The Topical Past: Instrumentalization of the Historical Memory of 1812 during the Crimean War of 1853–1856

Abstract

The main methods and forms of updating the historical memory of the events of 1812–1814 in legislative acts, periodicals, brochures, and books are presented. The complex of historical sources on this issue includes manifestos, rescripts, appeals, and letters of Alexander I, citing which contemporaries demonstrated the similarities between the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Eastern (Crimean) War of 1853–1856; a set of issues of the newspaper Severnaya Pchela (Northern Post) (March 1854); and book editions The General Militia of Russia for the Faith, the Tsar, and the Fatherland and The 40th Anniversary of the Russians’ Entry into Paris on March 19, 1814, directly devoted to the comparison of the events of 1812 and 1853–1856. As a result of a comparative contextual analysis of texts of different origins and genre and stylistic features, three content blocks were identified through which the historical memory of the Patriotic War of 1812 and the foreign campaigns of the Russian army was updated in the public space of the Russian Empire during the Crimean War. The first problem–thematic block is represented by texts the authors of which, using historical analogies, showed the contradictory nature of the alliance of England, France, and Turkey against Russia; the disparity between the figures of Napoleon Bonaparte and Napoleon III; and the “true” goals of the Allies’ participation in the war. The content of the texts conditionally grouped into the second problem–thematic block clearly demonstrates the variety of genres and rhetorical techniques used to justify Russia’s intentions and actions in the comparative retrospective of the two wars. The third problem–thematic block of texts has made it possible to identify the main ways of updating the memory of the conflict that had happened forty years before to show the reader the continuity of generations and the readiness of the entire society to sacrifice themselves to achieve common goals.