RUS GEZGİN E.RAGOZİNA’NIN HATIRALARINDA TÜRKİYE VE TÜRKLER

Özet

Çok eski zamanlara dayanan Türkiye-Rusya ilişkileri, Rusya'da Türkiye ve Türklere yönelik yoğun bir ilgi uyandırmıştır. Türkiye ve bu topraklarda yaşayan halklar sürekli olarak Rus siyasi ve edebi çevrelerinin ilgisini çekmiştir. Bu bağlamda Rus Edebiyatında çeşitli seyahatnameler, diplomatik raporlar, mektuplar ve edebi eserler ortaya çıkmıştır. İlginin artışı aynı zamanda Rusya'nın Batı ve Doğu'yu birleştiren coğrafi konumu, ekonomik durumu, Rusya'nın iç ve dış politik tutumu ve yaklaşımlarıyla da ilgilidir. Özellikle de XIX. yüzyılda Rus yayınlarında Türkiye ile ilgili çok sayıda yazı ortaya çıkmaya başlar. Bu makalede Türkiye'yi 1877-1878 Osmanlı-Rus Savaşı öncesi ziyaret eden E.Ragozina tarafından yazılan "1877-1878 Savaşı Öncesi Türkiye'deki Bir Rus Kızının Hatıra Defterinden" adlı eserden bahsedilmektedir. Günlük şeklinde yazılan bu eser, Osmanlı ve bu topraklarda yaşayan halklar ile onların günlük yaşam tarzları, örf adetleri; tarihi olaylar ve önemli şahıslar hakkında ilginç bilgiler içermektedir. Yazar, Türk toplumunun siyasi yaşamında önemli rol oynayan ve kalıcı izler bırakan Vali Kamil Paşa ve Vezir-i Azam Mithat Paşa gibi o dönemin ünlü şahsiyetlerini Rus okurlarla tanıştırmaktadır. Eser, yıllardır Rus toplumuna düşman ve karşı taraf olarak anlatılagelen Türkiye'yi yepyeni bir tarzda sunmayı başarmıştır. Yazar sadece yaşanan olayları anlatmakla kalmaz, aynı zamanda o dönemin tarihi vakalarını ve ruhunu da tam olarak gözler önüne serer

Abstract

The relations between Turkey and Russia, having a long history, were driving force for Russian to have a steady interest to Turkey. A continuous attention of political and literature establishment of Russia were attracted to the life of Turks and other nations of Ottoman Empire. In this respect, many Memoirs, diplomatic reports, letters and other literary texts emerged in Russian Literature. This interest was also driven by geographical position of Russia as a country extending from the West to the East, economical relations of Russian Empire, internal and foreign political issues and approaches of Russia. Especially large number of Russian publications devoted to Turkey had been appeared in 19th century. This article aims to examine the work “From diaries of a Russian [girl] in Turkey before 1877-1878 Ottoman – Russian War” of Russian itinerant, E. Ragozina, who visited Turkey just before 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian war. This work, which is written in the form of diaries, is giving very interesting information about the daily life, traditions of people, which were living on the lands of the Ottoman Empire, as well as about prominent historical figures and events of that epoch. Author introduced to Russian readers very famous personalities of that era, which played a central role in political life and leaved a deep trace in Turkish political life and history, such as the Governor, Kamil Pasha, and the Grand Vizier, Mithat Pasha. In the work of E. A. Ragozina, written in the form of diaries, Turkey was presented to the Russian public in a manner quite different from majority of the literature of this period usually inclined to consider Turkey as the confrontation side. The author does not confine herself by description of just daily events and observations, but also reflects perfectly various historical events of those days and a spirit of this epoch in general Turkey and Russia are two of very important and prominent countries of world history. The tight relations between Turkey and Russia, dating back to middle ages, motivated Russians, especially Russian politicians and writers, to wonder about Turkey and Turks (and other nations of Ottoman Empire). This interest was also driven by geographical position of Russia as a country extending from the West to the East, economical relations of Russian Empire, internal and foreign political issues and approaches of Russia. In this respect, many Memoirs, diplomatic reports, letters and other literary texts emerged in Russian Literature. Most of researchers consider that this tendency dates back to 12th century, because Constantinople as the center of Orthodoxy attracted Russian people due its high cultural and religious value. The itineraries written in that period are mostly about religious rites and frequently visited holy places. In 18th century, official diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey began to develop. In that period, the only sources of the information on Turkey were the records written by traders, the notes of Christian pilgrims and writings of Russian diplomats. It should be also noted another characteristic feature of that period – many books and writings were translated from European languages to Russian and presented to Russian readers. Translated literature, the notes of travelers, newspaper news, reports and Memoires of Russian diplomats provides a large range of sources of that century. As regards the itineraries written on Turkey in 19th century, they have to be considered as further development on the base of Russian cultural tradition. The destiny of Russia was always linked to both the East and the West. 19th century is the richest period in terms of the quality of the literature writings and records about Turkey. A large number of works written by Turkish researchers about image of Turks in European literature have been emerged in recent years. In contrast, there are only a few research works analyzing Russian literature and Russian-Turkish relations in the framework of imagological approach. This article aims to examine the work of Russian itinerant, E. Ragozina, who traveled to Turkey just before 1877-1878 OttomanRussian War and in this way observed the Turkish society intimately. This text, which was written by a woman, includes valuable information on that very important period of Russian-Turkish relations. Moreover, this work is very important due to account its different viewpoint which stands in striking contrast to the negative bias about Turkish people usually revealed by its contemporaries. The work of E. Ragozina, named “From diaries of a Russian [girl] in Turkey before 1877-1878 Ottoman – Russian War” was first published only in 1910, in the journal of “Russian Antique” (Russkaya Starina). Later, in 1915, this work appeared in print as a book by the publishing house of newspaper “Svet” in Petrograd. Information on the writer personality is very limited. Most of information known on Ragozina is limited to what she wrote about herself. E. Ragozina was a young lady who just finished her education and had a big curiosity about everything outside her previous monotonous life. Her writing career is a consequence of her curious and investigative soul. One day, she decided to visit her relatives living in Chios Island, which are the family of her uncle D. A. Darivo, who is the vice-consul of Russia in Istanbul Consulate and at the same time is trade agent of Russian Shipping and Trade Company. Nowadays, Russian historians consider “From the Diaries of a Russian Girl in Turkey before 1877-1878 Ottoman – Russian War” as one of the personal works, such as Memoires, diaries and private letters, which reflect the perception of contemporary people to the politic and economic events of that era (Koesarev, 2012:4). This work is studied as an original source giving important information about the daily life, traditions and religious views of people, as well as about acomplex of interpersonal relations as whole in their