The Memory of Regional Differences: Anniversaries of Siberian Cities (1904-43)

The aim of this article is to trace the dynamics of the commemorative component of the jubilee celebrations that took place in Siberian cities during the first half of the 20th century. The author compares jubilee events in honor of the 300th anniversary of Tomsk (1904), the 300th anniversary of Krasnoyarsk (1928) and the 50th anniversary of Novosibirsk (1943). Unpublished documents kept in the archives of Siberian cities, daily newspapers printed in Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk and journalistic works were used as sources for the research. In the article, the meanings of the policy of memory reflected in the celebrations are clarified; sociopolitical and cultural contexts that affected the nature of celebrations in different years are established; features of historical continuity in the organization of festive events are identified. The modern practice of celebrating City Days has a long history. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were three-hundredth anniversary celebrations in several Siberian towns, including Tomsk. Festive events were prepared by political forces oppositional to the tsarist authorities. They used the memorable date as an informational occasion to accentuate the problems of Siberia and to achieve democratic reforms in Tomsk. But due to obstacles on the part of the state, the holiday in honor of the 300th anniversary of Tomsk never took place. The 300th anniversary of Krasnoyarsk was celebrated in 1928 when the system of Soviet commemorations was already established. The holiday took a subordinate position in relation to the anniversary of the October Revolution. The anniversary was organized by local party bodies that involved museum workers and historians in the celebrations; the latter in many ways reproduced the ideas of pre-revolutionary organizers of the Siberian jubilees. But in 1928 the commemorators did not express anti-government sentiments. They criticized only the position of the already overthrown imperial authority in relation to Siberia. Glorifying the revolution and Soviet power, extolling its success in solving the three-hundred-year-old problems of Siberia, local museum workers and local historians obtained finances from the central authorities for the reconstruction of the museum and the publication of historical literature. Also, the holiday contributed to the legitimization of the power of local Bolsheviks, who had heroically struggled for the political and socio-economic interests of the population of the Prieni-seysky Krai and achieved good results. The focus on the 50th anniversary of Novosibirsk was due to the need to stimulate patriotism and industrial feats of workers stationed at the rear of the Russian forces during the war. Celebrations also reflected the growing self-awareness of the local production elite that was actually merging with the management elite. In 1943 the image of the city of Novosibirsk was formed: a great worker valiantly fighting for Victory, struggling at the front of the defense industry. The anniversary symbolically raised the status of Novosibirsk and its administration that achieved great production successes in extreme conditions. Novosibirsk was credited with the historical role of a locomotive that dragged the whole of Siberia along the path of progressive development. This image remains relevant.

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