Re-inventing the past, defining the future historical representations and regional development in the Russian Northwest: Novgorod the Great and Kaliningrad
Creators: name: Sorokina, Alfia
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Geography.
subject: East European Studies.

description: The purpose of this study is to investigate and document the connections between recent dynamics of development and identity construction in two Russian regions: Novgorod the Great and Kaliningrad. The range of primary (books, flyers, photographs and documentaries) and secondary (newspaper, magazine and electronic articles) material produced in the regions is utilized to identify and examine common themes and topics that have emerged in the course of the pre-anniversary 'marketing' campaigns undertaken by these regions nationally and abroad. Some of the previous work on the topic of regional political and socio-economic development has taken into account the impact of local identities for creating favourable climates for regional development. This analysis examines the practices of re-interpretation of local histories in the contexts of national and international ones, the groups of local actors creating such interpretations, and the potential effect of such exercise. In my analysis, working from the social constructivist perspective, I utilize Ray's theory of the dialectic in local development, the concept of the invention of tradition, the elements of Bourdieu's social theory and Dovey's premise of the political role of architecture in social life to demonstrate: 1) that interpretation of historical facts is being strategically used to promote political, economic and cultural ideas and to imply the continuity of history and tradition with the past; 2) that certain groups in scientific and cultural circles are more than others involved in the processes of interpretation; 3) that the process of interpreting and reviving regional histories has an impact on territorial identity and local development projects. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many if not all Russian regions were left in disarray. In an effort to facilitate regional development, they have been trying to create and develop various industries, to attract investment, and simply draw attention to their regions with their existing problems. Some of them sooner than others came to realization that creating an attractive "image" might be the key to successfully competing for resources nationally and internationally. One of these regions was the Novgorod oblast. According to the series of studies, in the 1990s regional elites created there such positive environment for collaboration between various governmental structures, local intelligentsia and NGOs, that the region, without having much of an investment potential, became one of the country's leaders in attracting foreign investment. The second region, Kaliningrad oblast, was chosen for comparative purpose because of its extraordinary Prussian-German background and its unusual present-day positioning as the Russian semi-exclave and the enclave of the European Union. This oblast', in the not so remote past commonly portrayed as the "black hole" of the Russian Federation, has more recently become the focal point of the Russian-European relations. Both regions under study have been attempting to create favourable images of themselves and to promote local development. And for both regions local histories and identities have proven crucial in the image-creating exercise. It is particularly interesting to study territorial identity re-creation in these two regions because, within national and international contexts, certain historical facts and perspectives have been either emphasized or overlooked depending on the goals and motivations of the responsible regional players. Secondly, accents and emphases on historical meanings are being directly influenced by the political, socio-economic and cultural conditions each of the regions faces. Thus, officially accepted territorial identities and their connections to respective historical representations are said, often times, to influence and be influenced by the goals of regional development. The work begins with the outline of historical, political and socio-economic backgrounds of Novgorod the Great and Kaliningrad It is followed by the explanation of the theoretical and methodological approaches used to analyze the data. The main part of the thesis is thereafter dedicated to the analysis of the collected data using these concepts and methods and is concluded with the summary of the findings and some recommendations for further research on the subject.