The (Un)Lost Decade of Pioneers: Preservation of Memory in Young Oil Cities of Western Siberia

The article is devoted to the analysis of ideas about urban memory in the northern cities of the Tyumen region, which appeared during the development of the Western Siberian oil and gas complex. The analysis is carried out on the example of Kogalym, the base city of the oil company LUKOIL. The problem of commemoration of the initial stage of the history of a settlement (until it receives the status of a city) is posed. The focus is on options and the possibility of representing the memory of the pioneers in a modern city with a predominantly oil-based population. The public organization “Pioneers of Kogalym” and the city museum are the memory actors involved in the construction and representation of “pre-urban” memory. The difficulty in transferring and preserving memory is associated with the constant migration of the population; accordingly, memory transfer does not occur at the individual and family levels. The conclusion is made that although the history of the pioneers is included in the citywide historical narrative, the image of the city as a city of LUKOIL displaces the previous stage of the city’s development. Moreover, the personal memory of most of the townspeople does not contain memories of the first builders. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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