About the book: 2018 / The book of diary entries and letters from 1818–1820 by the outstanding Danish linguist Rasmus Christian Rask (1787–1832) is unique. The author, on his way to Persia and India, where he was heading for scientific purposes, lived for more than a year in St. Petersburg, visited Moscow and traveled unaccompanied to Astrakhan. Talking with people of different classes, he got to know the country, one might say, from the inside. The published materials have been translated into Russian for the first time and reveal for us the Russia of Alexander’s time in a new way. They contain lively sketches of the life of St. Petersburg and other Russian cities, reflections on Russian life and the Russian language, colorful portraits of Russian scientists of that time.