Imperial and Regional Discourses in Local Practices of Historical Memory on the Accession of Siberia to the Russian State

Abstract. In the article, in a comparative vein, local commemorative practices about the annexation of Siberia to the Russian state are considered. For the analysis, materials of personal origin of local historians, journalists, teachers, folklore materials, media materials of different years, local history and teaching aids of three regions that have a different relationship to the described processes were taken: Perm (where the main Stroganov estates were located and where the campaign of the squad began), Yermak, Tyumen and Tobolsk, from where the “official” colonization of Siberia by regular troops began, Krasnoyarsk – the starting points for the colonization of Eastern Siberia. Based on the analysis of local materials, conclusions are drawn about the presence in each of the regions of imperial commeporative practices that characterize the annexation of Siberia as a civilizational act, having progressive significance for the natives, and the colonizers – noble bearers of the state idea, “the best Russians”. In general, the basis of local practices of commemoration is popular patriotic romanticism, the lack of continuity between the local and the imperial and the claim to the key importance of the region in national history.

Keywords: comparative studies, historical memory, annexation of Siberia, Perm, Tyumen, Tobolsk, Krasnoyarsk.