Places of memory and memorial culture of the Russian province in the 19th – early 20th centuries: historiography and sources

Abstract

Background. The relevance of issues related to the preservation, translation and construction of representations of the past, with the formation of collective memory, is determined by the need to develop the subject field of one of the most popular, but also con-troversial areas of modern humanitarian knowledge; as well as the search for effective mechanisms for preserving historical continuity and ensuring sustainable social develop-ment. The purpose of the study is to analyze and generalize modern concepts in the fields of memory research and methods of source analysis of materials that capture manifestations of memorial culture. Materials and methods. Research of recent decades devoted to the problems of the formation of memorial culture is analyzed. The choice of methodological tools is associated with the theoretical constructions of memory studies, revealing the nature of commemorative practices, historical representations, and the temporality of social life. The study was carried out at the intersection and integration of the achievements of identity the-ory, the history of everyday life, and semiotics. The main concept is the “place of memory” – a means of restoring historical time, a “brace” and, at the same time, a construct for the formation of imperial and regional identities. The source base of the study is formed by materials from office documentation, personal sources, and periodicals. Results. The results of the development of “mnemohistorical issues” of foreign and domestic historiography, key directions of development and discussion constructs of memory studies are analyzed. The theoretical and source support for studying the states of transition of communicative memory into collective, social and further into cultural memory in the conditions of Rus-sian modernization is considered. The most important aspect of the problem was the analysis of the memorial development of the Russian province, the formation of regional memory and identity in the 19th – early 20th centuries. Conclusions. The category “place of memory” has been established as one of the most popular and effective tools of scientific knowledge in modern historical science. The need for further development of such aspects of the problem as: coherence of the place of memory and identity has been identified; the interaction of competing meanings in representations of the past (gaps in real representa-tions of the past, “absent knowledge”; imagination and “present memory”); definition of the concept itself; factors and specifics of memorial consolidation of society; means and mech-anisms of institutionalization of memorial culture and historical policy. Examples of solving specific research problems are presented using materials from the State Archive of the Penza Region.

Keywords

• place of memory
• memorial culture
• commemoration practices
• russian province
• historiography
• sources
• identity
• penza region
• xix – at the beginning of the xx century