Experience of reconstruction of family relationships among the nobility at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries (on the basis of the epistolary sources belonged to Professor Zhukovsky)

Epistolary sources, or letters, have significant information potential for research and identification of informal connections, interpersonal relationships, emotions and experiences of certain historical figures. This is especially valuable for studying the history of a single family that lived in a different era, and the relationships between relatives. The research focuses on the scientist in the field of mechanics Nikolai Zhukovsky and his family connections. The subject of the study is the relationship between Professor Zhukovsky and his illegitimate daughter Elena. This case is important from the point of view of identifying opportunities for the integration of illegitimate children of nobles into Russian privileged society at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the introduction of previously unpublished letters and drafts from the family correspondence of Professor Zhukovsky, which are stored in the archive. As a result of the study, the potential of epistolary sources was proven in the study of interpersonal connections and for the reconstruction of family relationships of nobles. At the next level, a reconstruction of family relations was carried out: it was established that Professor Zhukovsky was able to construct a new status for his illegitimate daughter. At the formal level – official adoption, noble status and education, at the informal level – raising her to the rank of mistress of the house. An analysis of Professor Zhukovsky’s family correspondence also revealed the significance of his daughter’s poor health for the specifics of their relationship and the importance of this topic in intrafamily discourse. The studied case reveals some typical features of the mentality of the post-reform nobility, a synthesis of liberal trends with remnants of the old way of life, which persisted even after the liberalization of the legal system.

family history, gender history, ego documents, personal sources, epistolary sources, family relations, nobles, illegitimate children, scientists, everyday life history