P. N. Rybnikov: between westernism and slavophilism (study of the materials from the archive of Yu. F. Samarin)

Documents from the Samarin family archive stored in the manuscript collection of the Russian State Library have not yet been introduced into academic circulation and have important research value, since they can provide some clarifications on the life of P. N. Rybnikov and his relations with the contemporaries. These materials include information from the letters of the prominent Slavophile Yu. F. Samarin, as well as an excerpt from the letter of P. N. Rybnikov himself. The studied documents are published for the first time. Samarin’s letters are addressed to the Cherkassky family. The materials shed some light on how Rybnikov made a decision to change his place of work in Petrozavodsk and move to the Kingdom of Poland and give some details of this process. Besides providing new information, the documents clarify and confirm the provisions put forward by A. E. Gruzinskiy with varying degrees of justification. The presented materials focus on Rybnikov’s worldview. His personality is perceived through the prism of the Slavophile and Westernist ideas as a central issue not only of the XIX century, but also of our time.