COFFEE IN RUSSIAN CULTURE OF THE 18TH CENTURY: FROM HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT TO THE SEMANTICS OF THE BEVERAGE IN LITERATURE

The article reconstructs the historical and cultural context demonstrating the “adaptation” of coffee in Russia of the 18th century in the lives of representatives of different social statuses and ages (nobles and townspeople, adults and children). The research specifies the semantics of the new drink had as revealed in the works of the pioneers of the Russian coffee theme: A. Kant emir, G. Derzhavin, N. Novikov. It is established how the authors’ evaluation of coffee changed depending on the dynamics of the cultural context: as an initial negative-satirical assessment of the love for coffee of a sybarite nobleman (A. Kantemir), was then supplemented with a positive assessment: the aroma of coffee is a component of the Poet’s happy life in the idyllic world of the manor (G. Derzhavin).