The Language of Grief in Public Space: Practices of Creating “Spontaneous” Memorials in Modern Russia [Yazyk skorbi v publichnom prostranstve: praktiki sozdaniia “spontannykh” memorialov v sovremennoi Rossii].

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Abstract

This article is an introduction to the issue’s special theme on “Ritualism in the Space of a Contemporary City”, by Daria Radchenko, and Andrey Zagorulko and Egor Krykov. Over the past few decades, a language has been formed for public symbolic expression of grief associated with resonant tragedies. This language assumes: the formation of special symbolically loaded memory places in the urban space; manipulation of colour schemes that have symbolic meaning; the use of a repertoire of individual and group commemorative actions. Such commemorative practices arose as predominantly spontaneous actions based on the initiative of individuals and small interest groups. However, in Russia there is a tendency for the state and its actors to appropriate such practices.

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About the authors

Dmitry V. Gromov

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: gromovdv@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0443-8718

д. и. н., ведущий научный сотрудник

Russian Federation, Moscow

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2. Fig. 1. One of the objects of the memorial dedicated to those killed during the uprising in October 1993 (Moscow, Druzhinnikovskaya Street). The choice of color (red with the addition of mourning black) emphasizes the commitment of the dead to communist ideas. September 2012. Photo by the author

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3. Fig. 2. Symbolic objects form a performative statement. Memorial at the Japanese Embassy, ​​March 2011. Photo by the author

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4. Fig. 3. Memorial at the site of the terrorist attack at Lubyanka station (March 29, 2010). An example of how an official organization (Moscow Metro) provides a spontaneous memorial – tables and a banner are set up, a metro employee is tending to the flowers. Photo by the author

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5. Fig. 4. Emergencies Ministry cadets lay flowers in an organized manner at the “official” memorial to those killed in Kemerovo. March 2018. Photo by the author

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