Experience of reconstruction of family relationships among the nobility at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries (on the basis of the epistolary sources belonged to Professor Zhukovsky)

Nikitina Ol'ga Andreevna ORCID: 0000-0003-2377-0588 Researcher, Educational and Exposition Department staff; The Scientific Memorial Museum of Professor N. E. Zhukovsky; Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics 109029, Russia, Moscow, Talalikhina str., 1k2, sq. 115 nikitina@gmik.ru

There is a growing interest in anthropological research methods in the system of socio-humanitarian knowledge. The focus of scientists is shifting towards small social groups, everyday life, reconstruction of interpersonal interaction of small collectives and even individual families, reconstruction of the inner world and psychology of a particular person who sometimes lived several centuries ago. The microhistoric approach turns out to be the most productive if it is applied based on sources of personal origin, which record such aspects of people's lives that remain unaccounted for in statistical data and office documents — we are talking about emotions and experiences, informal connections, informal status and the influence of a particular person on a certain group of people. Such sources of personal origin include the epistolary legacy of the past — correspondence, letters.

The present study focuses on the personality and interpersonal relationships of Professor Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky (1847-1921), a mechanical scientist, the "father of Russian aviation". He was born during the time of serfdom, his studies and professional development took place during the post-reform period, he survived four Russian emperors, the overthrow of the monarchy. In his fate, life path and actions, one can see the contradictions of the turning point of the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, the influence of both old mental attitudes and prejudices, and liberal trends. It seems to us that the reconstruction of Professor Zhukovsky's daily family life, deepening into the psychology of his family and social group can be useful for studying the social history of Russia after the reform period, the mentality of the Russian nobility in general and the Moscow professorship in particular.

In this paper, we propose an analysis of the family relations of Professor N. E. Zhukovsky, first of all, his relationship with his illegitimate daughter, E. N. Zhukovskaya. Professor Zhukovsky had two illegitimate children: daughter Elena (1894-1920) and son Sergei (1900-1924). The relationship with the daughter was chosen for the study, since the analysis of both stock documents and the memories of relatives and acquaintances of the professor showed that to date, very few sources related to the professor's son have been preserved and they are not representative enough. The study of why there is not enough evidence of Zhukovsky's relationship with his son, in the future, may become a topic for a separate work.

Thus, the subject of our research is the relationship between Professor N. E. Zhukovsky and his illegitimate daughter E. N. Zhukovskaya. The study of these relationships includes the identification of features of interpersonal communications, issues of gender roles and the subsequent reconstruction of the daily life of the family in question. To do this, it is important to identify in the course of the study to what extent the specifics of the professor's family relationship with his daughter were influenced by such factors as class affiliation, social and professional status, financial situation, as well as traditions of the Russian mentality. Working within the framework of microhistoric and anthropological approaches, we focus our research on the inner world of Professor Zhukovsky in all the diversity of his feelings, emotions and relationships with his family members.

To begin with, let's consider the degree of study of the research field around the personality of Professor Zhukovsky. Back in the first half of the 20th century, several versions of slightly different biographies of the professor were published ^{[1, 2]}, mainly revealing him as a mechanical scientist. Fragmentary mentions of the professor's family in these biographical publications were descriptive in nature and almost completely duplicated the information contained in the memoirs of Professor Zhukovsky's niece E. A. Dombrovskaya, subsequently republished several times ^[3]. Among the publications in periodicals, there are also no analytical works on Professor Zhukovsky's family relations: for example, his scientific legacy repeatedly came into the focus of research ^{[4, 5, 6]}, his social ^[7] and pedagogical ^{[8, 9]} activities were considered. We also note the book published in the last decade, written by a descendant of the Zhukovsky family — E. R. Dombrovskaya (born 1945), dedicated to her pedigree ^[10]. However, this publication has a pronounced religious and artistic character and examines the history of this family from a religious point of view, which does not allow this book to be perceived as a scientific study, although the value of this publication as a source of family traditions of the Zhukovsky family is beyond doubt.

Separately, I would like to mention publications dedicated to Zhukovsky or considering his contribution to the development of science and technology, which have been published over the past three years ^{[11, 12, 13]}: this shows the unflagging interest in the personality of this outstanding scientist. It should be noted that in these recent works, in addition to reviewing the scientific activities of the professor, there are references to his family and parents, however, they are not the subject of research, fragmentary and based on well-known information.

Thus, we see that an independent analytical work, which would consider the case of Professor Zhukovsky's family and his relationship with his daughter as a reflection of the typical features of the changing noble society of the Russian Empire in the last third of the XIX century. — the first two decades of the XX century. has not yet appeared, and the available works reporting on the Zhukovsky family have been written in Soviet times, they are descriptive in nature.

The scientific novelty of this work is due, on the one hand, to the stock materials introduced into scientific circulation for the first time — personal letters and drafts of Professor Zhukovsky, and on the other — research optics and methodology at the junction with historical anthropology. Let's take a closer look at each of these statements.

In the archive of the Scientific Memorial Museum of Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (hereinafter referred to as museum funds), the nominal manuscript and documentary fund of the professor has 1,225 items of storage, among which are manuscripts of his works, various documents, correspondence with colleagues, scientists and just with loved ones, photographs. Text documents are usually written in ink or typed, but with the professor's signature. Both originals and copies are found among the documents, but the epistolary corpus is presented in the original. The archival units of this personal fund after the death of the professor were transferred to it for safekeeping by his relatives and students, private individuals and organizations ^{[14, p. 101]}.

