HISTORICAL MEMORY IN URBAN SPACE: PARADOXES OF CHURCH AND POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF NATIONAL HOLY PLACES IN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE

Abstract

The article gives an analysis of the history of the reconstruction and building of iconic churches of Ukraine and Russia: the Church of the Tithes, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, which are national shrines. The author offers the method of understanding of socio-political queries and evolution of historical memory embodied in architectural images and restoration ideas. It is substantiated that the process of reconstruction of destroyed temples reflects not so much to the religious renaissance in Eastern Europe, as the interests of the state and politicians in manipulating historical memory. An important factor is the interests of business and the ambitions of the creative intelligentsia. There is a contradiction between the ideology of reproduction as a new construction in the historic sense and the principles of scientific restoration, whose purpose is to preserve the authenticity of the monument as a means of attaching to the past. The newly-created dominants roughly invade the urban landscape that emerged during the twentieth century and causes disillusionment among the public. Similar buildings are regarded as «novodel» and «simulacres» and conflict with the understanding of national history and religious needs. The differences in the process of reproduction of temples in Ukraine and Russia are emphasized at the level of conceptual ideas, interests, expected and real results. They are explained by the difference between Russian political monopoly and Ukrainian social corporatism. The concept of «symmetrical restoration» and the religious-confessional neutrality of places of national memory as a factor of maintaining public peace and tranquillity is proposed and substantiated.