Lyceum text" as a special verbal and behavioural model in Russian culture of the first half of the 19th century. The images of the Lyceum, the Lyceum brotherhood, anniversaries, Pushkin's name and his works, the images and destinies of the lyceum graduates have plot-forming, text-generating and communicative functions. The dominant of this text is the prevailing aesthetic attitude towards the world, man and word.

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