The Personal Library of Nil Sergeevich Lykoshin (1860–1922), the Military Governor of Samarkand Region

Abstract

The article deals with little-studied issues related to the formation and existence of Russian personal libraries in Turkestan region from the final third of the 19th to the early of 20th century. Its purpose is to identify the main characteristic features of the “Russian personal libraries” of the Turkestan region on the example of N.S. Lykoshin’s personal library. The main research methods are that of historical and book analysis and the modeling. The relevance of the study is due to the urgent need to fill the historiographical gap in the study of Russian personal libraries of the Turkestan region during the period under study. The article presents the biography of N.S. Lykoshin, as well as the history of formation, thematic content and the degree of study of his book collection. This practically unexplored aspect of Russian book culture is considered in a biographical context in order to determine how the range of interests of the owner influenced the main motives of book collecting and the thematic composition of the N.S. Lykoshin book collection. The paper draws conclusions about the importance of N.S. Lykoshin’s personal library as a valuable historical and cultural source for the study of Russian book culture in the region. It has the definite characteristic features peculiar to the Russian personal libraries of the Turkestan region: typology, thematic and specific composition of documents, features of the of publication design, etc.