Politics of memory: historical symbols and commemorative practices in the system of socio-political selfregulation of the region (Siberia of the XX – early XXI centuries)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to generalize the dynamics of developing politics of memory, which was reflected in the processes of socio-political self-regulation of the Siberian region during the XX in the early XXI centuries. The study solves the problem of identifying the basic institutionalized forms and methods of using historical symbols within the framework of public commemorative practices and typical historical narratives, being established in Siberia in the XX beginning of the XXI centuries. The tasks also include identifying the stages of history of diverse manifestations of politics of memory in the memorial culture of Siberia in this period. The relevance of this article is due to the need of studying the meaning and methods of using historical symbols and commemorations within the framework of the politics of memory in order to form a critical, scientifically based position in relation to it. The study was implemented within the framework of the Memory Studies problem field and relies on interdisciplinary, sociocultural and socio-constructivist approaches. Comparative, diachronic, and systemic genetic methods there were used. For the first time the authors of the project intend to consider the politics of memory in relation to Siberia as a system that has gradually been formed and transformed depending on various conditions and factors. The scientific significance of the project is that the politics of memory implemented in the region by means of historical symbols and commemorative practices will be studied as a complex sociocultural phenomenon of regulating social consciousness of the regional society. As a result of the project implementation, the dynamics of using historical symbols and commemorations by various actors of regional politics in the sphere of building relations with central authorities and internal regional socio-political self-regulation processes. The authors define the stages of history of diverse manifestations of the memory policy in the memorial culture of Siberia. The Siberian macro-region, in spite of certain ethnocultural features in the areas where local peoples are densely populated, has emerged as one of the most Russian-oriented in its culture and dominant socio-political identity. And the basis of this result was the aggregate symbolic self-regulation of the Siberian society, which includes the dialectically complementary national and regional levels of memory policy.