Rakov Andrey Alekseevich – Teacher of Russian language and literature of the highest qualification category, MAOU “School No. 79 named after Nikolai Alekseevich Zaitsev”. Applicant, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Russian and Foreign Philology, Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University named after Kozma Minin. Russia, Nizhny Novgorod; ORCID: 0009-0000-1488-3332; SPIN: 4212-8723
The article examines the features of the description of Bakhchisarai in the Crimean travels of P.I. Sumarokov. Bakhchisarai, unlike many other cities in Crimea, was almost not destroyed and retained its former greatness, reminding of its past. The study showed that the description of Bakhchisarai, the former capital of the Crimean Khanate, on the one hand, helps to reveal the religious and ethnic features of the city: Sumarokov tells about the daily life of Tatars (visiting baths, common prayer) and about their traditions, rituals using the example of a Tatar wedding; on the other hand, it is with Bakhchisarai that the author’s praise of the “wise Legislator” Catherine II is connected. Sumarokov, visiting the Khan’s Palace, admires its beauties, architectural features, and ancient history, but he is truly awed only by the fact that the great Empress, “the northern goddess, mother, and benefactor of the Rosses,” stayed right here in 1787. The study also analyzes the peculiarities of P.I. Sumarokov’s perception of the urban loci of Bakhchisarai, emphasizes the citizenship and patriotism of the author of the sentimental journey in thinking about the future fate of the region after the annexation of the peninsula to Russia.
Bakhchisarai; Crimean text; P.I. Sumarokov; travelogue; imagological approach