Images of Antipodes of Peter I in Russian Pre-Revolutionary Historiography: Construction, Functions, Interaction

The article is devoted to the analysis of the images of the antipodes of Peter I in Russian prerevolutionary historiography. The authors proceed from the fact that a historical narrative can be not only a scientific, but also a figurative and artistic work. In the latter case, it is fundamentally important how the historian builds images in his narrative. The article analyzes the works of I.I. Golikov, N.G. Ustryalov, N.I. Krasnov, M.N. Pokrovsky and P.N. Krasnov. The authors come to the conclusion that in all the cases they analyzed, the construction of the images of antipodes pursued primarily publicist and presentational goals. It helped the historian to reveal the current socio-political concept using historical examples. However, the difference between these concepts forced historians to choose different characters for the role of the antipodes of Peter I and build the relationship between the images of the hero and his antipode in different ways. In the case of I.I. Golikov and N.G. Ustryalov, the idealized Peter I was opposed by the demonized I.S. Mazep and tsarevna Sophia. N.I. Krasnov, on the contrary, revealed the shortcomings of the figure of Peter I by opposing him to K.A. Bulavin, and both of these characters in his narrative were rather positive, which made it possible to interpret their conflict as a tragedy. M.N. Pokrovsky, sharply criticizing Peter I, clearly contrasts his own author's image of the emperor with his traditional image in Russian historiography, drawing his own Peter I from the contrary. Finally, P.N. Krasnov, trying to restore the idealized image of the emperor, discredited image of K.A. Bulavin by N.I. Krasnov, creating an antipode to an antipode.