Ryzhova M. M. D. Vergun’s maps as a tool for structuring Russian nationalist idea in the early 20th century

Maria M. Ryzhova
PhD student, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS
St. Petersburg, Russia
E-mail: mariamih@yandex.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-3530-7681

 Скачать | Back to the Content № 1. 2022

УДК 94(470.5)”17/19”:930.25
DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2022-1-1-114-127

ABSTRACT. The article analyzes geographical maps used in the periodical press of the early 20th century Russian Empire to form the image of a particular space, which was prescribed to be a subject of political control or to be part of the national territory of Russia. The process of the formation of the mental map of the “native Russian land”, the so-called “Foreign Russia” — the territory of Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina and north-eastern counties of Hungary (“Ugrian Rus’”) took place through the nationalistic optics of Dmitry Vergun, one of the representatives of the Russian nationalist movement of the late 19th — early 20th centuries. In order to form the image of the ancestral territories belonging to the “Russian people”, Vergun used all available means, or, more precisely, “channels” of communication used in the corresponding historical epoch. This formation took place by means of the national narrative in oral and written form, including poetry, as well as by means of the visualization of the territories described with help of geographical maps. His first significant work, “The German Drang nach Osten in Numbers and Facts”, was published in Vienna in 1905. The brochure text was supplemented by a map, issued as an appendix to illustrate the content of this work. However, this map was not as widespread outside the brochure as another map made later by D. Vergun for the work “What is Galicia?”

KEYWORDS: early 20th century Russian nationalism, D. Vergun, “Foreign Russia”, Map of German Conquests, ethnographic map, mental maps

For citation: Ryzhova M. M. D. Vergun’s maps as a tool for structuring Russian nationalist idea in the early 20th century // Historical Geography Journal. 2022. Vol. 1. № 1. P. 114–127.

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