“Along the waves” of noble memory: the “golden” childhood of the passing estate

The review analyzes a monograph by Krasnodar historian Irina Yu. Martianova, which reflects one of the important aspects of the historiography of Russian pre-revolutionary childhood. The reviewer notes that in her research the author starts from the stereotypical idea of a noble childhood, which, through the prism of time, appears to modern people as “golden” and ideal. What it seemed like to the nobles themselves during the times of the empire is what she tries to tell in this book, written on the basis of published and unpublished memoirs of representatives of the privileged class that has passed into history. The advantages and disadvantages of the undertaken analysis of the impressive array of historical sources used by the author, including mainly documents of personal origin: 69 published memoirs and 2 manuscripts of unpublished memoirs stored in the State Archives of the Krasnodar Territory, are reflected. The author of the book traces the evolution of the historical appearance and the change in the life world of noble childhood over two centuries. The reviewer emphasizes that Martianova is one of the first authors in Russian historiography to pose and explore the problem of the situation of marginalized children among the nobility using the example of illegitimate children and children rejected by society due to various circumstances - both minor outcasts born into noble families in legal marriage and minors who were victims of big politics. The problem of young nobles’ perception of their own future is also reflected on the pages of the monograph. The reviewer characterizes the features of the author’s approach to the study of a number of little-studied issues: attitudes towards children and childhood in noble society, family life and spiritual culture of nobles, the social status of a noble child in the family and in society. The reviewer notes that the author describes the agents and institutions of noble children’s primary socialization, reflects the features of their national self-identification process. The author of the book was able to prove the close relationship between the change in the situation of a child from the upper class and the gradual elimination of the feudal mentality. The reviewer concludes that studying the childhood of representatives of the privileged class allows us to better understand the characteristic features of the Russian noble corporation as a whole as one of the cultural and historical communities in the Russian Empire.