Botanical Garden as a Colonial Institution: V. M. Arnoldi About his Journey to Buitenzorg in 1909

Vladimir Mitrofanovich Arnoldi, a Russian botanist, professor at the Kharkiv University, compiled notes on his research trip to the Buitezorg Botanical Garden in 1909, which allow to see how the Russian scientist perceived the colonial world of the Dutch India. As Arnoldi’s notes show, the Botanical Garden of that time was important not only as a scientific and economic institution, it was also endowed with various symbolic meanings, which combined scientific, aesthetic and political values. First of all, the botanical garden, regarded as a museum of past historical eras, allowed to build a single scheme of the natural development of peoples, which justifies the Dutch "cultural mission". The Botanical Garden also acts as an element of modern spectacular culture, offering images of outlandish and exotic. This does not prevent the simultaneous use of cultural approximation strategies, thanks to which the botanical garden organized according to the principles of neoclassical aesthetics turns out to be something like the Platonic garden of the Academy and the ideal city. Although Arnoldi notes some manifestations of injustice, the Buitenzorg Botanical Garden and the Dutch India in general appear to him as an example of rational government, and in this regard, special attention is paid to the image of Melchior Treub, the director of the garden. A comparison of the descriptions of the Botanical Garden by Arnoldi and in Garshin's story «Attalea princeps» allows us to see how scientific freedom and political responsibility, humanistic ideals and the requirements of scientific impartiality were correlated in Arnoldi's ideas. The colonial Botanical Garden is also important for Arnoldi in connection with reflections on the future of Russia, whose present situation seems to be tragic. Being generally pessimistic, Arnoldi, nevertheless, makes the beautiful botanical garden an allegory of a different Russia.