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COMMEMORATION OF THE CONFRONTATION: THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORY’S LOCI ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR IN THE CITIES OF SIBERIA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 3 (17). P. 57-75

The article is aimed to describe the system of memory places existing in the cities of Siberia and being connected with the history of the Civil War (1918– 1922). There is determined the value of monument as an important systemforming component of the urban environment, expressing the value attitude of society, both to the global and local historical past. The importance of monument as a brand of a city and a region is emphasized. The conditions of functioning of the memorial as a memory place, expressing a variety of meanings and associated with the actual historical memory of the local community. The tendency of gradual oblivion of Civil war in Siberia and transformation of memorials in the historical places, which are not connected with live social memory is revealed. The main characteristics of the existing memorial infrastructure in Siberian cities related to the Civil War are established. These ones are a weak connection between the symbolic solution of monuments and the place of events that they perpetuate; separation from the modern scientific reflection on the Civil War in Siberia; fixation of the confrontation of ideological opponents and their principled intransigence; the lack of initiatives aimed at perpetuating the memory of the numerous non-heroic victims of the war. A series of proposals aimed at the transformation of the memorial infrastructure of the Civil War in the cities of Siberia in the context of the memorable date of the 100th anniversary of its inception there is made on behalf of the Novosibirsk community of historians. It is proposed to abandon the memorial symbols that express the reconciliation of opponents, because in fact it did not take place. There is a call to find new memorial forms that do not glorify the complex past, but express the humanistic sense of recognition of the tragedy, which should not be repeated. A new phase of memorialization of the Civil war in Siberia must be associated with the recognition of numerous unheroic victims among the civilian population, which are now forgotten. It is also noted that the actualization of the memory of the Civil war can help to solve the problems of branding of the cities of the region to create positive images of Siberia in the public consciousness of its inhabitants.

Keywords: commemoration, memorialization, politics of memory, monument, consensus, Civil War, cities of Siberia