RUSSIAN AND POLISH ISSUES IN MIKHAIL ZAGOSKIN’S NOVEL “YURY MILOSLAVSKY, OR RUSSIANS IN 1612”
Zagoskin’s novel “Yury Miloslavsky, or Russians in 1612” (1831) is considered in the context of how Russian public consciousness in the late 18th - early 19th centuries perceived relations with the Poles and Poland. Published during the Polish uprising and depicting the era of historical confrontation between Russia and Poland, the novel was perceived as an actual political statement. Paying attention to the historical sources used by the author when writing the novel and against the background of statements by contemporaries, including Russian journalists who spoke sharply about the Polish “treason”, it would be natural to expect acute polonophobia from this work. However, in reality, Zagoskin avoids double standards and portrays both Russians and Poles within the framework of a single system of moral values. The national characters of both Russians and Poles, according to Zagoskin, do not change and are uniform in all historical eras. This testiﬁ es to the exceptional importance of the Russian Empire for t he national myth constructed by Zagoskin: Russians and Poles are not perceived as “strangers” to each other, since the historical fates of both peoples, from the point of view of the novelist, are closely connected and ultimately lead to the inclusion of Poland in the Russian Empire.