Humanities & Social Sciences 5 (2016 9) 1057-1066 ~ ~ ~ УДК 821.161.1 “The European Plot” in the Russian Literary Tradition at the End of the 17th Century Alexander V. Shunkov* Kemerovo State Institute of Culture 17 Voroshilova Str., Kemerovo, 650029, Russia Received 20.12.2015, received in revised form 07.02.2016, accepted 11.03.2016 The paper analyses the notes of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, general fi eld marshal, the diplomat of Peter I era, about his travel to Europe. <...> These notes are a monument of the Russian fi ction at the turn of the 17th–18th centuries. <...> The composition allows answering the following questions about the process of a fi ctionalization of documentary books in Russia in a transition period of developing Russian literature; what new subjects, plots, motives defi ne literary process; how the position of those who made a book monument changed. <...> The author pays special attention to the description of the literary methods used by B.P. Sheremetev. <...> They helped to create a new image of Europe in Russian fi ction at the end of the 17th century and presented Russian people a bright and interesting world. <...> The paper is aimed at experts in the fi eld of Medieval studies, the historians of literature who are engaged in studying the problem of forming and developing the genre system in a transition period of Russian literature (the second half of the 17th – the beginning of the 18th century). <...> The turn of 17th – beginning of the 18th century in Russian history marked the rising interest of Russian people in Western Europe, its traditions, way of countries, initiated by the Great life. <...> The example of Peter I, who established a tradition of active learning about the European world, made his colleagues and government offi cials travel to the West on their own and not only for implement the foreign © Siberian Federal University. <...> One of the events accompanying the journey was the process of writing their descriptions – “travel notes” (Tolstoy, 1992; Matveev, 1972). <...> The genesis of the genre of literary travel is a separate issue, a subject of scientifi c research in the Russian literary criticism in various aspects (Kirillin, 2002, 48-54). <...> However, the common issue that characterizes the genre at different stages of its evolution (from Ancient Rus to modern times) is its <...>