Memorial Identity in the Local Identity Structure of Industrial Cities Residents in the Southern Urals

Abstract

The article analyzes one of the levels of local identity - memorial identity, understood as a temporal (retrospective) connection of an individual or a collective with the social and/or spatial environment. In practice, this connection can be embodied in the perception of a city (village, region - any locus) as a kind of scene for the unfolding of events of personal biography (personalized type of memorial identity) or as a mirror in which significant milestones of national or world history are reflected (socialized type of memorial identity). Using the example of Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk, two largest industrial cities of the South Urals, the author identifies the main features of the memorial identity of their residents. On the one hand, there is a high axiological status of the past, assessment of history as a source of pride for their city (mainly in the context of the contribution of South Ural residents to the victory in the Great Patriotic War), justification of personal attachment to the city as a place of birth, childhood, and youth. On the other hand, there is an extremely low level of real engagement in private and official memorial practices, passivity in creation of media retrocontent. It is concluded that against the background of a quite critical attitude of the population to the current situation in the region (mainly related to environmental problems), the memorial component of local identity can be perceived as an effective tool of cultural policy - it allows reducing the level of social tension, leveling the acuteness of perception of existing problems, and strengthening the degree of attachment of the population to their hometown.

Keywords

• identity
• local identity
• memorial identity
• cultural policy
• cultural memory