The Worldview and Patriotism of Boris Shergin in a Cultural and Historical Context

Boris Viktorovich Shergin (1893—1973) was a Russian storyteller, writer, artist, and expert on traditional Russian artistic culture. His name is known mainly for his literary legacy: stories about the way of life and traditional culture of Arkhangelsk Pomoria, — as well as fictional adaptations of folk literature. Having started his career primarily as an artist of folk decorative and applied art and book art, in the second half of his life Shergin was forced to focus largely on literary work: the reason for this was his progressive loss of vision. The tragic turning point in the spiritual and cultural life of Russia, marked by the revolution, the fall of the empire, anti-religious sentiments and persecution of the Soviet period, and the crisis of traditional culture as a whole. This is the background for the life and work of B.V. Shergin. Shergin’s “non-modernity,” and therefore the value of his figure, is manifested in the following. In his native language of folk literature of the White Sea region, he expressed the high ethical principles of the traditional northern Russian Pomor culture. Love for his earthly Fatherland and its traditional culture were inevitably shaded by bitterness about their fate in the destructive twentieth century. Correlating the content of Shergin’s diary entries with the content of his works gives an understanding that the solution to the problem of the fate of Russia’s cultural heritage lies in the spiritual, not socio-cultural realm. In April 2025, the exhibition “A Bow to Boris Shergin” organized by the Arkhangelsk Museum Association “Artistic Culture of the Russian North” within the walls of the Museum of the artist and storyteller S.G. Pisakhov ended its work. The exposition was an attempt to comprehend the spiritual and moral content of Boris Shergin’s life path, the significance of this content for future generations.

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2. Shergin B.V. Izyashchnye mastera: Pomorskie byliny i skazaniya [Masters of Artistic Words: Pomorsky Bylinas and Folk Tales]. Moscow, Molodaya Gvardiya Publ., 1990, 430 p.

3. Shergin B.V. Pravednoe solntse: Dnevniki raznykh let [The Righteous Sun: The Diaries of Different Years]. St. Petersburg, Bibliopolis Publ., 2009, 656 p.

4. Tychkov M.A. The Art of Boris Shergin, Novoe o Borise Shergine: biograficheskie svedeniya, izobrazitel’noe tvorchestvo [New About Boris Shergin: Biographical Information, Art Works]. Arkhangelsk, 2018, pp. 28—81 (in Russ.).

5. B.V. Shergin About Himself, Govorit SSSR: Organ Vsesoyuznogo komiteta po radiofikatsii i radioveshchaniyu [The USSR Speaks: The All-Union Committee Body for Radiofication and Radio Broadcasting], 1933, no. 2, p. 3. Available at: https://vivaldi.nlr.ru/pm000046426/view/?#page=3 (accessed 18.06.2025) (in Russ.).

6. Plaksina N.E., Tychkov M.A. A Sheet with the “Velikopozhensky Monastery” from the Collection of the State Literary Museum: To the Issue of the Presumed Authorship of B.V. Shergin, Zhivaya Starina, 2019, no. 1 (101), pp. 53—56 (in Russ.).

7. Tychkov M.A. The Creative Method of Shergin, a Writer and an Artist. On the “Forgery” by Boris Shergin, Severnyi tekst russkoi literatury [The Northern Text of Russian Literature]. Arkhangelsk, KIRA Publ., 2024, no. 7, pp. 30—48 (in Russ.).

8. Shergin B.V., Pokrovskaya A.K., Protopopov S.E. (eds.) U Arkhangel’skogo goroda, u korabel’nogo pristanishcha: sbornik starin [In the Arkhangelsk City, Near the Berth]. Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel’stvo, 1924, 52 p.

9. A Waning Beauty: A Letter from Moscow, Arkhangelsk. 1915, November 21. Available at: https://webirbis.aonb.ru/irbisdoc/kr/2016/arh_1915_218-291/166/ (accessed 18.06.2025) (in Russ.).

