The image of the Russian province in the travelogues of the XIX century foreign travelers (on the materials of the Yaroslavl province)

The article is devoted to the research of foreigners' perception of social and cultural realities of the 19th century Yaroslavl province, using travel notes of French writers and publicists Astolphe de Custine, Alexandre Dumas, Theophile Gautier as an example. The author studies specific construction and representation of the Russian provincial images, addressed to the European reader. Comparing the travelogues of foreign travellers with the Russian texts and historical sources, the author assesses the degree of influence of the author's personality on the narrative and the specifics of the perception of Russian reality by representatives of different cultures. The Yaroslavl province, which is a common location to the three texts, is a relevant example of presenting the image of Russia in the travelogue genre. The objects of the study are the descriptions by foreign authors of Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, Romanov-Borisoglebsk (Tutaev), Uglich, the countryside and the means of transportation. The study reflects the trends towards representing the features of everyday life of different Russian society strata (peasants, nobility), the specifics of the «Russian type» of appearance and Russian character, urban policy and the architectural styles of provincial towns, and the economic aspects of everyday life. The authors of the travesties under study pay attention to stories from Russian history and strive to give a coherent characteristic of the locations. The analysis of the texts reveals such features of the authors' narrative as subjectivity, imprecision, interest in ethnographic and anthropological aspects, and an emphasis on exotic aspects of Russian life for the European reader. The travelogues in question are marked by the desire to construct Russia's artistic image and create a fascinating plot, and by the influence of the author's position and personal image of the author