The Volga way in the scholarly discourse of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries

The formation of the image of the Volga in Russian culture in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries was associated with the search for a scenario of national identity: such values, images, and “places of memory” that could unite the nation and create a sense of a living connection between times and spaces. Along with literature and art, the historical and geographical sciences contributed to the solution of this problem: scholarly works were designed for a wide range of readers and were characterized by imagery of presentation; historians and geographers were interested in the importance of different territories for humans. The image of the Volga region as a colonized space that was once “alien” but gradually becomes “ours” dominated the scholarly discourse. The works of historians and geographers played an important role in the formation of the “Volga text” in Russian culture, which remains relevant to the present day.