The System of Symbols in Moscow Between the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries: A Theological and Political Space

Moscow and its urban, political and symbolic heart, concentrated around the Kremlin and Red Square. has been the charismatic centre, that harbours the greatest concentration of meanings, symbols, values, and thus also of power, throughout the long period of Russian history, with traits distinctive of the contemporary era, from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first century. We can trace the interwoven threads of religious legitimisation and political authority in the charismatic centre that is Moscow, particularly in its urban heart. These are what make Moscow a theological and political space. Throughout Russia’s history, processes of sacralisation of power have had their epicentre in Moscow, whose urban and ideological fabrics are steeped in sacred references. The Moscow landmarks have assumed the status of both “sacred spaces” and “political spaces.” During the 19th century, after the French occupation of 1812, a myth of Moscow was formed. In 1918 the revolutionary power of the Bolsheviks brought the political center of Russia back to Moscow. The Soviet power rewrote the language of the sacred in the city, and particularly in its urban, political and ideological-symbolic heart, which was the Kremlin with the Red Square. This identification and configuration of the capital’s centre was a crucial building block in Stalin’s vision of the city. A key step in this process of sacralization of Red Square was the erection of the mausoleum intended to house Lenin’s body, which underwent special embalming processes. Post-Soviet Moscow saw a further resemantisation of the city’s symbolic space. As part of a broader operation to reformulate the symbolic culture of the Russian Federation, Moscow’s political symbolism has occupied a prominent place in the legitimisation of the new political power.