Potapova Е. V. P. P. Bazhov’s Ego-documents: Reflections on the Relationship between Place and Time (Based on the Material of «Working» Notes and Letters)

Evgeniia V. Potapova
Ural Federal University (Russia, Ekaterinburg).
ORСID: 0000-0001-5200-508X
Е-mail: jenni_p@mail.ru

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UDC: 821.161.1:94(470.5)
DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2025-4-3-112-125

ABSTRACT. The research is devoted to the concept of place and time in Pavel Bazhov’s «working» notes and letters and the connection of this concept with the writer’s «biographical legend». In an unpublished ego-document «for himself» («working» notes) the article examines fragments in which Bazhov studies local history literature, speaks on the role of history and historicism in literary texts, and notices details of the surrounding world in different periods of his life and work (teaching, political work during the civil war, journalism), which are part of history for the writer. The data obtained are compared with the writer’s epistolary, the main differences between the ego-document «for himself» and «for others» are revealed: the presence / absence of restrictions by the addressee’s figure, the degree of detail / generalization of arguments about history and space. A selection of ego-documents, which contain a certain geographical “reference” and arguments about place and time, allows expanding the notion of Pavel Bazhov: from the famous «biographical legend», according to which he is a «genius loci» (biography as an interpretation), to the writer as a «homo viator», «historian» and a «storyteller» who captures every detail of the surrounding world in order to preserve the «text of life» in all its completeness and authenticity (biography as a statement).

KEYWORDS: P. P. Bazhov, ego-documents, «working» notes, historicism, biographical myth, historical and literary process

For citation: Potapova Е. V. [P. P. Bazhov’s Ego-Documents: Reflections on the Relationship between Place and Time (Based on the Material of “Working” Notes and Letters)]. Istoriko-geograficheskiy zhurnal [Historical Geography Journal], 2025, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 112–125. DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2025-4-3-112-125 (In Russian).

Received 25 February 2025
Accepted 12 August 2025

© 2025 The Author

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