So America western expansion is romanticized into the “Wild West” and the adventure filled frontier. It’s a whole genre that still commands public attention, as we can see from red dead redemptions popularity.
Does the Russian frontier in Siberia and Central Asia mythologized in the same way. Is there a whole genre based around 18th and 18th century eastern expansion in the same way we have Westerns in America?
I wrote on the role of the Caucasus in Russian literature a couple years ago; the short answer is that yes, it played a major part, as authors like Pushkin and Lermontov based some of their most famous works on the region (both had spent considerable time there).
I asked this one before! Got some pretty good answers too. Happy digging!