Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2021 number

The authors consider the chances of service “foreigners” who found themselves in Siberian exile after the end of the Time of Troubles. The article concentrates on the characteristics of the Siberian reality perception by this sociocultural community. The authors prove that the social adaptation and integration of the Polish nobleman P. Khmelevsky, the French nobleman S. Franzuzhenin, “Litvin” A. Bernadsky into the new habitat was a complex and distressing process. The reason was that this group differed from the general population in such parameters as the cultural code, religious beliefs and attitudes towards tsar’ administration. These persons were symbolic figures of this ambiguous, but really existing process. “Westerners” P. Khmelevsky and S. Frantsuzhenin neglected the political Siberian order, norms and rules of social behavior. This often led to conflict situations with the provincial authorities and the Orthodox priests. As a result, representatives of this group lost the new privileged status of a service man that they had acquired and correspondingly secure social position. Khmelevsky arrived at Tobolsk as an exiled “foreigner” and made a lot of efforts for his integration into the Russian society hierarchical system, achieving the considerable success. Thanks to his literacy, business qualities, military and managerial skills, he and other foreigners were soon awarded the highest category of service men, boyar sons. On the contrary, Bernadsky’s case demonstrated that there was a different type of behavior among this group. Bernadsky filed more than one petition in the name of the tsar, surrounded by non-peaceful peoples. He complained about his difficult situation and asked for the sovereign favor. In contrast to the aforementioned “foreigners” Khlynovsky and Frantsuzhenin, A. Bernadsky followed the principles operating in the Siberian community, and became “our own” as opposed to the “alien”. He did not change his confessional affiliation and attitude towards the voevodship, but as well adopted a tolerant attitude towards aboriginal ethnic groups. Such people assimilated the social order in Siberia. They followed the government guidelines and were loyal to the authorities. Such social habitat facilitated the successful identification and joining the Russian social-hierarchical system.