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

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 social and cultural context. Ragozina begins her book with the motivation of her work: “I got the chance of living with Turkish people for a few years and inhaling the same air, sharing the same sky, happiness and grief with them and finally falling in love with a Turkish man and being loved passionately by him” (Ragozina 1910:377). Moreover, she emphasizes that Russian society became recently more interested in Turkey and Turkish people. As known, 1877-1878 Ottoman – Russian War is one of the most important events of the second part of XIX century for both countries. As a part of the Eastern issue, this war also attracted a great attention of all European countries. This book includes not only historical events, but also marvelous figures of speech and nature portraits. Some small details embedded into the historical theme of the book gives the readers the chance of feeling the atmosphere of daily life, realities and spirit of Ottomans vividly. The writer examines Turkey in frame of Eastern romanticism and reveals her admiration for Turkish people. Most authors of itineraries of that time are impressed deeply by unprecedented beauty of Bosphorus (Yarullina-Yıldırım, 2014:1604). “The turquoise Bosphorus”, “the sunset as marvelous as in a fairy tale”, “numerous spires of minarets”, “lead domes of mosques” and “marble palaces and villas” intimately attracts that young, Russian lady and becomes a “dream of the poet, fairy tale of East causing to forget all burdens of life” (Ragozina, 1910:381). Moreover, the careful curiosity of the writer captures all interesting details as “narrow and dirty lanes”, “Turkish soldiers, wearing tarboosh”, “white-bearded mullah, wearing turban”, “fully covered Turkish women in veils”. The writer also makes interesting inferences about the moral values, customs and characters of Turkish people. She uses the following expressions to depict the image of Turks: “high noble pride”, “they behave in an arrogant, assertive, serious and striking way”, “they are so fair in daily relations; they never take offense by being taught by an European”, “they do not show the typical sneakiness and craftiness of other Eastern tribes”, “if they do not to be honest, they prefer not to tell lie”. As Razogina states, this causes a Turkish man sometimes to be deceived by a crook foreigner. Turkish people are defined as “the most calm, patient and loyal society in the world”. The cultural solipsism, revealed by most of European travelers, is not observed in the book of Ragozina. In contrast, she is against an approach, where Western categories and ideals are directly applied to compare the Eastern and Western cultures and societies. She corrects some cultural mistakes and criticizes the European prejudice towards other cultures. She states that Europe also treats Russia similar to Turkey as an alien country and gives some examples of slanders on Russia found in many European books, magazines and newspapers. Russian Literature of 19th century contains of plenty of materials about Turkey and Turks. Analysis of this massive information is extremely important for both countries to improve Turkish-Russian relations and to promote to better understanding between the nations. The cultural and ethnical stereotypes of Turkey were mostly formed in the period of Russian Empire, especially in 19th century. These texts, written in a real Turkish admiration, reveals the colorful and original life of determinist, patient, gracious, merciful and tolerant Turkish people.