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Europejskie peregrynacje romantyków rosyjskich

Abstract

Journey as the quest for self‑ identity. European peregrinations of the Russian romantics

The Author of the article concentrates on the role and sense of a journey as functioning in the consciousness of the Russian in the first half of the 19th century. The Russian used to travel to Europe for the sake of education already in the 18th century – in the epoch of Peter I. Travelling became even more popular in the Romantic period. Russian Romantics considered the journey to Europe as “the travel of discovery”, being thus a form of the exploration of the world and other cultures, but also a form of experience aimed at the acquisition of self‑ knowledge and the recognition of self identity. The journey to the West of Europe could be perceived also in terms of a peculiar escape as well as an attempt at self‑ liberation from the gloomy reality of the Russian Empire at the time of tsar Nikolay I.
Russian travelers – observing European order and comparing it to their own country – realized that there was a great distance between Russia and Europe in this respect. The juxtaposition of those two worlds – Europe and Russia – was frequently connected with the process of verification of national, religious and cultural identity.