ABSTRACT
Childhood as a distinguished form of autobiographical writing has a very strong presence in Russian literary tradition. Of greatest mention in canonical works known to Russian readers from their early years should be Lev Tolstoy's trilogy Detstvo (Childhood, 1852), Otrochestvo (Boyhood, 1854), and Iunost’ (Youth, 1857); Sergei Aksakov's Detskie gody Bagrova–vnuka (Childhood years of Bagrov the grandson, 1856); and Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovksy's Detstvo Temy (Tema's childhood, 1892) (Rudnev 2004, p. 14). These three novels greatly contributed to increasing public interest in this form of reminiscence by presenting the early years in the life of an individual as the most important and decisive period. At the center of all three works is the story of growing up in a Russian aristocratic family: All three boys are raised with privileges typical for high societal standing, including life in an estate where, surrounded by private tutors, nannies, and serfs, they do not experience any economic hardship. As examples of the genre, these recollections focus on the moral and spiritual development of a child who, with constant help and support from adults, is trying to find his way from the protective environment of the nursery into the turbulent world of real life.
