The image of the “Siberian frontier” in Altai publicistic texts of the early 20th century

The paper considers the changing image of the “Siberian frontier” in the daily newspaper “Zhizn’ Altaya” (“Altai Life”) in 1911. The object under consideration is the image of the Siberian locus in the Altai publicistic texts of the early 20th century. The paper studies the changes in this image, connected with the transformations of the “colonial discourse” in Siberia and Altai settlement. The articles of the first issues of “Zhizn’ Altaya” in 1911 describe this “outer frontier,” as it is called now in linguoculturology, as the dividing line between the local space of the aborigines, the Siberians, and the so-called “non-Russians,” on the one hand, and the newcomers from the European part of Russia, on the other hand. These latter are called “the aliens” and many negative metaphors and comparisons are used when describing their moves to the colonized space. Later literary essays on the life and traditions of “cultural non-Russians” show the change of axiological priorities in depicting the “alien” space. The idyllic description of the locus of inhabitants of the “Altai frontier” is opposed to their modern life when the idyllic picture is crashed, and the civilization conquers their home space. Although, when Altai locus is integrated into the touristic discourse, everything goes back to the clichés of the “colonial discourse.” The spatial opposition of “center - periphery,” with Altai and Siberian loci, in general, considered as a deep periphery of Russia and the world, is defined by a number of ironical images used in the publications of “Zhizn’ Altaya.” However, the authors of these publications of the early 20th century try to change the constantly used negative image of Siberia and its inhabitants while introducing the “alien” point of view of a foreigner at people and nature of Altai.

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