The Other National (Kalmyk) Component in I. I. Lazhechnikov’s Novel “The Ice House”

The article focuses on the other national, particularly Kalmyk component in I. I. Lazhechnikov’s historical novel “The Ice House” (1835). Ethnographic details of the Kalmyk national culture and everyday life presented in the novel are supposed to expand the image of historical and ethnographic aspects of life of different peoples in the multinational Russia and show the growing interest of the Russian romanticists in “other” nationalities, alien culture. The author of the article analyses characteristic features of the way Lazhechikov depicts facts of Kalmyk life that are ethnographic by nature and add to its specific historical colouring: national portrait details (the Kalmyk’s “mole eyes”); Kalmyk weapon (“a quiver of arrows”); a special form of offerings performed by Kalmyks to deities during Buddhist rituals (figures of dough and butter - “torma”); a means of transport (“Kalmyks riding camels”); types of Kalmyk traditional clothing (Kalmyk sheepskin coat, fur coat). The author of the article points out that references to the Kalmyks, elements of their culture and everyday life scattered through the text of the novel are rather informative and laconic, thus, indicating, on the one hand, the writer’s attempt to make his narrative historically verisimilar and, on the other hand, the emergence of ethnographic trends in the Russian literary process in the first third of the 19th century. Particular attention is drawn to one of the main characters of the novel - Akulina Savvishna Podachkina whose prototype was a Kalmyk woman Evdokia Ivanovna Buzheninova, Anna Ioannovna’s court jester. The plot of the novel is based on the well-known historical fact of the “ice” wedding between the Kalmyk female court jester Buzheninova and a disgraced nobleman, the court appointed entertainer Golitsyn. The author of the article compares the historical prototype with the character in the novel, revealing Podachkina’s temper and role of in the plot of the story. The character sketch of the “lady’s maid” Podachkina remains mentally unidentified, Lazhechnikov does not indicate the female character’s national identity, though the repeated references to the Kalmyk people and thorough study of scholarly works on the steppe people’s life show his good acquaintance with Kalmyk culture and everyday life. Lack of attention to the female character’s nationality is determined by the insufficient biographical information regarding the Kalmyk female court jester and the author’s position who deliberately ignores the fact and moves the emphasis from the historical truth to depiction of the moral climate of the age. The article touches upon the problem of historicism of the novel and the reasons of non-compliance with historical truth in the works of the romantic writer.