THE KAZAKH CEMETERY IN OMSK: CONTINUITY OF TRADITIONS AND THE SOVIET MEMORY POLITICS (LATE 1919 – EARLY 1941)

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the history of the old memorial Kazakh Cemetery in Omsk. The aim of the paper is to characterize the contradictions between Russian necro-culture traditions and the Soviet Memory policy with the example of the Kazakh Chemistry in Omsk between the late 1919 – early 1941. The author describes the appearance of cemetary, briefly characterizes the social composition of the people buried in the cemetery, lists the graves of the most interesting people. The author highlights the signs of pre-revolutionary traditions preserved in the cemeteries’ layout and the Soviet innovations. The paper also characterizes the attitude of the local Soviet authorities, the press and the residents of the city to the problems of the cemetery's destruction in the 1920s – 1930. In methodological terms, this work reflects a new experience in the studies of Siberia – the combination anthropology-oriented approach to the study of the society’s historical memory, known as the «memory studies» and the methods of traditional necropolistics. The author concludes that after the revolution the Kazakh Cemetery kept the signs of pre-revolutionary necroculture for many years. However, in the early 1920s, under the influence of the Soviet Memory policy, the memorial aesthetics and the attitude of citizens to historical necropolis changed. Despite the local intelligentsia’s efforts to keep the Kazakh Chemistry, this memorial place had been heavily damaged by the early 1940s., avoiding, however, the almost complete destruction of what was happening in other cities of Western Siberia.