Traditional road culture of the Karelians shown in the newspaper “Olonetskie gubernskie vedomosti” (1838-1917)

Introduction. Road culture (or culture of the road) is understood as a complex material and spiritual element of an ethnos, connected with travelling. It is a new successfully developing research area in Russian ethnology and anthropology. The paper considers the traditional road culture of the Karelians, which until now has not been subjected to a comprehensive study. Complex studies of road culture of the Karelians require new evidence. Pre-revolutionary periodicals are considered to be of the importance in this area and the newspaper “Olonetskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti” [Olonets provincial newsletter] (1832 - 1917) has been chosen as the source. The research target is to reveal and analyze the data on road culture of the Karelians which is presented in that source. Materials and Methods. The data of the research was based on the articles about road culture published in the “Olonetskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti” newspaper. By the means of historiographic analysis it successfully opened information opportunities of this source, the data was classified and referred to thematic rubrics. Results and Discussion. At the result of the research, thematic rubrics have been allocated, such as the main routes used by the Karelians, purposeful travels (odd jobs, buying and selling food and goods, pilgrimage and visiting relatives), means of transportation (wheeled - carts, one-wheelers, cabriolets, sliding - sledges, skis, water - karabasy, soymy, galliots), behavior on the road, rituals, legends. Conclusion. The periodicals are an important source of traditional ethnic culture connected with traditional road culture of the ethnos. It is a basic resource referred to this topic with the possibility of representing historical reality. It highlights relevant issues that need to be addressed while working with other documents and collecting field material.