History of Cities in Western Siberia in Representations of Journal “Siberian Lights”: Political and Historical Contexts of 1920s — 1940s

Abstract

Changes in the representation of the history of cities in Western Siberia in the journal “Siberian Lights” in the period from the beginning of the 20s to the mid 40s of the XX century are considered. These changes are interpreted by analyzing the general contexts of the development of historical local lore in Siberia and the activities of various subjects of the memory policy at both local and state levels. The relevance of the study is due to the increased interest on the part of society and the state in the problems of forming the historical memory of Russians about the national and regional past as one of the foundations of social identities. The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that until now the Siberian magazine periodicals of the Soviet era, in particular, “Siberian Lights”, are poorly understood as one of the significant means of forming the historical memory of society about the past of Western Siberia. The composition of the authors of materials on the history of Western Siberian cities is described in the article. The stages of the development of the history representation of West Siberian cities in the publications of the journal are determined, reflecting various, ideologically determined assessments of the historical past of the cities of Western Siberia. It is proved that during the Great Patriotic War, authors of works on the history of Western Siberian cities synthesized both the experience of Siberian ethnographers and their antagonists, pursuing the task of stimulating patriotic upsurge and the necessary social mobilization.

Keywords

• siberian regional studies
• memory politics
• historical memory
• cities of western siberia
• siberian lights