The Altai Mountains as the ‘Inner East of Russia’ in English Travelogues from the Second Half of the 19th to the Early 20th Centuries

The article explores the image of the Altai Mountains in English travelogues from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th centuries within the context of Orientalism discourses. During the imperial period, this territory of Western Siberia belonged to the category of the so-called “cabinet lands” through which Russian trade with China passed, yet it was poorly developed by the Russian state. From the mid-19th to the early 20th century, Western European discourses exhibited a persistent interest in the Altai Mountains, particularly its southern part, where the Russo-Chinese border ran, populated by Mongols, Kazakhs, and Altaians. Therefore, it is necessary to elucidate not only the reasons for such interest but also the main narratives that were formed about this land within the context of cultural and political processes. The work of P. A. Chikhachev, Journey to the Eastern Altai, written in French and published in Paris, shaped the primary concepts of the Altai Mountains — as of the Second Switzerland, little known to Europeans, and inhabited by savages at the lowest stage of civilization. In the early 20th century, English travelogues by Thomas and Lucy Atkinson, E. Demidov, and H. Swayne revealed another aspect of the wild Altai — as of the area for free hunting and self-realization for European aristocrats on the Russo-Mongolian border. This firmly established the stereotype of the southern Altai as a typologically Eastern “terra incognita” inhabited by Orientalized Russians and Asian savages.