The source base of this research mainly includes archival materials stored in museum collections, many of which have not been previously published. First of all, we are talking about letters. In the structure of Professor Zhukovsky's personal fund, his epistolary legacy is classified into six sections, totaling 580 letters in 180 storage units. Of these, 230 letters relate to Zhukovsky's correspondence with relatives: 190 letters written by Zhukovsky and 39 letters that were sent to him by relatives. The source for this study is primarily the professor's correspondence with relatives, but occasionally we will also involve letters to other persons if they contain important references to the family. As we will see later, many of these sources are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time: individual family letters and their fragments were placed in the book of memoirs of Professor Zhukovsky's niece E. A. Dombrovskaya ^[3], however, the complete corpus of Zhukovsky's epistolary heritage has not yet been published and is kept in museum collections. The notes, postscript and draft letters stored in this archive are also valuable — they have also never been published before.

The auxiliary sources of the proposed research are memoirs and memoirs of persons associated with Professor Zhukovsky and his daughter: these are the memoirs of Zhukovsky's niece E. A. Dombrovskaya (nee — Mikulina) ^[3], who was personally acquainted with his family, family legends from the book of her granddaughter and namesake E. R. Dombrovskaya ^[10], who is Zhukovsky's great-grandniece, memoirs of E. P. Faidysh ^[15], married — Turmanina, gymnasium friends of Zhukovsky's daughter, as well as the memoirs of Professor Zhukovsky's students, some of which have not yet been published and are kept in museum collections ^[16].

The theoretical and methodological aspect of the work is closely related to the specifics of the selected sources. Before offering a characterization of letters as historical sources, it seems appropriate to consider the whole category of ego documents. Ego documents are a generalizing concept that is applicable to the designation of letters, memoirs and diaries and which is practically identical to the concept of sources of personal origin ^{[17, p. 8]}; ^{[18, p. 101-102]}. In our case, it should also be taken into account that the epistolary genre for the 19th century was the main means of communication for the educated part of the population, which increases its representativeness for studies of the history of this period.

Sources of personal origin are more subjective than formal office documents, however, for the study of family relations, the specifics of the interaction of the author of letters with addressees, deep experiences of a historical personality, such sources are indispensable, and their subjectivity can be perceived rather as a plus. Due to the subjectivity of the author of a diary or letter, we can identify and evaluate the peculiarities of this author's perception of the surrounding reality and relationships with other people, as well as analyze interpersonal communications if we study family relations ^{[19, p. 6]}. Given that we have a whole collection of personal letters from Professor Zhukovsky, it seems to us that these letters will reveal his personality to us more accurately than the biographies about him compiled more than half a century ago.

The main difference between a letter from other types of sources of personal origin is its dialogic nature, counting on the recipient's reaction, this is communication to another person. The presence of the recipient of the letter is mandatory. The letter is "reactive", i.e. it is a reaction and response to the recipient's previous messages, if we are talking about correspondence. It is always a dialogue, a conversation with another person, and the letter is influenced in one way or another by the specifics of who it is written for ^{[20, p. 47]}.

Correspondence begins to play a major role in communication when the correspondents are in different cities, or one of them is away. It is in this category that Professor Zhukovsky's correspondence with relatives belongs: he lived in Moscow, and they were in the Vladimir province, or they were in other places on duty. In addition, Zhukovsky sent many letters to relatives while on business trips. Zhukovsky's correspondence with his relatives was conducted exclusively by hand.

According to the classification of E. I. Prokhorov, letters are divided into three categories: critical-journalistic or literary-artistic letters-works intended for subsequent publication and publication, official business letters and private letters accumulating acts of personal communication, in other words, personal correspondence ^{[21, pp. 18-19]}. The letters of Professor N. E. Zhukovsky and his inner circle, which are at the center of this study, should obviously be attributed to the third group.

Taking into account the fact that this study differs in that its main source is the letters of Professor Zhukovsky, it is advisable to note that in recent years scientific works based on the analysis of correspondence of historical figures ^[22], reconstruction of family relationships based on personal letters ^[23], including family letters of professors of mathematics, continue to appear, who were contemporaries of Professor Zhukovsky ^[24]. The appearance of such works testifies to the relevance of the applied approach and the direction of research activity.

As part of the research, the main special method when working with the texts of letters was content analysis, which allowed both to identify functional elements of the content and to identify patterns. In addition, we turned to the method of analyzing problem situations. At the same time, the case of Professor Zhukovsky's family was considered in the context and in inextricable connection with the social and class history of the said period.

In order to begin to consider the case of Professor Zhukovsky and his daughter, it is necessary to briefly describe the origin of the professor, his parental family and the relationship with the woman who gave birth to his daughter. We will deliberately do this rather concisely, since the analysis of the love drama of the professor and his parental family goes beyond the scope of the subject of this study.

Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky was born on January 17 (5th art.), 1847 in the Orekhovo estate of the Vladimir province in a family of hereditary nobles ^{[25, pp. 10-11]}; ^{[26, pp. 10-12]}. His father, Yegor Ivanovich, was often absent from his native estate on duty, which was one of the reasons that even before Yegor Ivanovich's death in 1883, Zhukovsky's mother, Anna Nikolaevna Zhukovskaya, nee Stechkina, became the head of the family. She was a domineering woman of strict rules and traditions ^{[10, p. 182]}. For more than sixty years, son Nikolai was under her full care, having no independence in his native home ^{[25, p. 32]}.

Officially, Professor Zhukovsky was never married, but in 1890, a peasant servant Nadezhda appeared in the Zhukovsky house, who was 23 years younger than the professor. Due to the fact that the professor got together with the servants, his domineering mother arranged her marriage with the conductor of the horse-drawn carriage Alexei Antipov, however, Nadezhda soon achieved separation from her husband, returned to Zhukovsky and became his concubine ^{[1, p. 30]}; ^{[10, p. 127-128]}; ^{[3, p. 111-112]}. Nevertheless, they never officially married: already at this stage, Professor Zhukovsky's dependence on the position of an extremely conservative and religious mother became apparent.

