The Saratov Scientific Archival Commission as a Creator of the City’s Images (Second Half of the 19th — Early 20th Century)

Russia of the second half of the 19th — early 20th century was characterized by a transformation of culture in general, as well as at the local level. There was an increase in urban territorial self-awareness, which determined the formation of urban communities that considered it their duty to show the significance of their city among others, to draw attention to it. In the post-reform period, Saratov became one of the few provincial cities in which an archival commission appeared, whose representatives were engaged in collecting and studying the past of the city.

Based on the materials of regional sources (historical and local essays, guidebooks, and the works of the Saratov Scientific Archival Commission), the article for the first time examines the Commission’s activities in two ways: as a representation of already existing, established images of the city, and as a creator of new ones.

This study strives to answer the question of what the local urban community of Saratov was in the period under review, and to analyze how its activities influenced the formation of the city’s images. The article finds that the texts created were aimed at dispelling the existing myths about the city as a “back country”, “village”. The analysis of the class affiliation and professional composition of the members of the Saratov Scientific Archival Commission testifies to the democratization of the process of forming the city’s images, which were created not only in the space of noble culture, but in the wide urban space. In the second half of the 19th — early 20th century, the social stratification of provincial society underwent changes, which led to the isolation of social groups with differences in class, education, profession, lifestyle, and value system.

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