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| 1 | Introduction. The material of historical essays by E. P. Kovalevsky, devoted to the events of the Danube campaign, which was practically not studied before, is presented in the work. The aim of the work is to study the genre content of Kovalevsky’s essays and determine their role in the literary process of the 1850s. Material and methods. The research focuses on the work “Three chapters from the political and military history of 1853, 1854 and 1855”, written by a direct participant of the events and at the same time a representative of official circles. Published in “Otechestvennye Zapiski” in 1856, it is considered in comparison with the work “The War with Turkey and the severance with the Western powers in 1853 and 1854” which was published for political reasons only in 1866. The research uses comparative and cultural-historical methods. Results and discussion. The research shows that Kovalevsky’s essays are the first artistic interpretation of the Danube campaign events against the background of official circles’ silence on the political reasons for the beginning of the Crimean war. The originality of the author’s creative manner is shown in the synthesis of a documentary narrative with elements of essay and story. The problems of essays (the problem of the hero, patriotism) and their poetics (the description of nature, the role of the narrator) expand the horizons of the author’s creative search and give an impetus to understanding and presenting new material (form and content) to contemporaries. Conclusion. Typological features of the historical essay and its artistic features in the work of Kovalevsky are revealed. The study of the essay genre on the example of Kovalevsky’s “war stories” makes it possible to build a line of creative continuity in Russian literature (Tolstoy and Dostoevsky). This work will be useful for scientists of historical and philological profile: from the point of view of genesis, the synthetic nature of the essay genre and the literary and factual context of the events of the Crimean campaign. Keywords: E. P. Kovalevsky, Danube campaign, essay, historiosophical position, problem of hero, role of narrator | 1342 | ||||