On May 20, 1894, Professor Zhukovsky and Nadezhda had a daughter, who was given the name Elena ^{[25, p. 34]}. Lena became the first child of Nikolai Egorovich, who was already 47 years old at the time. Legally, Lena was considered the daughter of Nadezhda's husband, Alexei Antipov. It was under the surname "Antipova" that the girl was recorded in all the main documents. Zhukovsky's mother forbade him to recognize the illegitimate child as his own ^{[3, p. 116]}. "The girl grew up unrecognized, remaining Antipova all her high school years, although she lived with her father and grandmother" ^{[10, p. 129]}, Ekaterina Romanovna Dombrovskaya, a relative of the Zhukovskys, writes about Lena's childhood. Officially, the professor and his daughter were not considered relatives ^{[27, p. 111]}.

Nevertheless, Zhukovsky's mother, Anna Nikolaevna, communicated with her illegitimate granddaughter. She taught her reading and numeracy ^{[3, p. 116]}, as well as French, and was very affectionate with her at times. Lena's friend, with whom she later studied at the gymnasium, noted in her memoirs that Lena read only what her grandmother, Anna Nikolaevna, approved of ^[15]. In the same memoirs, it is noted that Lena formed a very loud voice due to communication with her grandmother: she used to talk loudly with Anna Nikolaevna because of the deafness of the old noblewoman, and habitually answered in the same way in the classroom and during her years of study at the gymnasium. According to some evidence, studying at the gymnasium Lena was also offered by Anna Nikolaevna ^{[28, p. 95]}.

However, she also had mood swings and attitudes towards the child: Anna Nikolaevna rarely let Lena into her rooms, ordered her, as if she were a maid, to call the master (that is, Professor Zhukovsky) to dinner, in letters she wrote "Nadia with the girl", without specifying in any way that it was about her own granddaughter, then condescended to "Nadia and Lena kiss your hands" ^{[10, pp. 129, 148-149]}. Despite living together with the child, Anna Nikolaevna prevented the official recognition of the girl as part of the family and did not allow Lena to call Zhukovsky her father ^{[26, p. 16]}. Lena was more like the "sweet daughter of Nadia's maid" for her, but not the native granddaughter of blue bloods. Thus, despite the external severity, in the sources we see the presence of polite contact between the matriarch of the Zhukovsky family and unofficial members of the professor's family, however, there was no formal recognition of them as full-fledged and full-fledged Zhukovsky from Anna Nikolaevna.

In letters that are kept in museum collections, Anna Nikolaevna in 1901-1906 repeatedly calls Nikolai Egorovich's daughter "Lenka" ^{[29, 30]}. This was not necessarily disparaging, since the address "Lenka" is also found in letters from other relatives who were friends with Lena. For example, in 1906, Zhukovsky's niece Vera Alexandrovna, who was 9 years older than Lena, informed her uncle about his 12-year-old daughter: "Lenka is healthy and we are all in good shape. I kiss you hard" ^[31].

6 years after the birth of their daughter, Zhukovsky and Nadezhda had a boy, who was named Sergei, but the woman could no longer feed him for health reasons and sent him to her sister in the village ^{[3, pp. 134, 138]}. In 1904, Nadezhda died of tuberculosis at the age of 34 ^{[3, p. 145]}; ^[16]. Tuberculosis claimed more victims then than wars, and disabled even strong men ^{[32, p. 26]}. In the same year, Zhukovsky and his 10-year-old daughter moved to a new address in Moscow.

It is advisable to consider how the illegitimate daughter of Professor Zhukovsky was integrated into the circle of his numerous relatives, and whether they accepted her as "their own". We have already discussed the position of the professor's mother above, but besides her, there were other representatives of the noble class in the family. To answer this question, let's turn again to the epistolary legacy of the Zhukovsky family. To begin with, let's consider how Lena was treated by the youngest daughter of Vera, Nikolai Egorovich's sister, Ekaterina Alexandrovna Mikulina, married to Dombrovskaya. Katya and Lena were friends in their youth, despite the age difference — Katya was 8 years older than Lena ^{[3, p. 175]}. Their warm relationship can be judged by the letters that the girls sent to each other. For example, a detailed letter from Lena herself, sent to Catherine in honor of her name day, has been preserved. "What a shame that we left the village so soon, it's very good for you," Lena writes. — And from a distance it seems even better in the village. We have everything too. Everyone has already visited, greeted us as if we had been away for a whole year" ^[33]. In the same letter, Lena informs about the health of Professor Zhukovsky. The following fragment of the letter, written by Lena with a certain sense of humor, deserves special attention: "What a shame that I stole my aunt's shoes, I would love to melt them back, but since I have only one shoe, I don't know what to do. Advise me" ^[33]. And Nikolai Egorovich, sending letters to Catherine, informed her of Lena's requests to convey congratulations from her ^[34].

In turn, the letters that Ekaterina wrote to Lena and Nikolai Egorovich have been preserved. Five letters of Catherine to her father and daughter Zhukovsky are kept in museum collections ^[35]. The phrases addressed to Lena are filled with tenderness. "Dear Lenochka, please write to me the day when the anniversary of the uncle will be celebrated, I will come to this day," Katya writes. It is also noticeable how much Katya was waiting for letters from Lena. "I'm looking forward to a letter from Lenochka, you, darling, don't be lazy to write to me — four pages are not required, but at least a few words." Or, for example, in another letter: "Lenochka, darling, don't be lazy, write to me more often." She is also interested in what is happening in Lena's life: "Write down what topic to compose for the holidays" or "Lena, which plays will you go to the theater for?".

In the summer, Lena was taken to Orekhovo, or she stayed with her maternal aunt. During Lena's studies at the gymnasium, this circumstance is mentioned in letters from Zhukovsky to his daughter and sister Vera Egorovna. So, in 1911, the professor wrote to his sister that his daughter might not be in a hurry to return to Moscow, since "on the occasion of repairs at the Vinogradskaya gymnasium, a prayer service is scheduled for August 25, and classes will start on August 26" ^[36]. The letter to Lena is more gentle: "Dear Lenochka! I went to your gymnasium, and there I was informed that the prayer service would be on August 25, and studies would begin on August 26."^[36] Then the professor informs his daughter that, in this regard, Lena can spend longer time in the village. He asks his daughter to write a letter home.

