  shigareva-an-vestnik-2025-4.pdf |
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- The history of Western countries in the creative work of the Russian female enlightener Aleksandra Bykova
- Shigareva A.N. The history of Western countries in the creative work of the Russian female enlightener Aleksandra Bykova. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2025, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 25–31. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-4-25-31
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-4-25-31
- УДК: УДК 94(470+410)
- EDN: SJQHMX
- Publish date: 2025-09-11
- Annotation: The article is devoted to the work of Aleksandra Bykova, the author of popular essays on world history written in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The problem of ideological and cultural influence through enlightenment with the historical experience of Western countries is representatively revealed using the example of Bykova’s literary works. Her work made up for the insufficiency of educational and popular literature on the history of England, France, the United States of America and other Western countries in Russia. Historical interpretations created during a difficult transitional period for Russia, demonstrated not only the author’s brilliant training in history and geography, but also her literary talent, and they also revealed the writer’s political sympathies and her own ideas about “people’s freedom”. Given the scarcity of sources about the writer’s personality, her social ideals were recreated based on numerous historical works. As a result, conclusions were formulated, that add some traits to the overall portrait of a representative of the liberal intelligentsia in Russia. The unique experience of one of the first attempts to create a series of books for reading on the history of European and American countries is described and summarised.
- Keywords: inintelligentsia, foreign history, historical West, Europe, America, Enlightenment, liberalism, reforms, Alexandra Feodorovna Bykova, modernisation, power, society.
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