Russian traveller Nikolay Karamzin. The Presidential Library's materials illustrate the creator of the History of the Russian State

December 12, 2020, marks the 254th anniversary of the historiographer, the founder of Russian sentimental prose and poetry, publicist, reformer of the Russian language Nikolay Karamzin. The Presidential Library's portal provides the electronic collection "Nikolay Karamzin (1766–1826)". It includes literary works, studies, essays, archival documents, as well as 12 volumes of the History of the Russian State - the main work of his life, which describes the events of Russian history from ancient times to the reign of Ivan the Terrible and the Time of Troubles.

In the spring of 1789, Nikolay Karamzin, the son of a Simbirsk nobleman, who had first successful literary experiments and experienced three years of service in the Preobrazhensky Life-Guard Regiment, began a half year journey to Europe. Its result was Letters of a Russian Traveller - a work that immediately became very popular among Russian and foreign readers.

"Reading Karamzin's letters from abroad, which he wrote to Moscow to the Pleshcheevs, a family of his close friends... anyone is amazed at how much he has read in Russian and foreign languages, as well as the truth of many judgments, which are still valuable. Meanwhile, he was only 22 years old - the age of a student who had just finished the course", writes Mikhail Pogodin in the publication Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin, according to his writings, letters and reviews of contemporaries. Part 1.

This work describes the life of the West, Nikolay Karamzin's conversations with great people - the philosopher Immanuel Kant, the thinker and theologian Johann Herder, the writer and playwright Jean-François Marmontel, and reflections on art, literature, politics.

In particular, Karamzin visited places associated with the name of Rousseau, who had been his ideal: "Inside a cliff you will find Jean-Jacques Rousseau's grotto, with the inscription: "Jean-Jacques is immortal". Here are carved many mottos and the title of all works of a Geneva citizen, including the wonderful aphorism: "One, who is really free, does not need strangers' hands to fulfil his will". <…> He is a rare personality; the unique author, true in passions and style, whose delusions convincing, pleasant in weaknesses; a baby in his heart until old age; misanthrope, full of love..." - so Karamzin described Rousseau in Letters of a Russian Traveller.

In revolutionary France Karamzin watched, in particular, such pictures: "In a village near Paris, the peasants stopped a young, well-dressed man and ordered him to shout with them "Vive la nation!". The young man fulfilled their will... "Good! Okay, they said; - We are satisfied. You are a kind Frenchman; go wherever you want. No, wait: explain to us first what is... a nation?"

Without a kind of sadness, Karamzin left France and continued his journey, travelling to Foggy Albion. In his Letters, he wrote: "I left you, dear Paris, I left you with regret and gratitude! Among your noisy events, I lived calmly and merrily, like a careless citizen of the universe... Neither the Jacobins nor your aristocrats did me any harm..."

The long time spent in France and England gave the analytical mind of the Russian traveller food for reflections and comparisons. Karamzin fell in love with the French people for "the art of living with neighbours, which turned into their second nature". Recognizing it, he generally "reacted antipathetic" to the character of the "gloomy" Englishmen, whom he adored in childhood. "Seeing England is very pleasant: the customs of the people, the successes of education and all the arts are remarkable and capture your mind. <...> Another time I would visit England with pleasure, and leave without regret", notes Karamzin in Letters of a Russian Traveler.

Many places in the Letters show that Karamzin had a sense of national pride", state the writers Nikolay Dyunkin and Alexander Novikov in N. M. Karamzin: the biography and analysis of his main works. "So, for example, comparing Louis XIV with Peter I, he concludes that the latter is incomparably higher than the first. Elsewhere, speaking about the English language, he finds that it is "rude, rich in loan words" and then exclaims: "Hat off to our language, which flows in its native wealth like a proud, majestic river..." He generally mentions Russia wherever is possible.

Nikolay Karamzin recalled that "fell ill" with Russian history in the journey. "They say", he writes from Paris in Letters of a Russian Traveller, "that our story is less interesting than others: I don't think so; <...> We had our own Charles the Great - Vladimir, our own Louis XI - Ivan the Terrible, our own Cromwell - Godunov, and also such a sovereign, who can't be compared with no one - Peter the Great. Their reign is the most important time in our history and even in the history of mankind".

The edition of Karamzin's selfless and fundamental work History of the Russian State began in 1818. The interest of readers' "travelling" through its pages is akin to the interest of young Karamzin travelling in the West.