ISSN 1991-5497. МИР НАУКИ, КУЛЬТУРЫ, ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ. № 3 (82) 2020 558 УДК 821.161.1, 910.4 DOI: 10.24411/1991-5497-2020-00654 Alekseev P.V., Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Head of Department of Russian Language and Literature, Gorno-Altaisk State University (Gorno-Altaisk, Russia), E-mail: pavel.alekseev.gasu@gmail.com Alekseeva A.A., Secretary at Center for Science and Innovation Development, Gorno-Altaisk State University (Gorno-Altaisk, Russia), E-mail: asel.grant@mail.ru Boone P., student, Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium), E-mail: paulien.boone@ugent.be REMEMBERING INDIA: SOUTHERN ALTAI IN HAROLD SWAYNE’S TRAVELOGUE. In most cases, Russian and European travellers compared Altai (including southern Altai) with the Swiss Alps. In this concept, the travel narrative of the British colonial offcer, hunter, and famous traveller Major Swayne is very different: in his “Through the highlands of Siberia” (1904), Altai and its inhabitants are often compared to India. In literary terms, this rare text has not been studied at all and has not yet been used as a material for constructing a metatextual and orientalist image of Altai in Russian and world literature. This article attempts to introduce Swayne’s book into scientifc circulation and to prove that the image of Altai in the eyes of European travellers had stable orientalist connotations at the beginning of the XX century. Key words: India, Altai, Swayne, Orientalism, Terra Incognita, travelogue. П.В. Алексеев, д-р филол. наук, доц., зав. каф. русского языка и литературы Горно-Алтайского государственного университета, г. Горно-Алтайск, E-mail: pavel.alekseev.gasu@gmail.com А.А. Алексеева, секр., Центр науки и инноваций Горно-Алтайского государственного университета, г. Горно-Алтайск, E-mail: asel.grant@mail.ru П. Бооне, студентка, Гентский университет, г. Гент, E-mail: paulien.boone@ugent.be ВСПОМИНАЯ ИНДИЮ: ЮЖНЫЙ АЛТАЙ В ТРАВЕЛОГЕ ГАРОЛЬДА СВЕЙНА Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке РФФИ и Правительства Республики Алтай в рамках научного проекта № 18-412-040004. В большинстве случаев Алтай (в том числе Южный Алтай) русские и европейские путешественники сравнивали со Швейцарскими Альпами. В этом отно- шении путевой нарратив британского колониального офицера, охотника и знаменитого путешественника Майора Свейна сильно отличается: в его травелоге «Через высокогорья Сибири» (1904) очень часто Алтай и его жители сравниваются с Индией. В литературном отношении этот редкий текст совершенно не исследован, и как материал для конструирования метатекстуального и ориенталистского образа Алтая в русской и мировой литературе еще не привлекался. В этой статье делается попытка ввести книгу Свейна в научный оборот и доказать, что образ Алтая в начале XX века в глазах европейских путешественни- ков имел устойчивые ориенталистские коннотации. Ключевые слова: Индия, Алтай, Свейн, ориентализм, терра инкогнита, травелог. Major (later – Colonel) Harold George Carlos Swayne (1860-1940) was a British offcer, explorer, naturalist, and big game hunter. He served the Royal Engineers of the British army in India, furthermore, he did exploratory surveys in Africa for the British authorities and during the Great War, he served the Royal Engineers Labour Battalion in France and Flanders. Between 1898 and 1927 he made more than forty privately funded trips to Africa and Asia to complete collections, see new countries, and meet new tribes as the main goal [1, p. 119-120]. Throughout his travel to Altai Major Swayne doesn’t only provide us detailed travel information, he also observes and refects on what he sees. For example, the landscapes, houses, aborigines’ everyday life and it is not diffcult to notice that in most cases he creates these images to legitimize his superiority, identity, and values. In this article we will try to examine why unexplored, non-Western regions of Southern Siberia received such an incredible comparison with India and how can it be explained other than the obvious Indian experience of the author. First of all, it should be noted that the constant comparisons to India and the In- dian people in «Through the highlands of Siberia» (1904) are very signifcant. Major H.G.C. Swayne doesn’t only compare the «Siberian Highlands» he passes with the highland in India, during the book also the environment he notices and the people he meets are connected to the Indians. The frst two passages illustrate the landscape comparison, the third one deals with the housing and environment and the fourth concerns the people: «We passed through the same alpine country, generally skirting the river, and crossing handsome river-terraces of smooth alpine pasture between fne mountains, the slopes of the latter reminding me of the Sindh Valley of Kashmir» [2, p. 