The professor's letters to relatives quite often contain references to Lena, which suggests that the news about his daughter was one of the typical topics for discussion in his correspondence with family members. So, in the winter of 1909, he told in a letter to his niece Vera about a small everyday episode related to the 14-year-old Lena: "When I arrived yesterday from Technical School and lectures, Lena met me, jumping a yard off the floor, and immediately announced the good news" ^[37]. However, Zhukovsky did not specify what news she announced in the letter, but he wrote to his niece about his daughter's plans to visit Glukhovskaya church.

The letters written by Lena herself also show respect and warmth towards her paternal relatives. "Everything would have been fine with us if Auntie hadn't got sick with her stomach, so much so that she had to go to bed" ^[38], Lena wrote to her father in 1915 about the illness of his sister Vera Egorovna. In turn, when Lena became very ill in 1920 and fell ill, her cousin Vera Alexandrovna, the daughter of the same Vera Egorovna, began to take care of her ^{[10, p. 644]}. She and the aforementioned Katya subsequently handled Lena's funeral.

Thus, we see that there were no differences and obstacles to communication between Lena and the "official" children from the Zhukovsky family, between her and her cousins and aunt at the informal level. A similar situation was observed not only with relatives, but also with colleagues and acquaintances of the professor. Even while her daughter was studying at the gymnasium, Zhukovsky introduced her into his social circle, so that she spent her free time with her father's friends. According to Zhukovsky's correspondence with his family, his daughter Lena was a welcome guest at home with his friends the Belkins ^[39]. She was also familiar with the profession. On December 24, 1915, Professor Zhukovsky wrote another professor of mechanics, E. A. Bolotov, a letter in which he congratulated his colleague on the feast of the Nativity of Christ and added: "Lenochka sends you a bow and congratulations on the holiday" ^[40].

Now let's look at how the process of adopting Zhukovsky's children took place, and what obstacles the professor could face. Let's turn to the legislative framework of the aforementioned historical period. Three years before Lena was born, Emperor Alexander III allowed illegitimate children to be recognized as legitimate on condition that the parents marry, however, for Professor Zhukovsky, as we can see, this path did not work: children whose parents could not get married due to, for example, death could not acquire legal status ^{[41, p. 40]}.

Illegitimate children of nobles were deprived of certain class rights for a long period of time, but this did not prevent their parents from giving them a good education, which can be seen in the example of Professor Zhukovsky's daughter. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the private Vinogradskaya women's gymnasium was considered the best in Moscow ^[15]. For the girl's admission, her parents had to write a personal statement and attach her birth certificate. After passing the exams and obtaining a certificate, the girls became teachers at home or could teach in elementary schools.

At the same time, at the beginning of the 20th century, the next stage of liberalization of Russian legislation in relation to illegitimate children of nobles was marked. In 1902, children born out of wedlock received the right not only to bear their father's surname, but also to inherit his property ^{[42, p. 254]}. They could be officially adopted, and the procedure for this was simplified. At the same time, the children of hereditary nobles acquired personal honorary nobility ^{[41, p. 40]}. The status of illegitimate children has been replaced by the status of illegitimate children. However, Zhukovsky has not been involved in the preparation of such documents for ten years. Next, we will see for what reason.

Lena's studies at the Vinogradsky Gymnasium began in 1903 after she successfully graduated from elementary parish school. The receipt of the next "five" of the child was immediately reported to Nikolai Egorovich ^{[27, p. 114]}. In 1909, Evgenia Faydysh, who later became a close friend of Lena, began studying at the gymnasium. In her diary, two weeks after starting her studies at the gymnasium, Zhenya left an entry about Lena, noting that Lena Antipova (not yet Zhukovskaya, as we see) is the first student of the class, an excellent student ^[15]. In 1911, Lena successfully passed the final exams at the gymnasium and received a certificate ^{[3, p. 187]}. In the graduation album, she was still signed as "Antipova" ^[15].

After graduating from the gymnasium, Lena continued her education at the mathematics department of the Moscow Higher Women's Courses. Before that, Professor Zhukovsky wrote to his student and friend S. A. Chaplygin, director of the Moscow Higher Women's Courses, that Lena had every chance to enroll in this educational institution. Drafts of this letter have been preserved in museum collections. "Dear Sergey Alekseevich, — Professor Zhukovsky began to draw up his draft, — In the spring, Lenochka applied for courses in the mathematics department. She gets 5.5 points and, probably, she can be accepted without difficulty" ^[43]. Then he begins to write about Lena's documents related to her adoption, but does not complete the draft.

On April 17, 1912, Zhukovsky's mother died at the age of 95 ^{[26, p. 13]}. Now Nikolai Egorovich was finally able to legally adopt his own children and give them his last name. Elena Antipova became Elena Zhukovskaya. We have already established that, according to the law, the professor could have applied for adoption ten years earlier. But we also see that the professor had thoughts about adopting Lena even before his mother's death, judging by the draft letter to S. A. Chaplygin. Unfortunately, after the phrase "The paper on her adoption in ..." ^[43] Zhukovsky leaves the letter unfinished, and in this form the draft has been preserved in the museum archive.

The funds of the Scientific Memorial Museum of Professor N. E. Zhukovsky contain Lena's subject (credit) book from the period of her studies at Higher Women's Courses. On the title page it is noted that the book belongs to Elena Nikolaevna Zhukovskaya, a student of the mathematical department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Moscow Higher Women's Courses, who graduated from the course at the Moscow private women's Gymnasium of Mrs. Vinogradskaya. The subject book No. 86/12 was issued to Elena on September 18, 1912 and signed by the dean of the faculty V. F. Davydovsky ^[44]. Thus, just a few months after the death of her aristocratic grandmother, the girl was already officially Zhukovskaya.

