The embodied cultural landscape phenomenon in the construction of regional identity (on the example of the Staritsky vernacular district)

Abstract

The Tver Region is a fractional polycentric space, saturated with historical and historical-geographical meanings, primarily as a set of many local identities rooted deep in history. The polycentric structure of the Tver region, the weakness of the administrative center are the reasons for the special processes of spatial self-organization of society - the formation of vernacular areas that exist as part of folk culture. As a vernacular area, the Upper Volga region is distinguished by a number of researchers. The Staritsky Upper Volga region, whose history has been developing for ten centuries, is a unique historical, cultural, architectural and natural complex. The Staritsky district, where the necessary historical prerequisites for the manifestation of the local level of territorial self-consciousness have developed, falls into the zone of influence of the Moscow agglomeration, since it is close to Moscow from the point of view of transport and geography. The more serious becomes the need to include the Staritsky Region in the zone of Tver influence through a consolidating strategy for the formation of an integral Tver identity. The interests of stabilizing the Tver regional identity, in this case, turned out to be above historical authenticity and embodied the cultural landscape of the field of the Battle of Bortenev in the territory of the Staritsky Region, relying on intangible cultural heritage, and not yet confirming its authenticity archaeologically. A distinctive military-historical landscape with information signs and objects of material culture has emerged, contributing to the consolidation and formation of the Tver regional identity around the image of Mikhail Tversky and the Battle of Bortenevo.