99]; «In one pass the new road, with its timber side-posts winding down through the forest, reminded me forcibly of Murree in the Himalayas» [2, p. 205]; «The hous- es are built of logs with large eaved roofs – they looked exactly like the houses Anglo-Indians erect in Kashmir» [2, p. 90]; «The Ispravnik was living in a large camp of clean felt “yurtas,” with a police escort and a large staff of Russians and Kalmuks, travelling comfortably in much the same style in which a deputy commissioner travels in India» [2, p. 99]. Thus, we will try to show that the semiotic basis of orientalization of Altai in Swayne’s travelogue was connected with his Indian experience. However, we must understand that in addition to directly Indian comparisons, the author uses the en- tire arsenal of orientalist imagination, inventing for the English readers accustomed to descriptions of India, Turkey, Arabia, and America, the native population of the Altai. Going deeper into orientalist descriptions of the peoples it’s important to mention the three most important groups of peoples he encounters during his travel and how they are perceived. The frst group is the Kalmuk people. In the eyes of Swayne, the Kalmuk people are not the smartest, he compares them to gypsies and although he thinks about the Altai people as pure, simple and not dangerous at all, he often talks about them in a quite denigrating way: «The peasants were patiently making the best of it under their carts, like gypsies, the children running about with their white feet bare» [2, p. 86]. It is not clear why exactly the peasants and their children are compared to gypsies, maybe it’s their Indian roots. Another interesting description of the Kalmuk horses with their masters, the «true children of the steppe» feeds the image of the people of these regions as wild, more in contact with nature than in the «civilised world» he comes from: «There were straight- backed Russian cattle – black, white, red, or piebald – grazing in very large herds, and some Kalmuk horses with their masters, true children of the steppe, galloping wildly round them» [2, p. 94]. In the following passage, he writes about an expedition for which they had to pass the Mongolian border, during that expedition they missed a fock of wild sheep because of the Kalmuks who followed him while he had obliged them to wait where they were left: «They had become nervous, being in a strange country, and had followed us for company’s sake so we made our way back to our idiotic Kalmuks» [2, p. 122]. The writer seems frustrated while telling this story. If it wasn’t for the «idiotic Kalmuks» [2, p. 123] who weren’t comfortable having passed the border, he would have had a trophy to bring home. It was because of their lack of experience and professionalism, he couldn’t. Of course for the author, this is proof that the Kalmuk people, unlike the traveler, haven’t been to other places than what they are used to. Even the smallest boundary they have to go through makes them uncomfortable and nervous. They rather stay in the places they are familiar with than to go on expeditions to another, for the author as well as for the Kalmuk people, an unknown country. He calls them stupid and he does it with so little empathy that this once more states his feeling of superiority towards the natives. In the last part of the book, the index where all important information for future travelers can be found, he once more remembers this incident: «If a man is left with them he becomes cold, lonely, and restless at your long absence, or he wants to get you back to camp so that he can «chai pit» (drink tea). Then he appears on the skyline of a hill just as you are taking your shot, and away goes the fock» [2, p. 240]. As this part of the book includes important information and tips for anyone inter- ested in visiting the region, it’s not very professional, and simultaneously ungrateful of our author to remember the people who were always at his service in such a way. The last thing he writes about them is an ironic memory of the unfortunate outcome of one of his expeditions after wild sheep. He once more describes the inexperience of the Kalmuk people, their unease of being away from home, and their only will, which is to drink tea. With such a generalization at the end of the book, their almost is no other way than that the reader draws negative conclusions from the Kalmuks. The second group to discuss are the Kirghiz people, who in the eyes of the author seem richer and far more intelligent than the Kalmuk people: «We had tea among the Kirghiz, who seem to be very rich people, and far more intelligent than the Kalmuks» [2, p. 194]. As the writer only has a few encounters with the Kirghiz (Kazakh) people and therefore the documentation on them is limited, it is unclear why exactly he was so sure