VISUAL PLURALITY OF ST. PETERSBURG: OBVIOUS AND UNOBVIOUS
DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2023-4-119-142
St. Petersburg is one of the recognized UNESCO World Heritage sites. It arose and was historically organized as a meeting place for world cultures. The maximum approximation of the capital to the borders of the state initially predetermined its ethnic and confessional multiformity, which was the potential for active creative interaction. The subject of consideration in this publication is the dialogue of recognized world architects, whose professional task was the formation of the planning structure of the historical center of the capital. For a modern city dweller involved in the sphere of domestic relations, the historical landscape undergoes semantic reduction. The figurative system of ensembles and monumental monuments comes to be only an impersonal background of everyday life, while the scale of architectural projects and urban planning ideas is leveled and simplified. However, the cultural heritage is turned to the probabilistic logic of reproduction, which can be done with the help of reading, interpretation and verification programs. Based on the comparison and comprehensive assessment of historical sources, statistical data and memoir documents, attribution and disclosure of new semantic oppositions of the urban structure are proposed. The examples selected for the analysis implied the use of hermeneutic approaches in the attribution of historical material with its binding to a system of topological projections. An important place in the knowledge of St. Petersburg belongs to the languages of the non-obvious, the disclosure of the unmanifested aspects of its value structure. The specificity of the translation of visual images into everyday language becomes the primary subject of consideration. The city as a semiotic space is included in the system of text-generating mechanisms that combine the planning principle of building and the conditionality of everyday scenarios by the place of action into a single whole. A certain unity of behavioral models can act as a criterion for characterizing the urban space, which actualizes the position of the urban observer. Thanks to this, “la promenade de l’Empereur” – the route of Emperor Alexander I’s daily walks – is specified, and a commentary is offered on the political scenario for the opening of the monument in his honor. The fact of the installation of the Alexander Column is assessed not only as a memory of the merits of the emperor, but also as an event that determined the legitimacy of the power of his successor, Emperor Nicholas I. The modern city acts as a historically defined visual diversity. The semiotic analysis of urban phenomena is focused on the integration of this unique content. The inevitable changes in the value structure of the city are replaced by the production of new spatial connections. The meaning-generating mission of St. Petersburg is the experience of constant discovery and acquisition, the production of the value presence of man.
Keywords: memorial policy, social myth, event script, value topography of city, visual thinking, meta-landscape, Saint Petersburg
References:
Benoîs, A. N. (1902). Picturesque Petersburg. Mir iskusstva, 7(1:3), 1–5. (In Russian).
Benoîs, A. N. [Veniaminov, B.]. (1899). Agony of Petersburg. Mir iskusstva, 2(15:2:2), 16–17. (In Russian).
Brandes, G. (2002). Indtryk fra Rusland. OGI. (In Russian).
Buturlin, M. D. (2006). Memoirs of Count M. D. Buturlin (Vol. 1). Russkaya usad’ba. (In Russian).
Gromov M. N., Kozlov N. S. (1990). Russian philosophical thought of the X–XVII centuries. Moscow. (In Russian).
Custine, A. (1996). La Russie en 1839. Izdatel’stvo imeni Sabashnikovykh. (In Russian).
Guzairov, T. T. (2009). Opening of the Alexander Column in St. Petersburg. In Universitatis Tartuensis Humaniora: Works on Russian and Slavic Philology (pp. 111–127). University of Tartu Press. (In Russian).
Ignatiev, D. Yu. (2017). Communicative ontology of the city: semiotic construction of urban phenomens. Obshchestvo. Sreda. Razvitie, 4(45), 27–29. (In Russian).
Ignatiev, D. Yu. (2019). Ethos of the city from the perspective of philosophical urban studies. In Eticheskoe i esteticheskoe v obrazovanii [Ethical and aesthetic in education] (pp. 72–76). Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. (In Russian).
Ivanov, G. V. (1994). Sobranie sochineniy [Collected Works] (Vol. 3). Soglasie.
Lansere, N. E. (2012). Staryy Peterburg [Old Petersburg]. Kolo.
Lelina, E. (Ed.). (2010). Pavel I bez retushi. Antologiya [Paul I without retouching. Anthology]. Amfora. (In Russian).
Lerner, N. O. (1916). Lovely Petrograd. Stolitsa i usad’ba: Zhurnal krasivoy zhizni, 68, p. 13. (In Russian).
Leskov, N. S. (1880). An anecdote about Emperor Alexander I. Istoricheskiy vestnik, 2(7), 556–557. (In Russian).
Letyagin, L. N. (2003). Drafts and interlineators of the St. Petersburg cultural text. In Zhiznennyy mir polikul’turnogo Peterburga [Life world of multicultural St. Petersburg] (pp. 150–155). Asterion. (In Russian).
Letyagin, L. N. (2004). Applicant: the experience of aesthetic analytics. Izvestiya RGPU im. A. I. Gertsena, 4(7), 25–33. (In Russian).
Letyagin, L. N. (2017). Lyceum Universe of the “Porphyrogenitus Child”: Historical Morphology of Biographical Scenarios. Obshchestvo. Sreda. Razvitie, 3, 67–70. (In Russian).
Lotman, Yu. M. (1983). Roman A. S. Pushkina “Evgeniy Onegin”: Kommentarii [A. S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”: Commentaries]. Prosveshchenie.
Lotman, Yu. M. (1992). Izbrannye stat’i [Selected articles] (Vol. 1). Aleksandra.
