Mikhail Muravyov's and Vasily Zhukovsky's Pedagogical Prose: On the Relations of Succession (Based on Essays on Historical Topics). Article Two

Two of the author's articles examine the problem of the typological convergence and continuity of Mikhail Muravyov's and Vasily Zhukovsky's educational materials on history. The first article, published earlier, presents the results of comprehending this problem based on essays on general issues of history, while this article concentrates on works on world and Russian history. The author considers Muravyov's textbooks on the history of the ancient world, Europe in the Middle Ages and in modern times in comparison with Zhukovsky's educational notes on world history, articles on this topic included in his pedagogical journals Sobiratel' [Collector] and Muraveynik [Anthill], as well as articles of the 1830s and 1840s created on the basis of letters to Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich. The objects of the study also were a set of Muravyov's educational materials on Russian history, covering it from ancient times to the 18th century, inclusive, and the most important historical works Zhukovsky wrote for educational purposes for the Grand Duke in the late 1820s - early 1830s: “Introduction to the History of the Russian State”, “Features of the History of the Russian State” and “ History of the Russian State. Ancient History”, articles from the abovementioned journals and the poet's late journalism directly related to his letters addressed to the heir to the throne. The study of Muravyov's and Zhukovsky's pedagogical prose on world and Russian history reveals a lot of typological similarities, which are determined by the perception of the historical process as a constantly changing integrity generated by the intersection of the vertical (superhuman, or actually divine, according to Zhukovsky) and horizontal (human) levels. The prose is also brought together by the peculiarities of the intended purpose and reader: it was all created not only for training, but also for the upbringing of future Russian monarchs; hence the author's position of Muravyov's and Zhukovsky's educational texts on history - the position of the historianeducator, and hence their rhetoric and poetics. The texts contain a persistent emphasis on the moral meaning of history; the role of the individual in history, the importance of culture, science and art as real engines of the historical process. Muravyov and Zhukovsky actively apply the principle of artistic documentalism in educational texts, which is largely due to their common model - Karamzin's History of the Russian State. Both actively use many of Karamzin's historical ideas: Muravyov first formulated and enforced the principles of their implementation in his educational works, Zhukovsky was his faithful successor. At the same time, it is obvious that Zhukovsky's educational materials are naturally updated both at the conceptual level and in the forms of depicting history in the educational text. The introduction of interpretation of world and Russian history in accordance with the ideas of the Christian faith, conceptually important for Zhukovsky, was reflected not only in the content of his pedagogical historical prose, but also in its genre and style features.

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