Myth and collective memory: images of Slavic «tradition» on social networks

The article is devoted to the visual representation of Slavic history as a myth on social networks. The particular field of exploration concerns virtual communities of modern Russian traditionalists adhering to Rodnoverie, formed from Russian words [Rodnaya vera] "native faith", the group of new religious and politic ideologies focusing on revival of Slavic polytheistic mythology, folklore and pre-Orthodox spirituality, often combined with nationalism and anti-globalism. It is assumed that participating in social networking services, such as Vkontakte mostly examined in the article, has a definite influence on the perception of History among individuals. Different "tools" of this process are determined through the observing how users consume visual information on Internet. Some of the examples described in the article are "like" and "repost" actions, which promote social approval; "profile" personalization, connecting people with common interests; polls that cause participants to identify themselves with the majority opinion. Enumerating of related societies is difficult. Though Vkontakte search engines make an approximate number of members data relatively reliable. The interface of biggest communities demonstrates an increasing importance of visual information (pictures, photos and other materials) in daily renewed content. Some specific images of symbolically romanticized past, such as Slavic demotivational posters, are examined. Findings summarized in the article indicate the presence of not only rationalized "state like" propaganda in these materials but also the irrational emotional level of Slavic traditionalist's beliefs and ideas, e.g. strong disappointment, embodied in the ironical and sarcastic attitude to both westernized and post-soviet cultures, pride for the ancestors way of living, a desire to form new «presence» based on the images of past. The article creates the preconditions for substantive analysis of this phenomenon in the context of the Pierre Nora concept of lieux de memoire, "sites of memory", or E. Runia paradigm of "presence". The survey of the community's photo albums indicates the general circulative symbols and plots which have a strong emotional attachment for informants. Reported findings point out potential areas of their social activities, such as military preparations, religious practices, reconsideration of family life values and woman role in the society and other important topics that bothers people loyal to the nationalistic and romanticized Vedic ideals in modern Russian culture.

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