The Role of Children and Youth Academic Literature in Shaping the Image of Siberia in the Minds of the Population of the XIX century

The article presents the analysis of children's and youth educational literature published in the XIX century. It is established that Siberia was associated by the authors of textbooks with many different images, superimposing an imprint on the formation of the image of Siberia in the minds of the population of the study period. Among the most common images are: the large and sparsely populated "fringe" or border areas with harsh climatic conditions but rich in natural resources; the place of penal servitude and exile "rebels" and criminals; the territory of "bureaucratic arbitrariness"; places the historic deeds of the chieftain Yermak and the Stroganoff brothers; a site of interaction of different cultures and peoples. It is established that educational literature of the XIX century, on the one hand, displays the current at this time of the representation of the Russian population of the Siberian region, has served as a reputable source, modeling the data representations in the consciousness of society. Revealed repeated text matches found in many textbooks when describing economic and climatic specifics of the Siberian region.