The article is devoted to the study of a reader’s phenomenon in the structure of the narrative of Russian travelogues of the 19th century. The material of the study was the most representative notes about the campaign of D. N. Senyavin (by Bronevsky, Korostovets, Svinyin, Panafidina, etc.) as examples of documentary travelogues, as well as literary examples of this genre: “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions” by F. M. Dostoevsky and “Frigate “Pallada” by I. A. Goncharov. An author-traveler of the time considered it a rule to explain his/her attitude in the preface addressed to the reader, or when commenting the writing strategies in the narration of the events that allows to define the image of a reader simulated by the author. The novelty of the study is expressed in the fact that it is in the travelogues of the 19th century (both documentary and literary; especially in the latter) a figure of a reader as an independent element gradually stands out more and more: a reader is a co-author of the text on the journey, an author’s double, an opponent, defining the main conceptual goals and objectives of the text, managing its narrative structure, a kind of mirror, which clearly reflects the author’s intentions and traveler’s consciousness, considering someone else not only monologically, but also in dialogue with another personality.