Lotman, Yu. M. (2010). Nepredskazuemye mekhanizmy kul’tury [Unpredictable mechanisms of culture]. TLU Press.
Lotman, Yu. M., & Uspensky, B. A. (2010). On the semantic mechanism of culture. In Yu. M. Lotman, Semiosfera [Semiosphere] (pp. 485–503). Iskusstvo-SPb. (In Russian).
Lukomsky, G. K. (1917). Staryy Peterburg [Old Petersburg]. Svobodnoe iskusstvo.
Odoevsky, V. F. (1975). Russkie nochi [The Russian Nights]. Nauka.
Panaev, V. I. (1892). Monument to Emperor Alexander I. Russkaya starina, 76(11), 289–295. (In Russian).
Pruzhinin, B. I. et al. (2019). Anthropology of Museum: Conceptual Sphere of Ideas, Historical Dialogue and Preservation of Value Constants. Voprosy filosofii, 5, 5–23. (In Russian).
Pushkin, A. S. (1996). Polnoe sobranie sochineniy [Complete Works] (Vol. 13). USSR AS. (In Russian).
Rotach, A. L. (1966). Aleksandrovskaya kolonna [Alexander Column]. Izdatel’stvo literatury po stroitel’stvu.
Rovinsky, D. A. (1889). Podrobnyy slovar’ russkikh gravirovannykh portretov [A detailed dictionary of Russian engraved portraits] (Vol. 1). Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Rozanov, V. V. (2001). Literaturnye izgnanniki [Literary Exiles]. Agraf.
Rozina, I. V. (2012). Folk Song, Civil Prayer: the official national anthem of the Russian Empire. Analitika kul’turologii, 2, 164–166. (In Russian).
Russian State Historical Archive. F. 516. Descr. 1 (29/1619). P. 11. Journal of the Chamber-Fourier Part. 1816. (In Russian).
Sholomova, T. V. (2019a). Urban moralizing as a kind of pedagogical urban studies. In K. V. Sultanov, Istoricheskoe soznanie i postmaterial’nye tsennosti [Historical consciousness and post-material values] (pp. 469–472). Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia.
Sholomova, T. V. (2019b). Philosophical urban studies and pedagogical Petersburg’s studies in the context of university education. Idei i idealy, 11(4:1), 205–216. (In Russian).
Shurygin, Ya. I. (1962). B. I. Orlovsky. Iskusstvo. (In Russian).
Shvedova, S. O. (2006). Alexander column in the spaces of poetry, ideology, history. Izvestiya RGPU im. A. I. Gertsena, 6(16), 85–101. (In Russian).
Silberstein, I. S. (1993). Parizhskie nakhodki. Epokha Pushkina [Parisian finds. The era of Pushkin]. Izobrazitel’noe iskusstvo.
Sollogub, V. A. (1998). Vospominaniya [Memoirs]. Akademiya.
Solomin, V. P., Letyagin, L. N., & Ignatiev, D. Yu. (2014). Educational universe of the city: pedagogical aspects of philosophical urbanism. Nizhegorodskoe obrazovanie, 2, 124–129. (In Russian).
Steklova, I. A. (2014). The image of the St. Petersburg embankment in the novel by A. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 2, 286–293. (In Russian).
Sternin, G. Yu. (2007). Dva veka. Ocherki russkoy khudozhestvennoy kul’tury [Two centuries: essays on Russian artistic culture]. Galart.
Sverbeev, D. N. (2014). Moi zapiski [My notes]. Nauka. (In Russian).
Syroechkovsky, B. (1926). Mezhdutsarstvie 1825 goda i vosstanie dekabristov v perepiske i memuarakh chlenov tsarskoy sem’i [Interregnum of 1825 year and the Decembrist uprising in the correspondence and memoirs of members of the royal family]. Ed. by B. Syroechkovsky. Gos. izdatel’stvo.
Toporov, V. N. (1995). Mif. Ritual. Simvol. Obraz [Myth. Ritual. Symbol. Image]. Progress.
Uspensky, B. A. (2002). Etyudy o russkoy istorii [Studies about Russian history]. OGI.
Uspensky, V. A. (2018). Trudy po nematematike [Works on non-mathematics] (Vol. 5, pp. 253–301). OGI.
Volpert, L. I. (2010). Pushkinskaya Frantsiya [Pushkin’s France] (pp. 395–398). Tartu University.
Vyazemsky, P. A. (2017). Zapisnye knizhki [Notebooks]. Zakharov. (In Russian).
Vyskochkov, L. V. (2019). Before the interregnum. Angel Alexander and Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich (1819–1825). Peterburgskiy istoricheskiy zhurnal, 2, 65–81. (In Russian).
Yankova, E. P. (1989). Rasskazy babushki [Grandmother’s stories]. Nauka.
Zaikin, I. I. (1827). Poslednie dni zhizni nezabvennogo monarkha [The last days of the life of the unforgettable monarch]. St. Petersburg.
Zakharova, L. G. (1993). Diary of the Grand Duke. Rodina, 1, 54–59. (In Russian).
Zhukovsky, V. A. (2001). Proza poeta [Poet’s Prose] (pp. 60–66). Vargius. (In Russian).
( 1.87 MB ) 
( 1.84 MB )
Issue: 4, 2023
Series of issue: Issue 4
Rubric: ARTICLES
Pages: 119 — 142
Downloads: 519