Honouring the memory of N.V. Gogol (in 1902 and 1909) and "Shevchenko's evenings" as political identity tools of Tomsk liberal professorate

In this article the Siberian periodicals are used to examine the mutual influence of educational activities of law professors of Imperial Tomsk University (МЛ. Reisner and IA Malinovsky) during the honouring of the memory of N.V. Gogol and T. Shevchenko and the political identity of liberal intelligentsia in the early 20th century. The national celebrations of Gogol's anniversaries in 1902 and 1909 included a number of events in Tomsk. "Shevchenko's evenings", dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the poet's death and the abolition of serfdom in Russia also played a prominent role in the city's public life. The educational representation of writers' images in Reisner's and Malinovsky's lectures and public speeches were of atranstemporal character, i.e. the problems of modernity were discussed in the historical perspective. An important trend of this process was the merging of ethnic and political discourses, when the struggle of the "younger brother" for national independence was identified with the struggle for civil freedom. Speaking about the category of law, the professor used the metaphor "soil". The interpretation of writers' biographies and works as well as the historical context were of selective nature. On the one hand, this entailed a number of contradictions between the proclamation of Gogol as a "fighter for the liberation movement" and the content of his works and personal position. On the other hand, this historical technology resulted in the appearance of the two writers on the liberal discourse symbolic map of Russian intelligentsia.

Keywords

Authors

References