The Feat of Vasily Ryabov and the Formation of Imperial Identity (Based on Materials from the Penza Region)

During the Russo-Japanese War, the feat of private Vasily Ryabov, a native of the Ivanovka village, Penza district of the same region became the event of unprecedented significance for the Russian province.This article is devoted to identifying and analyzing the practices of spontaneous commemoration and means of memorial policy in relation to honoring the memory of the hero.The source base of the study was made up of the records of the governor's office and the directorate of public schools, as well as publications of the regional periodical press.The concept of "commemoration" is understood as a set of actions aimed at consolidating in the collective memory and transmitting social experience necessary for solving actual problems of the present and future.The key parameters of memorialization of the past were reasoned.The functional purpose of commemoration as a method has been established: consolidation and regulation of mass experiences against the background of defeats and the unsuccessful start of the war; formation of imperial, provincial and local identities.The signs of the transition from traditional to modern commemorative forms and manifestations of civil initiative were revealed.The authors consider the ways of information transmitting, historically determined forms of socio-political interaction to coordinate commemorative actions, the relationship between memorial culture and historical politics.