Siberian city of 19th century and its representation in the notes of a Swiss citizen O. Rittener

Statement of the problem. Interest in the Siberian city as a separate scientific object is obvious. This is confirmed by works in various fields of modern knowledge. Against this general scientific background, the notes of ordinary travelers, demonstrating private ideas about the same object and simultaneously being bearers of an ordinary picture of the world, are of particular research appeal; the latter, in turn, participates in the formation of the general cultural image of any era. The authors of the article propose to expand and specify the understanding of one of these eras by turning to the analysis of textual material that concentrates impressions of Siberia at the end of 19th century, characteristic of a foreigner who visited it. The purpose of the study is to identify the specifics of the linguistic image of a Siberian city of the late 19th century, represented in the private letters of a Swiss citizen Olympia Rittener. A review of the scientific literature on the problem showed that the city is defined as the most important component of the modern cultural and civilizational landscape, and information about it and its “images” is concentrated in a variety of scientific fields: cultural studies and philology, history and sociology, geography and ecology, etc. A special type in this context of discussion is referred to a Siberian city. Research methodology is based on the principles and provisions of narrative semiotics. The research material is the notes of Olympia Rittener, a Swiss teacher and governess of the children of the Krasnoyarsk gold miner A.P. Kuznetsov, written in the form of a letter during her journey from Switzerland to Siberia and then during her stay in Krasnoyarsk. These letters, addressed to relatives and friends, were first published in the autumn of 1884 in the Demokrat newspaper in the Swiss city of Payerne; they were translated into Russian in 2020. As a result, the study showed that the ‘personal’ image of a Siberian city of the late 19th century, reflected in the texts of a Swiss provincial woman, generally coincides in content with the typical image of a Siberian city, represented in the works of representatives of the Russian scientific and cultural elite of that time. Conclusions. Both the scientific and the ‘naïve’ view of an interested observer on the analyzed object make it possible to highlight as its obvious external characteristics ‘deprivation of money and culture’: poor urban life, poor street lighting, and poor architecture. At the same time, the genre of letters-notes demonstrates the dynamics of changing cultural ideas, norms and values of their author, formed before the trip – in relation to the generalized image of the (European) city, and being formed ‘here’ and ‘now’ – in relation to the new (Siberian) urban object. O. Rittener, who at the first stage of her stay in Russia perceives Siberian cities as ‘foreign’, then having settled in Krasnoyarsk, accepts it, begins to perceive this space as quite developed, moreover, ‘her own’, filled with a special exotic beauty.