Anniversary as a structure-forming factor of the commemorative politics

The set of memorable dates is one of the supporting elements in the toolkit of historical policy, implemented. This toolkit is applied in the form of anniversaries - sets of complex measures to update historical memory. The objective of this article is to identify the typological features of the "anniversary" practice in the historical policy of Russia in the twentieth century. The basic research method is to identify anniversary cases, based on those memorable dates that played the most important role in historical policy at different stages of the existence of Russian statehood. The result of the study was the identification of two basic tasks of the "anniversary" practice. The first of them is the formalization of the transformation of public consciousness, following a change in state policy or public reaction to this policy. The second task is to mobilize public consciousness to achieve the goals of either state policy or public activity. In each of the three cases under consideration, these two functions were present, but in different proportions, which influenced the nature and results of each specific anniversary practice.