Ural in travel essays by P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky and D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak: a view from inside and outside

In the article the comparative analysis of the travel essays “Travel notes (From Tambov province to Siberia)” by P.I.Melnikov-Pechersky and “From the Ural to Moscow” by D.N. Mamin-Sibirуak shows the specificity of the shift from the external image of the Ural region based on the conflict between the traveller’s identity and the space to the internal one which is positive from the very start. The methodological basis for the comparative analysis was the assumption that a traveller’s geocultural status (or his background, as defined by Susan P.Castillo) influences his perception of space and the way he builds the image of the space in the text of the travelogue. The strategies of interpretation of the Ural space used by P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky and D.N. Mamin-Sibirуak formed different traditions of the region description, the confrontation of which determined one of the key plots of the Ural geopoetics.