“TRACTS OF RUSSIAN MEMORY” OR THE MAIN “NESTS” OF MEMORY IN RUSSIA

Abstract

In this text, are given the plan and main contributions that are gathered in a collective work directed by Prof. Georges Nivat, Les sites de la mémoire russe. The first volume, Géographie de la mémoire russe, was published in 2007, the second one, Histoire et mythes de la mémoire russe, in 2019. The word “site” is meant as a prominent detail in the landscape and translated into Russian as “Uročišča”. The aim is to give a view of the main “sites” and debates that have arisen along Russian historiography since the 18th century. The “invention” of the “Chronicles” is one spectacular example. It goes from the first publication in 1846 to our days. Literature, painting, and music have constructed the Russian memory in the 18th century. Mussorgsky himself researched in the archives who were the Old believers, before writing his opera “Khovanshchina”. Ethnography appeared in the first half of the 19th century, the came great museums at the two extremities of the Empire, and a great number of ethnographical local museums are innumerable in Russia, have saved a lot of artefacts during the Soviet vandalistic period. Folklore was studied and local troubadours were registered until the end of the Soviet era. Emperor Peter the Great was keenly aware of the importance of creating his own myth during his lifetime, and succeeded, his role is still the main debate of Russian historiography and a very prominent site of memory. Loss of memory began early in the Soviet regime, loss of proletarian memory and as well as of peasant memory. Refs 9.