Abstract
The article examines the narratives, ideas and cultural practices that exist in the Arkhangelsk cultural space and represent to an external observer the pages of the Soviet history of the village of Lyavlya associated with the mass extermination of people in the 1920s–1950s. The cultural memory of Lyavlya as a place of violence was created by parishioners of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the leadership of the Arkhangelsk diocese. The result of their activities was the formation of a narrative about the history of Lyavlya and the particularization of the memory of the victims of violence. For memory actors, the fate of modern Russia is inseparable from the fate of the Orthodox Church, and the people who died in Lyavlya appear as martyrs for the faith and “heroes of the spirit”. Processions of the cross to burial sites provide an opportunity for their participants to legitimize ideas about the special role of Russia in the Orthodox world and the exclusivity of the Russian people. The fate of the dead clergy and laity, according to memorial actors, serves as evidence of the uniqueness of the Russian nation and its special mission to preserve Orthodoxy. Recently, interest in the topic of the traumatic past has faded. The author shows how the memory of traumatic legacies is constructed through ceremonies, memorials and publications.
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