Memory, sacredness, and public space in Moscow: Reassertion of the master narrative

Via the use of monumental architecture, commemorative activity, and state symbolism along with a reorganization of "sacred" space within the capital city, the post-Soviet Russian government creates and disseminates a new form of the master narrative of Russian national identity that has long been a project of Russian authorities both before and during the Soviet period as well. This thesis examines the possibility of interpreting these sites of memory and commemorative practices as a form of textual mediation between the aforementioned producers and consumers of national master narratives, and the ways in which the "consumers" of these texts, whether said texts come in the form of actual books, Kremlin-friendly reporting, mass demonstrations, monumental architecture, and commemorative activities, negotiate the predominantly top-down generation of historical memory, and in doing so find several means of expressing non-official narratives despite a political climate that views nearly all such alternatives as hostile.;This research also contributes in a broader sense to the ethnographic study of monumentality, cultural production, space, and the dynamic interaction of state and public via narrative construction. The use of narrative as a means of legitimating statehood is not unique to Russia, and is certainly not unique to transitional states; and thus the same or similar questions of power dynamics and national identity construction and consumption can be asked virtually anywhere that monumental construction is prevalent. Urban centers, particularly national capitals, along with former colonial holdings and emerging twenty-first century economic powers are all areas in which this research can be reapplied and expanded.;The authoritarian approach to historical narrative that characterizes' current Russian monumental, historical, and commemorative activity leaves little room for public dissent, and has either co-opted or marginalized counter-narratives, and those which survive are subject to harassment and the threat of silencing at any time. Still, as in Soviet times, the public finds ways to exist alongside the often heavy-handed expressions of state authority and make their own, more practical use of them.