The article is devoted to the history of the two editions of A. A. Bestuzhev’s Journey to Revel. The letters of Bestuzhev to N. I. Gnedich and F. V. Bulgarin (including the unpublished ones), as well as the personal and genre context were used for the analysis of the author’s intention. The history of creating the travelogue makes it possible to trace the path that Bestuzhev has traveled between his essays and the Livonian tales.