On the Literary Relations between Iakinf (Bichurin) and M. P. Pogodin

Subject of the research — the literary relations between Iakinf (Bichurin), the founder of Russian Sinology, and M. P. Pogodin, a writer, historian, and editor of the journals Moskovskii vestnik and Moskvityanin. The main sources are the correspondence between the two scholar-writers and Iakinf’s publications in the journals edited by Pogodin. The study analyzes how Iakinf’s journalistic activity influenced his development as a writer engaged in the popularization of knowledge about China, Mongolia, and Central Asia, and how, in turn, he contributed to shaping the literary and scholarly discourse in Pogodin’s journals. Special attention is given to Iakinf’s participation in the discussion of issues related to Old Russian history on the pages of Moskvityanin. The work refines the understanding of the interaction between the two authors and identifies Iakinf’s role in the formation of the intellectual environment of early nineteenth-century Russia. The research employs traditional literary methods, including the cultural-historical approach, as well as source-critical and textological analysis. The novelty of the study lies in its results, which make it possible to trace the dynamics and mechanisms of the literary relationship between Iakinf and Pogodin and to clarify the nature of their interaction both in science and in literature — in the process of preparing materials for literary journals. The conducted research allows us to conclude that Iakinf’s literary and journalistic activities and his collaboration with Pogodin were of paramount importance for the popularization of knowledge about China in Russia during the first half of the nineteenth century: it was precisely the literary milieu that became the space for the institutionalization of this knowledge and its integration into the system of Russian literary culture.

Iakinf Bichurin, M. P. Pogodin, literary relations, correspondence, history of Russian literature, journalism, Moskovskii vestnik, Moskvityanin, Russian Sinolog, scholarly and literary dialogue