In Search of the Soviet Past: the Lipetsk Case

Abstract

The myth of the founding of Lipetsk includes a narrative related to the development of the southern borders of Russia and the development of metallurgy. But the 23-fold increase in the population of Lipetsk during the entire 65 years of the XX century (from 21.4 thousand people in 1926 to 490.3 thousand people in 1990) makes us turn back to the Soviet period of the city's history. Having considered the modes of circulation of "soft" and "hard" memory, as well as using the optics of different scales formulated by E. Rigni and C. de Cesare and the intuitions of J. Assman, who identified the communicative and cultural areas of memory, the author checks whether Lipetsk today pays due tribute to the Soviet past. The appeal to the key markers of Lipetsk's identity (metallurgical plant, mineral water, aviation center) related to cultural memory showed that today many residents of the city do not have a sense of continuity with the past. It is concluded that the post-war period of the USSR is a particularly significant memory space around which the identity of the Lipchans could be built, the memory of the local community could be formed. However, today Lipetsk residents have to face a completely different memorial policy initiated by local authorities, in which the Soviet past is gradually being replaced by new symbolic practices and objects, as a result of which the urban space is becoming more and more eclectic.