У цій статті вперше представлено джерело, яке досі не використовувалося в українських
історичних студіях, – щоденник англійського дослідника Едварда Деніела Кларка. На зламі
XVIII–XIX ст., незважаючи на напружені відносини між Британською та Російською імперіями,
англієць Е. Д. Кларк зі своїм компаньйоном вирушає в подорож, під час якої, окрім інших країн,
відвідує і Росію. У цій статті основну увагу звернено на те, як автор щоденника описав деякі
народи, які мешкали на безмежних теренах цієї держави (зокрема росіян, малоросіян, козаків,
черкесів, калмиків і татар). Розглянуто суб’єктивні оцінки Е. Д. Кларка, які є цікавими для аналізу того, як Російська імперія була репрезентована в Британії. Саме на основі цих даних реконструйовано певну етнічну картину населення.
At the turn of the 18–19th centuries, despite the tense relationship between the British and Russian
Empires, English mineralogist Edward Daniel Clarke and his companion John Martin Cripps went on
a grand-tour, during which, in addition to other countries, they visited Russia. In this article, we focus on how
the British author described the different ethnic groups that lived on the boundless areas of this Empire.
Important part of the article is a short resume of historiography of mental maps and research of the “British
myth” of the Russian Empire. Besides, we consider this journal as the historical source, focusing on its
content, popularity, number of editions. One of the elements of the research is description of other journals
used by Ed. D. Clarke before travelling and writing his diary. The above mentioned ethnic groups include
Russians, Malo-Russians (Little Russians), Cossacks, Circassians, Kalmyks, and Tatars. This article shows
the subjective evaluations of Ed. D. Clarke, which are important for an analysis of how the Russian Empire
was represented in Britain. Using journal’s data, we are able to reconstruct a certain ethnic chart of
the population. Russians are described as a superstitious, angry, rude, inhospitable, frightened, violent, dirty
nation; Cossacks as a well-informed, free from prejudices, educated, generous, hospitable, unprofitable,
sincere, and honest group of people; Malo-Russians are presented as a clean, hardworking, honest, generous,
polite, hospitable, truly pious and less superstitious than Russians ethnic group; Circassians and Kalmyks
are characterized as Nomadic tribes with accompanying this life-style traits; and last, but not least, were
Tatars – clean, hospitable, treated unfairly by the Russians. The text of Clarke depicts population of Russian
Empire not as monolithic society, but as a set of certain diverse groups that appear in relation to each other,
and, despite having certain similar characteristics, still do not make up one whole. In this article, for the first
time we present a source – a travel-diary of Ed. D. Clarke, which has not yet been used in Ukrainian
historical studies.
