The Image of Russia in the Works by Fukuzawa Yukichi and his Contemporaries

Abstract

The beginning of the Meiji period (1868–1912) was marked by the opening of the country and its integration into the architecture of the new world. In this regard, the role and importance of geography and, in general, of understanding what a particular country is like, has become extremely important. Writer, translator, and thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901) was one of the most outstanding representatives of the Meiji period. Realizing the urgent need to acquaint the reader with new European knowledge and achievements, he left a great literary heritage in almost every field of science, including geography. An important place in his work is occupied by such works on regional studies as Things Western (1866, 1868, 1870) and All the Countries of the World, for Children Written in Verse (1869), in which he tried to acquaint readers with geography and history, outstanding personalities and scientific achievements of other countries in a simple and understandable form.

The signing of the Treaty of Shimoda (1855) established diplomatic relations between Russia and Japan. Japan showed interest in Russia, in its development in the 18^th – 19^th centuries. Fukuzawa reflected these trends in his works, presenting Russia as a country not completely modernized, but actively moving along the path of progress. He assigned an important role to the figure of Peter I, whose activities and personal qualities contributed to Russia’s significant domestic and foreign political successes. However, not all his contemporaries adhered to such assessments. For example, a future Minister of Culture of Japan, Mori Arinori (1847–1889), who visited Saint Petersburg at the age of eighteen, believed that the idea of Russia as a powerful state was greatly exaggerated. He expressed his views in the Diary of a Sea Trip to Russia.