And what about Elena Nikolaevna's noble status? Let's turn to the sources. In 1911, when Lena graduated from the Vinogradsky Gymnasium, at the age of 17, her friend Evgenia Faidysh, already mentioned above, married a 19-year-old student Nikolai Golyshev, and two years later gave birth to a daughter, Lucy. In the Central State Archive of Moscow there is a metric book for 1913, where there is a record of the baptism of the girl Lyudmila, daughter of Nikolai Golyshev and his wife Evgenia, born on February 11 and baptized on February 22, 1913. The adoptive parents, that is, the godparents of the girl are a student of the school of painting, sculpture and architecture Peter Petrovich Faidysh, brother of Evgenia, and the noblewoman Elena Nikolaevna Zhukovskaya ^{[45, l. 9]}.

So, we see that as of 1912 — the year of the death of the professor's mother — Lena was officially adopted by Zhukovsky, received her patronymic and surname from him and became a noblewoman. At first, Zhukovsky registered paternity over his daughter and only a few years later — over his son. The museum funds contain Zhukovsky's petition dated February 28, 1916, that he be given a copy of the act of adoption of Elena, since such a document was necessary for him to submit to the district court when applying for the adoption of her brother Sergei, who in this note by Zhukovsky is mentioned under his birth name — Sergei Alekseevich Antipov, then as Elena is already called Nikolaevna and under the surname of a professor ^[46].

So, we see that at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, illegitimate children of nobles were accepted by society, had a connection with their parents, and successfully integrated not only into their noble family, but also into noble society. Legislatively, liberalization was also planned in cases related to adoption, since it no longer made any sense to artificially divide children into legitimate and illegal: after the abolition of serfdom, the difference in status between the parents of such children was no longer so pronounced ^{[41, p. 41]}. But using the example of Professor Zhukovsky's family, we see how strong traditions and prejudices could sometimes be, and all this at the same time that legislative obstacles to adoption were no longer considered a problem.

Let's now consider interpersonal communication directly between father and daughter. Despite the fact that Lena's other father was originally recorded in the documents, Nikolai Egorovich has been striving to communicate with the girl since childhood. Spending time with a child caused the professor to tremble, and, unfortunately, he could not always cope with the worries due to the fact that he could not officially be considered and listed as her father - Professor E. A. Dombrovskaya's niece noted that at that time Zhukovsky became distracted, withdrawn, could even forget how the name of someone he knows ^{[3, p. 116]}.

As we have already noted above, Zhukovsky's mother forbade his illegitimate children to address him as a father. A letter from 12-year-old Lena, written to her father, a professor, has been preserved in museum collections. In a letter dated June 20, 1906, the girl addresses her father "Master!", tells news about life in the village of Orekhovo, what relatives are doing and what the hot weather is like. She also mentions her brother Sergei, who was 6 years old at the time. "Seryozha and I are studying, we bow to you and the lady," ^[38] Lena concludes her letter. She called Professor Zhukovsky's mother a lady in her letters ^{[10, p. 129]}.

Lena, according to the memoirs of her high school friend Evgenia Faidysh, called Zhukovsky "uncle" ^[15]. We see the same thing in the letters. "The uncle is feeling well," ^[33] Lena wrote in one of the letters to her cousin Ekaterina Mikulina. She, who had not been able to call Zhukovsky her father since childhood, even in adulthood habitually called him "uncle", and also used the warm personal address "native". She used the same word for him in letters addressed to other people ^{[3, p. 198]}. Lena called the professor "native" and in later letters, for example, in 1919 ^[47] One can see all the tenderness in Lena's attitude towards her father ^{[27, p. 111]}.

For example, in one of the letters from Orekhovo in 1915, where Lena spent her summer holidays, the girl writes: "My dear uncle, the warm weather has finally arrived, today is the first hot day" ^[38]. She describes in detail what events are taking place in Orekhovo and asks to bring mineral water for a sick aunt. "I feel great and have already managed to get so tanned that I look like a Negro," Zhukovskaya ironically remarks. "Uncle, remember also about the priests," Lena adds in the letter and asks to bring something to eat for the monks.

Later correspondence between Nikolai Egorovich and his daughter has also been preserved in museum collections. In the spring of 1917, after the February Revolution, Nikolai Egorovich wrote his daughter news about his son Seryozha ^[48]. The father's appeals to his daughter are very touching. "Dear Lena," Nikolai Egorovich began one of his letters, and ended it with the words: "Your N. Zhukovsky" ^[49].

Zhukovsky and Lena spent a lot of time together, loved evening walks together ^{[27, p. 111]}. They loved going to the theater, exhibitions and lectures. About the theater, for example, E. A. Mikulina wrote in letters to Zhukovsky's father and daughter: "We are thinking of going to the theater several times," she reflected in one of the letters to Nikolai Egorovich. "You, uncle, will probably go with Lena too." And Lena was asked in the same letter about which plays they plan to watch ^[35].

Zhukovsky's student V. P. Vetchinkin recalled the joint walks of father and daughter. The professor's closest students sometimes joined the walks. Vetchinkin noted that at the end of Zhukovsky's life, "such walks became rarer and rarer, and were replaced by visits to the cinema — mostly adventure films" ^[16]. Zhukovsky took his daughter and other relatives to the cinema ^{[10, p. 515]}. As A. A. Arkhangelsky recalled, the Colosseum Theater was located not far from the house where Zhukovsky lived with his daughter. The professor's daughter called there to book places for her father and his escort to watch films ^{[26, p. 236]}.

