The Unknown Pages in V.A. Zhukovskiys Biography (from the unpublishedletters of the RGIA funds)

The article deals with the analysisof V.A. Zhukovskiy's unpublished letters to S.S. Uvarov and I.M. Tolstoy, considered in the contextof RGIA archieve affairs. They comprise Minister's Office of Public Education and Court Office ifHis Imperial Highness, Crown Prince documents. These affairs are a set of documents presentingcomplicated plots connected with the life and character of the first Russian romanticist and his contemporariesas well as social and cultural atmosphere of that epoch to which the affairs are refered.The texts of the letters are first published, the date of the letter to Uvarov is stated, the relations ofthe letter's author and his addressees are reconstructed as well as that of sender and G.I. Spasskiy, E.Gildebrandt, A. von Nordheim with regard to which Zhukovskiy applied to Minister of Public Education,but in the second case - to the Equerry of the Crown Prince Court.Zhukovskiy's assistance in G.I. Spasskiy's "Mining Dictionary" edition and solution of financialproblems of German artist E. Gildebrandt and German sculptor A. von Nordheim is introduced in thecontext of document circulation of the state offices mentioned above. In this aspect the article consideredthe official correspondence about Zhukovskiy's application of semi-friendly-semi-formal style.The story of the poet's application for "decoration" of the Spasskiy's edition with dedication to theGrand Prince Alexander Nickolayevich throws light upon a number of interesting questions concerningnot only Zhukovskiy's person but also his time ( the cause for Spasskiy's making this dedication inthe book, the cause for his application to Zhukovskiy and that for the latter - to Minister of PublicEduction; the essence of Uvarov's patronage under Spasskiy; the relation between Minister's Office ofPublic Education and the Court Office of Crown Prince).A particular story tells us the case of emolument payments to E. Gildebrandt, A. von Nordheim inwhich Zhukovskiy also took part and which was applied to the Court Office of Grand Prince AlexanderNickolayevich. It includes the story of Zhukovskiy's portrait by Gildebrandt and the poet's statuetteby Nordheim. Both works were ordered by The Crown Prince. That is why I.M. Tolstoy, P.Ya. Ubri,V.D. Olsufiev appeared to be involved into business correspondence. This case draws some attentionto the problem of relation between the Russian government and the bank office "Schtiglitz & Co".The studied archieve cases demonstrate the value of archieve documentory research that discoversunknown but important information on the first Russian romanticist's biography and features of characterand his epoch. Besides, the aim of the resaerch presented in the article is to underline the specialsignificance of the historical-cultural comments for biographical, in particular, epistolary material thatdeepen its comprehension essentially.

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