Москва и Петербург в пътеписа на Вазов “Извън България”
Moscow and Petersburg in Ivan Vazov’s travelogue Outside Bulgaria

Summary/Abstract: Vazov’s travelogue “Outside Bulgaria” enters into the “Petersburg’s text” and the “Moscow text” of Russian culture. Although written by a foreigner, this travelogue includes both the outsider’s view of Russia, and the assimilated insider’s Russian viewpoint. Metaphorically, Vazov turns out to be both inside and “outside Bulgaria”. The writer perceives Russia through the Russian national auto-stereotypes; the Russian myths of Moscow as the “soul of Russia”, of the “great Russian soul“, and of Petersburg as a “window on Europe” are present in his text. The Russian viewpoint is embodied in many quoted proverbs. However, the insider’s viewpoint in the text combines sometimes opposite stands on Russian culture (these of the “Westerners” and the “Slavophiles”). Besides the writer also perceives Russia from a foreigner’s point of view where the negative sides of Moscow appear (the uncleaniness, the fatalism of the Russians, the drunkenness), and to whose mind Petersburg’s cold calls out the image of the gardens of Eden in Bulgaria. Thus, Ivan Vazov does not limit himself to the area of one genre, combining the mythologization of Russia (through the Russian viewpoint) with its demythologization, containing both the Russian viewpoint and that of the foreigner.

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