Terra Incognita of Russian Bibliology: On Application and Localization of the Concept of “Russian North”

The concept of “Russian North” is actively used in the media and in scientific literature. However, only few people think about its meaning. In the field of bibliology, the uncertainty of the idea of the Russian North territory complicates the selection of material for studying the book culture of this region. Analysis of the practice of using the concept shows that this problem appeared in the 19th century, when researchers differently defined the territory of the Russian North. In most cases, they were directed by the conclusions of historical science, which included in this region all the lands ever and in any way connected with the Novgorod Republic. This stereotype, formed almost 200 years ago, still exists now. However, the data obtained as a result of archeological and historical research carried out over the last 50 years cast doubts on the validity of the Novgorod paradigm.

In ethnography, methods of which began to be actively used in book studies in the second half of the 20th century, there is also no unified opinion on the territorial structure of the Russian North. Attempts to combine its borders with the areas of distribution of North Russian dialects and the complex of traditional North Russian household culture have shown ineffectiveness of this method in modern world.

On the one hand, new culturological theories that appeared at the cusp of the 20th—21st centuries offered new aspects for studying the Russian North, but on the other hand, they moved it into the field of abstraction, actually depriving it of its geographic boundaries. As long as the issue of the Russian North localization remains open in bibliology, this study attempts to systemize and analyze the accumulated information. As a result, the article raises questions about the necessity of further preservation of the stereotype; about the eligibility to classify to the Russian North the territories that are not related to it in terms of geography, or have a conditional relation from the point of view of history; about the rightness of application of the toponymic form of the concept in relation to the North European part of Russia, without regard to the North of Siberia. In conclusion, the article makes some correction in relation to the authorship of the term “Russian North”, which is traditionally attributed to the Civil Governor of Arkhangelsk A.P. Engelgardt.

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