Lena's letter, sent to Nikolai Egorovich in 1915 from Orekhovo, where she was vacationing, is kept in museum collections. In it, she mentions Vetchinkin, and it becomes clear that she regularly interacted with the student youth who surrounded her father, in particular, corresponded with these students. "I am very grateful to Vladimir Petrovich for his letter about how everything is in Moscow,— Lena writes. — Give him my regards" ^[38]. Vetchinkin was mentioned in other epistolary sources. "This letter will be given to you by V. P. Vetchinkin" ^[49], the professor wrote in one of his letters to his daughter.

Lena's spouse was also one of Professor Zhukovsky's students. On October 19, 1919, the professor's daughter married B. N. Yuryev ^{[27, p. 112]}, a nobleman who was several years older than her ^[50]. It is noteworthy that they began to live in Lena's father's house — in her own maiden room, which was located next to Professor Zhukovsky's office ^{[3, p. 213]}. After marriage, Lena began signing letters with her husband's last name — "Elena Yurieva" ^[47].

We have analyzed the formal status of Zhukovsky's daughter by analyzing the history of her adoption and her education. Now let's pay attention to the informal status. We remember that his mother, Anna Nikolaevna, was at the head of the professor's multigenerational family: she was the hostess, the matriarch of their family. After her death, the functions of the main stewardess of the house, with the permission of Professor Zhukovsky, passed to his daughter: now she has received the status of an informal hostess of the professor's house. In the last years of Anna Nikolaevna's life, Zhukovsky's family lived in the following composition: Zhukovsky, his mother, his daughter, as well as two housekeepers — housekeeper Petrovna and maid Katya. Anna Nikolaevna herself ran the household until her old age, retaining her informal status, but she was already more than ninety years old at that time, so the main person, according to her memoirs, was Petrovna ^[16] (Praskovya Petrovna Kuznetsova ^{[10, p. 155]}). Information about Lena's participation and assistance in the household during the years of her grandmother's life is completely missing.

Sources allow us to conclude that Lena, who was about to turn 18, achieved this honorary informal status of the hostess of the house not because of her strong-willed qualities or achievements: this status was assigned to her by her father ^[16], and she had to learn to conform to it, and two housekeepers had to help her. This is evidenced by a letter that Lena wrote to her cousin at that time. In it, she reported that she was now "terribly important": she had a thick notebook especially for farming ^{[3, p. 195]}. About her success as a housekeeper, she noticed that she tried to cook dinner with Petrovna, but cut her hand badly. Subsequently, Lena still managed to become a good hostess. She took great care of her father, who was practically not adapted to everyday life, and created conditions for a comfortable life for him ^{[27, p. 114]}; ^{[25, p. 32]}. As the designer V. L. Alexandrov recalled, Lena was considered the mistress of the professor's house ^{[25, pp. 196-197]}. Lena's birthday has become one of the main and traditional holidays in the house. Zhukovsky's students helped the professor's daughter prepare for the celebration, since she herself and her two housekeeper assistants would not have had the time or energy for such work ^[16].

Thus, thanks to the decisions of Professor Zhukovsky, after the death of his mother, Lena received not only official recognition according to documents, but was also placed on that hierarchical level of the informal patron of the house, which previously belonged to the matriarch Anna Nikolaevna. We also see that, unlike Anna Nikolaevna, Lena initially did not correspond in her qualities and skills to the informal status that her father attributed to her. Judging by the letters, while Anna Nikolaevna was alive, Lena's candidacy was not taken seriously regarding the position of the new mistress of the house, there was no training in household affairs. We also note the gender aspect: the status of the informal manager of the house in which Professor Zhukovsky lived, after the death of his mother, was again given to a woman. Having lost the pressure of his mother, he, who was previously independent, did not take on the role of sole proprietor at least in his own house, and transferred this responsibility to another person — again a woman, and an inexperienced one.

Further, it seems important to note that the professor's daughter was not just his close friend, but also an assistant in his scientific activities. She studied at the Higher Women's Courses in the mathematics department and was aware of the topics her father was working on. Elena Nikolaevna's studies, however, were not stable — the subject book says that she went on academic leave, there were long absences between semesters, and in the spring of 1919 Lena still continued her studies at women's courses ^{[3, p. 212]}. Zhukovsky's daughter also did not have independent scientific papers, as well as works co-authored with her father.

Nevertheless, there is evidence that Zhukovsky attracted Lena to his scientific activities. In particular, he took his daughter with him to the XIII Congress of Naturalists and doctors, which was held in Tiflis in 1913 — Zhukovsky wrote about this in a letter to his niece Vera ^[51].

This was not the only case. The museum collections contain photographs depicting Zhukovsky and his daughter in 1916 near the wind tunnel of Moscow University next to Professor N. N. Buchholz ^[52]. The professor's daughter was repeatedly present on Zhukovsky's business trips, at scientific meetings, when he visited laboratories and even airfields ^[15]. The professor even allowed his daughter to conduct classes for her students, leaving them in her care. She also helped the professor prepare task conditions cards for students of the technical school where he worked: I copied them in a more accurate handwriting ^{[8, p. 369]}. Thus, she helped her father in his teaching activities.

Designer V. L. Alexandrov recalled that Zhukovsky brought Lena to their aerodynamic laboratory, and also instructed her to give his students or colleagues the materials they needed for research when the professor himself was not at home ^{[25, pp. 196-197]}. Zhukovsky's student Vetchinkin recalled that his teacher sometimes woke up later than usual, and "then Elena Nikolaevna received visitors, who endeared everyone to herself with her friendliness and intelligent, interesting conversation devoid of any banality and mundanity" ^[16]. Thus, we see another confirmation of the professor's recognition of gender equality — he encouraged his daughter's education and her pursuit of science.

