Abstract

The article examines the history of the compilation and special features of the Indian section of the unique collection of clippings compiled by M.D. Khmyrov from domestic and foreign periodicals. Particular attention is paid to the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857–1859, which was widely covered in the domestic press, but had little coverage in the Khmyrov collection. The disproportion is explained by the bibliographer’s greater attention to the events of domestic, rather than foreign history, the biased choice of the press which replenished the collection (its creator preferred rare editions to mass “gazettes”), as well as Khmyrov’s efforts to systematize the entire available array of clippings, rather than accumulate clippings on individual issues. Thus, the collection lacks short articles on India, which are representative of the publications about this region in the press of the mid-19th century. The entire body of materials, including clippings on the East, was supposed to become the basis for the Encyclopedia of the Russian Homeland Studies, which was a grandiose but unfulfi lled project aiming to compile a collection of all kinds of materials related to the history of Russia and its periodicals. Considering the scale of Khmyrov’s plan, collecting short publications was technically impossible, and his collection has practically no information about the military side of the Sepoy Rebellion, as the reports were published in the press in 1857–1859 very often, but in the form of short articles. In addition, the article explores the reports about India stored in the “England” section, as well as the messages not related to Indian topics, but placed by the compiler in the Indian section. On the basis of these materials, the author argues that Khmyrov collected clippings on India mechanically. At the same time, there was a tendency to separate reports on India from reports on Great Britain, although, in the years when the collection was created, domestic and foreign periodicals adopted a completely diff erent approach. News about the major British colony was most oft en published alongside news from the British Isles.