Saint & historical figure. “Dual purpos” monuments in the culture of memory of new Russia

Abstract

Sculptural monuments to saints are a characteristic phenomenon of the religious and cultural landscape in new Russia. They have already become a mass tradition and moreover strategies of social interactions with monuments characteristic of the current urban environment have spread to them. The latter circumstance is recorded, among other things, in the latest scientific research of urban folklore and anthropology. The article deals with one specific group of monuments to saints which has not yet received special attention. These are monuments to secular persons who were awarded holiness after death, sometimes even after a long period of time. As a rule, these are statesmen or military leaders who have played a significant role in the history of Russia. Many of such monuments combine the features of a civil monument to the hero or the city and of an object of religious worship, accompanied by appropriate symbols and attributes. That combination allows them to perform the functions of ‘dual purpose’: they are used both as ‘Memory space’ in rituals associated with the formation of a certain historical identity and in Orthodox religious ceremonies. Such a duality is expressed not only in the mixing of elements of secular and church commemoration in the public consciousness, but also manifests itself in individual piety in which the representations of the ‘holiness’ of a particular historical person are transferred to the sculptural image.