Now let's pay attention to another issue that could affect the relationship between Zhukovsky and his daughter: we are talking about the state of Elena's health. The professor was forced to live in fear for his daughter's health, because her mother had passed on weak lungs and a predisposition to tuberculosis, which was revealed quite early during a medical examination. The girl was treated, but she fell ill again ^{[26, p. 62]}. The topic of the daughter's health occupies a very significant place in the epistolary legacy of Zhukovsky and his relatives. It seems appropriate to pay attention to this, because, in our opinion, constant anxiety and fear of losing a daughter could leave an imprint on the nature of their relationship, influence an even greater rapprochement between father and daughter, explain Zhukovsky's patronizing attitude towards Elena and why even about an adult daughter, who has long been of age, he continued to write as about a fragile little child.

So, even during her years at the gymnasium, the professor's daughter had health problems: at the age of 12, she fell ill with chickenpox. Zhukovsky's letter to his niece Ekaterina Mikulina dated November 22, 1906 has been preserved. "Lenochka has also fallen ill," Zhukovsky wrote, "She has chickenpox, which is now drying up, and Lenochka feels very well now" ^[34]. Two weeks later, Nikolai Egorovich wrote to his sister Vera: "Lenochka has completely recovered from smallpox. The doctor says that in the next quarter she can be released to the gymnasium" ^[53].

Since his daughter had poor health since childhood, Nikolai Egorovich periodically showed her to the best doctors. The child was advised to monitor his health, not to catch a cold and not to get tired — take care of yourself. This made her father worry about her even more, sometimes even in the most ordinary situations. So, according to the memoirs of the professor's niece, Zhukovsky completely lost his mind when he found out that Lena was knocked down on the street by some boy, and she broke her lip. The professor was unable to get to work that day and sat next to his daughter while she was sleeping ^{[3, pp. 151-152]}.

In the spring of 1913, Zhukovsky went abroad with his daughter to show her to European doctors. As for the verdict of doctors regarding Lena's health, Nikolai Egorovich wrote in letters that the girl's lungs and heart, in their opinion, are fine, but she is characterized by general weakness. The girl was prescribed medications and prescribed a regimen ^[54]. "It will be necessary to protect Lenochka, who has recovered somewhat during the trip," the professor wrote to his niece Vera Alexandrovna on April 30, 1913 from Frankfurt am Main, where he took his daughter ^[51].

Zhukovsky's student Vetchinkin, in his memoirs stored in museum collections, wrote about how his daughter supported Nikolai Egorovich during wartime, when, under the influence of overly strenuous work, the professor weakened and could no longer feel comfortable while traveling in trams and with the help of cabs: during this period, the daughter tried not to let the professor go alone evenings. Zhukovsky's students accompanied their teacher to meetings of various scientific societies, because Lena "was too weak to support him on a slippery road or put him in a cramped tram" ^[16].

In one of the letters to a relative of M. A. Mikulina, Professor Zhukovsky wrote about his plans to go with Lena for the summer of 1919 to the Ilyinskoye sanatorium. Behind the letter there is a postscript by Lena herself, where she informs that her father "has now almost recovered, and we are probably leaving on Monday after him to the sanatorium" ^[47].

The Civil War and difficult living conditions in Moscow in 1918-1920 undermined the health of the professor and his daughter even more. By the beginning of 1920, Lena was ill again: She had a high fever and was weak. In February 1920, the professor himself fell ill with pneumonia ^{[1, p. 82]}, whose daughter, despite her own health problems, took care of her father. As a result, Professor Zhukovsky began to recover, and Lena, on the contrary, fell ill forever ^{[26, pp. 62-63]}. Due to the deterioration of Lena's health, a consultation on her health was convened, which was attended by experienced and very well-known doctors. Lena was diagnosed with progressive tuberculosis.

It was decided to take Lena to the sanatorium "High Mountains". It was believed that three to four months of treatment in sanatoriums could seriously affect the patient's condition and restore his ability to work ^{[32, pp. 23-25]}. On May 15, 1920, Nikolai Egorovich could not sleep, suffered from insomnia and was able to fall asleep only in the morning thanks to sleeping pills. Lena was already dead by that time, but the professor had not yet been informed — they did not know if he would be able to survive this news. He found out about her death only the next day — May 16 ^{[3, pp. 214-215]}. The museum funds have the following information about Lena's illness in one of the letters stored there: "Her constant tuberculosis process turned into an acute form, which ended in tuberculous meningitis, which is why she died" ^[55]. Elena did not have time to have her own children. Taking into account the fact that the date of the girl's death is already indicated according to the Gregorian calendar, it turns out that she did not live two weeks before her 26th birthday, and her husband was then 30 years old ^{[25, p. 34]}.

Elena's funeral was attended by Zhukovsky's students and his nieces, cousins of the deceased. The necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery was chosen for the burial of the girl ^{[10, p. 96]}. According to his memoirs, at his daughter's funeral, Professor Zhukovsky cried over her coffin ^{[26, p. 63]}. Condolences on the death of his daughter were expressed to Professor Zhukovsky not only by relatives, but also by organizations with which the professor collaborated, in particular, the Council of the Moscow Higher Technical School ^[56].

Among Zhukovsky's letters to M. A. Mikulina, there is one letter from 1920, written after Lena's death and funeral. The letter contains a postscript from Vera's niece, who was with him at the Usovo sanatorium, in which the professor's condition after the tragedy is revealed. "Nikolai Egorovich has endured this grief relatively well so far, because his heart has withstood and his nerves too," Vera Alexandrovna writes, "but I don't know what will happen next, of course, science is a huge help to him, and it, of course, comforts him in everything, but I am not very calm about his health." ^[55]. Vera writes that they were at Lena's funeral. "It's all very hard," ^[55] she concludes.

