“Great Transformation”: Representations of Siberia and Siberians in Travelogue of M. and A. Lethbridge

This article examines the semiotic and imagological representations of Siberian space and its inhabitants in Marjorie and Alan Lethbridge's 1916 travelogue, “The Soul of Russia”. The study addresses a significant gap in the field, driven by the growing interest of both Russian and Western humanities in the “Siberian text” and the construction of Siberian imagery. The novelty of the research lies in its analysis of the spatial and ethnic dimensions of Siberia within the Lethbridge narrative, a subject that has been largely overlooked in literary scholarship. The analysis reveals the profound impact of the historical and political context of the early First World War on the authors' narrative. As Britain and Russia found themselves allied against Germany and Austria-Hungary, the Lethbridges' discourse was shaped by distinct Russophile and concurrently Germanophobic intentions. The study demonstrates how these ideological stances directly conditioned the representation of Siberia and the Siberians. Notably, the text depicts Siberia as a territory suffering under the German yoke, whose liberation is posited as a direct consequence of the ongoing war. The research identifies three primary configurations of Siberian space in the travelogue: first, the generalized conception of Siberia as a unified entity; second, the natural and semi-demiurgic topos of the Siberian steppe, intrinsically linked to the locus of the Cossack village; and third, the urbanistic description of the city of Omsk. Furthermore, the study establishes that the ethnic imagery of the region is constructed primarily through the prism of “Russianness” (Russianness), alongside representations of Tatar and Kirghiz (Kazakh) identities.