Shaping the Image of Nicholas II in Historical Memory

The image of the last Russian emperor's family arouses big interest despite the fact that times are changing. Nicholas II is quite an ambiguous historical figure. It may be stated that public opinion about him varies a lot. It causes a great number of discussions, every time another newsbreak comes to light. Basically, it is the mass media that stimulate people's memory: anniversary announcements, new movies, etc. The research is relevant as far as the story considered in the article is one of those that shape our collective memory. The latter contributes to the shaping of the state identity. That is why it is significant to examine the way Nicholas II's image has been shaped in historical context. The author analyzes the data that shape the image of Emperor Nicholas II in historical memory. The growing variety of such data is considered, their content is studied. She examines the documents from Nicholas II's epoch, scholarly works of the Soviet and post-Soviet times, textbooks, the most popular information resources, some commemoration practices, and the museum space. The author separately presents the national tourist project “Emperor's Route” and some visual sources targeted at the broad target audience. She defines the basic trends in evaluating the personality of Nicholas II, as well as the basic components of his image including the recent ones according to which the Russian Emperor is referred to as a passion bearer. The article contains some references to sociological studies. The image of Nicholas II is widely recognizable and consists of a definite number of beliefs and values. Nicholas II's epoch and his personality arouse big interest, the emperor being a symbol of that time. The society has numerous and various sources and channels of information. On the one hand, it allows getting an almost unlimited access to the data, evaluative data as well. On the other hand, it complicates the process of shaping a single image. The name of Nicholas II is still retained by historical memory, associated with tragic events in the history of our country, and his reign is evaluated ambiguously. At present, we can clearly distinguish the presence of two main trends in the assessment of Nicholas II's personality: critical and apologetic. People sympathize with the emperor's family, especially with the children. This component of Nicholas II's image does not cause any major controversies regardless of sex or age group, political views or other characteristics of the audience.

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