Zhukovsky, despite the opportunity to distract himself with his favorite science, was extremely worried about the death of his daughter. He walked around the fields, not finding a place for himself ^{[25, p. 33]}. The severity of his condition can be judged by his letters. "My dear Lenochka has passed away," Nikolai Egorovich wrote in a letter to M. A. Mikulina. "The whole joy of my life was connected with her."^[55] Soon he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage ^{[57, p. 94]}. He lived less than a year since then and died of the effects of a stroke in the sanatorium Usovo on March 17, 1921 at the age of 74 ^{[25, p. 33]}. "Having lost his beloved daughter Elena Nikolaevna, Nikolai Egorovich himself fell ill with grief and died a few months later" ^[16], wrote his pupil Vetchinkin. In the memoirs of G. A. Amiryants, the opinion is also expressed that the death of his daughter was the cause of the subsequent imminent death of the professor himself. He mentions that Zhukovsky's closest students even emotionally accused Lena's husband, Yuryev, that he did not protect her, and because of this they all lost their beloved teacher ^{[58, p. 158]}.

Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky was buried next to Lena. Grave grave granite slab is located to the left of the grave of the "native" ^{[59, p. 228, 288]}. On the right, three years after the professor's death, the grave of his son Sergei appeared, who died suddenly of peritonitis ^{[57, p. 98]}.

As a result of the work carried out, we came to the conclusion that epistolary materials as sources for the reconstruction of family relationships have fully justified themselves. Such sources allow us to restore those aspects of interpersonal communications and personal aspects of correspondents that remain hidden in the official document flow. Thus, epistolary sources indicate a typical range of topics and issues for discussion for the studied persons, shows the tone, style of writing, forms of appeals to each other — formal and informal.

It seems to us that despite the fact that both in the letters studied and in the memoirs that enriched our corpus of sources, there was virtually no reflection on political events and processes, Professor Zhukovsky's family relationships seem to be a vivid example of the collision of the influence of the traditional way of life of the provincial nobility and post–reform progressive trends in Russia at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Therefore, we have considered these relations in the context of the socio-political situation in the country.

Speaking about the family relationship between Professor Zhukovsky and his illegitimate daughter, we conclude that the origins of their specificity are contained in the professor's parental family. Emotional dependence on his mother and the obedience inherited from her to the pre-reform noble traditions influenced the fact that Zhukovsky did not adopt his own illegitimate children during his mother's lifetime, although by law since 1902. He could have officially done it.

Zhukovsky's family precedent made it possible to explore the facets of inter-verbal integration. Using the example of Zhukovsky's daughter, we see that the relatively young generation of nobles, the Moscow professors, and the intelligentsia mistook the illegitimate girl for "their own", and thanks to the letters we saw that friendly contacts with "pure-blooded" nobles existed at the informal level for Zhukovsky's daughter. Zhukovsky's mother, a man of the old order, did not officially recognize the child, but we nevertheless revealed a certain duality: she participated in the upbringing and education of the child.

Having freed himself from the pressure of his mother, Zhukovsky — hardly consciously and purposefully — constructed a new status for his illegitimate daughter: formal and informal. The adoption and official recognition of her daughter led not only to a change in her surname and patronymic, but also to the granting of nobility to her. Professor Zhukovsky also paid for her studies — the status of a noblewoman, her father's surname and education constructed her new formal status. As for the informal status, it was "transferred" to her immediately after the death of Zhukovsky's mother — the status of the hostess-stewardess in the house. The letters report that the daughter was unprepared for a new role and was not perceived by the aristocratic grandmother as the "heiress" of her status as head of the family, however, due to Zhukovsky's orders and his unwillingness to become head of the household himself - to deal with accounting, expenses, and the family budget. Perhaps, unconsciously, Zhukovsky still sought to see a woman as the head of the family again, which actualizes the gender aspect of the issue under study. Gender equality with her daughter was also evident in the fact that her daughter, who studied at the mathematics department of women's courses, understood her father's work and was perceived by him as a companion — he even took her with him to scientific events and involved her in helping prepare for classes.

Since his mother occupied a leading position in Professor Zhukovsky's parental family, thanks to such a maternal image in his mind there was no perception of a woman as something weak and secondary in the world of men, he did not see that a woman can only occupy a subordinate position in the family. Therefore, the professor did not impose a similar subordinate role on his young daughter — on the contrary, he encouraged her education, occupation of a seemingly masculine business — science, and after the death of his mother gave his daughter the authority to manage the household, which previously belonged to his domineering mother.

Despite the fact that Professor Zhukovsky's parental family, in which he was raised, had a pronounced traditional way of life, his new, small family was much more liberal, which is evident from the example of the relationship between Professor Zhukovsky and his daughter: This is more of a partnership than an authoritarian patriarchy. We did not see in the letters and memoirs involved in the study any directive instructions and pressure on the daughter — at most it was a manifestation of concern for the daughter, obvious in Zhukovsky's letters. And this is despite the fact that before the revolution, gender inequality still persisted both in the legal field and in the mental one.

The originals of Zhukovsky's daughter's letters became valuable evidence of the forms of address she used in relation to her father — in particular, the fact that she never began to call him her father until the end of her life, but she chose other affectionate addresses for him. The letters also helped to establish another topic that ran like a red thread through the intra-family epistolary discourse: the daughter's poor health, Zhukovsky's constant fear for her well-being, excessive guardianship combined with the perception of her daughter as something fragile, vulnerable, treating her almost like a child. Unfortunately, Zhukovsky's fears were destined to come true: his daughter died young. The experience dealt a heavy blow to the professor's health — he himself lived less than a year after his daughter's death. The letters also helped to look into this difficult time in the professor's life, read his lines about his departed daughter and see how worried his family were.

It seems to us that Professor Zhukovsky's family history reflects some typical features of post-reform society and the nobility in particular, combining both the influence of old aristocratic prejudices and liberal views, including the assertion of gender equality and the erasure of inter-word boundaries. The materials on Zhukovsky's family relationships, in particular, the letters we have touched upon, combined with the results of this work, have the potential for further research in the field of historical psychology.