10. Koval Yu.I. Opasaites’ lysykh i usatykh [Beware of Bald and Mustached Man]. Moscow, Knizhnaya Palata Publ., 1993, 352 p. Available at: https://www.rulit.me/books/opasajtes-lysyh-i-usatyh-read-37680-21.html#section_31 (accessed 18.06.2025).

11. Chekryzhova A.I. B.V. Shergin’s Creativity in the Context of Book Culture: Style Features and Semantic Dominants, Sovremennye problemy knizhnoi kul’tury: osnovnye tendentsii i perspektivy razvitiya: materialy XV Belorussko-Rossiiskogo nauchnogo seminara-konferentsii “Sovremennye problemy knizhnoi kul’tury: Osnovnye tendentsii i perspektivy razvitiya: 100 let Inbelkul’tu i belorusskoi akademicheskoi nauke” (Moskva, 22—23 noyabrya 2022 g.) [Modern Problems of Book Culture: Main Tendencies and Prospects: Proceedings of the 15th Belarusian-Russian Seminar-Conference “Modern Problems of Book Culture: Main Tendencies and Prospects: 100 Years of Inbelcultand Belarusian Academic Science” (Moscow, November 22—23, 2022)]. Moscow, Nauchnyi i Izdatel’skii Tsentr “Nauka” RAN Publ., 2022, pp. 532—537 (in Russ.).

12. Egorov B.M. Moi Boris Shergin [My Boris Shergin]. Arkhangelsk, Arkhangel’skii Literaturnyi Muzei Publ., 2022, 360 p.

13. Mikhailov A.A. A Humble Man from Archangelsk: (Boris Shergin), Moya Giperboreya: stat’i o literature, vospominaniya [My Hyperborea: articles on literature, memoirs]. Arkhangelsk, Izdatel’stvo Pomorskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, 1999, pp. 40—61 (in Russ.).

14. Gruntovsky A.V. The Righteous Sun: (A Biographical Essay), Shergin B.V. Pravednoe solntse. Dnevniki raznykh let [Shergin B.V. The Righteous Sun: The Diaries of Different Years]. St. Petersburg, Bibliopolis Publ., 2009, pp. 13—33 (in Russ.).

15. Shergin B.V. Sobranie sochinenii: v 4 t. [Collected Works: in 4 volumes]. Moscow, Moskvovedenie Publ., 2014, vol. 3, 496 p.

16. Shergin B.V. Izbrannoe [Selected Works]. Moscow, Sovetskaya Rossiya Publ., 1977, 382 p.

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18. Petrov A.V. (ed.) Sotvori mir v dushe i poshli ego lyudyam: slovar’ aforizmov Fedora Abramova [Make Peace in the Soul and Share It with Others: A Dictionary of Aphorisms by Fyodor Abramov]. Arkhangelsk, Lotsiya Publ., 2021, 160 p.

19. Galkin Yu.F. Na krugakh zemnykh i nebesnykh. Arkhangelsk [On the Earthly and Heavenly Circles], Arkhangel’skii Literaturnyi Muzei Publ., 2022, 334 p.

20. Smirnova V.S., Karshina L.E., Galimova E.Sh. (eds.) Boris Viktorovich Shergin: biobibliograficheskii ukazatel’ [Boris Viktorovich Shergin: a biobibliographical index]. Arkhangelsk, Arkhangel’skaya Oblastnaya Nauchnaya Biblioteka im. N.A. Dobrolyubova Publ., 2006, 192 p.

21. A Bow to Boris Shergin: The Exhibition to the 130th Anniversary of His Birth, Gosudarstvennoe muzeinoe ob”edinenie “Khudozhestvennaya kul’tura Russkogo Severa”: sait [The State Museum Association “Art Culture of the Russian North”: website]. Available at: http://arhmuseum.ru/exhibitions/view/443 (accessed 18.06.2025) (in Russ.).