About the authors:
Elena A. Samodelova, DSc in Philology, Senior Researcher, А. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3856-0578
E-mail:
Nina M. Solobay, archivist historian, free explorer, Moscow, Russia.
Abstract:
For the first time information about Ukraine (Little Russia) — its geography, archeology, history, literature, historical figures — is extracted from the biography and creative heritage of Esenin. The information about Ukraine, which the future poet has gleaned or could learn from textbooks and fiction, hear from contemporaries, is given. Along the way, the primary and secondary school programs were analyzed and the question about the accuracy of the official names of educational institutions in the villages Konstantinovo and Spas-Klepiki was raised. Esenin’s interest in Ukrainian topics was emphasized from his youth. Esenin’s routes across the Ukrainian land have been clarified. Specific place names and hydronyms (names of cities, railway stations, rivers) and broader designations of territories (Scythia, Zaporozhye) are given. The textual details related to the writing of Ukrainian toponyms by the poet are noted.