The synchrony of Soviet public holidays and modern "urban rituals" (using the example of Ulan-Ude)

Dashibalova Irina Nikolaevna PhD in Philosophy Senior Scientific Associate, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies 6 Sakhyanova str., office 206, Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, 670047, Russia dashibalonirina@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

The study of the structure of the Soviet festive event as a ritual action is promising for humanitarian knowledge from the point of view of analyzing the universal nature of social interaction and the constitution of urban practices. The need to reconstruct the urban rituals of late Soviet culture makes it possible to discover a common cultural memory with modern celebrations. The interpenetration of the Soviet tradition of celebrations and post-Soviet invented traditions is relevant for generations who have experienced the period of late socialism. This article will focus on the synchronicity of the visual and ideological discourse of the Soviet and post-Soviet solemn presentations held in Ulan-Ude. The research question outlined by the author of the article can be defined as the disclosure of political governance mechanisms using the example of urban celebrations. At the same time, despite the standardization of Soviet and Russian festive processes, the regional peculiarities of these events remained. Thus, it is necessary to highlight the ambivalence and ambiguity of the urban ritual as a means of the cultural arsenal of national and local government.

Aspects of symbolic policy in the regions of the Russian Federation

The use of symbolic resources in regional administration is a well-established managerial and ideological practice. The multilevel character of symbol translation, various channels of verbal and visual circulation of symbols determine the essence of symbolic policy ^{[1, p. 66]}.

The methodology of studying the synchronicity of celebrations held in the late Soviet and modern periods is based on a number of domestic studies on the regional peculiarities of symbolic politics in the Russian Federation. Researchers Malinova O.Yu., Miller A.I., Pakhalyuk K.A. studied the intensity of memory politics in the Russian political and socio-cultural space ^[2]. Rightly noting the semantic burden of the concept of "memory politics" and the multiplicity of actors in the process of reconstruction of federal and regional memory sites, the authors define the boundaries of the "imaginary geography" and the changing map of memory sites in connection with the national historical and cultural standard. The idea of interaction and mobilization of ethnic communities to construct memory sites is productive for our research topic.

D.A. Anikin noted that in place of the lacunae of the Soviet past, a space of images of the mythical past is currently being created in Russian regions "in competition for tourist and investment attractiveness" ^{[3, p. 125]}. As confirmed by the data of our study, Ulan-Ude did not escape this process either, articulating celebrations, festivals and city holidays based on historical dates and mythologems.

The regional marker in the construction of symbolic politics is actively institutionalized and scaled in the Russian Federation. The use of an identitarian approach in the study of territorial identity in the aspect of ritualization is given in the work of M. V. Nazukina, A. S. Startseva on the example of megaprojects ^[4].

The theoretical interpretation of the Soviet experience and the field of memory studies is also the basis for this study. Within the framework of the article, referring to the rich baggage of works on Soviet political culture, we limit ourselves to some, given the huge range of research. In particular, Rusakova O. F., Gribovod E. G., Moiseenko Ya. Y. updated the study of communicative practices on the example of visualization and reconstruction of objects of the historical past ^[5].

Time frame, conceptual framework and research methods

The time period analyzed in the article is taken from the 1970s, the period of consolidation of the Soviet ideological background of public holidays until 1991, the date of the end of the existence of the USSR in comparison with the modern period of Russian political history (1991-2015).

We believe it is possible to apply the conceptual framework of the German anthropologist Christoph Wolf, who defined the performative nature of ritual action in relation to modern political processes ^{[6, p. 144]}. By studying visual reports of mass celebrations held in Ulan-Ude in the 1970s and 1980s and the 1990s and 2010s, it is possible to identify the sustainability and duration of urban rituals. The visual analysis of documents, as well as the discourse analysis of mass media publications is used. The documents of the Irkutsk Regional Film Fund, materials from regional mass media, and photo documents from the websites of the Republic of Buryatia serve as sources for reconstruction.

The methodological baggage of works on the theory of the Soviet holiday is quite wide. Discussions about the phenomenon of the Soviet holiday developed 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and others . ^{[7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]}. The work of the German researcher Rolf M. "Soviet mass holidays" proves the thesis about the political culture of mass holidays and the inculcation of ideological standards to the population. "The holiday was politics, and the Soviet festive event was an expression of a specific form of domination" ^{[14, p. 7]}. This study mainly focuses on the idea of the disciplining function of Soviet holidays as a channel for state dictatorship. Rolf conducted a detailed historical analysis of the establishment of the Soviet holiday culture. In his work, we found the idea of rooting the Soviet holiday as a factor of "mass communication of people, which was wider than the narrow world of representatives of party and state bodies ... Thanks to the communication of people standing on different floors of the social and power hierarchy, the Soviet holiday turned from an official solemn event into a lively cultural event" ^{[14, p. 10]}. With the help of holidays, the topography of the urban environment was formed, a process that Rolf M. called the "colonization of public space" ^{[14, p. 271]}.

It should be noted that in anthropological science there is a semantic separation of the concepts of "holiday" and "ritual". From the point of view of the "private-general" opposition, the scope of the concept of "holiday" is the same and is characterized by the opposition of everyday reality. The ritual originates from a religious context, and its classical description is embodied in the works of E. Durkheim, J. Fraser, W. Turner, K. Levi-Strauss, V. Toporov, K. Geertz, and others. Currently, there is a methodological freedom in the use of the term "ritual" in describing modern social processes, the main content of which is the sacralization of everyday life, and not only strictly regulated religious canons. Features of the ritual process in everyday life, repetition, theatricality of the action, which is, as it were, part of a play; a "specially" developed style of behavior (actions and symbols are used in an unusual meaning for them, or unusual signs or symbols are used); orderliness; a special emotional and elated state of the participants; the obligatory social significance of the ritual, the presence of some ritually transmitted social message. Thus, a school ruler, a party meeting, a family celebration, etc. become a form of a modern ritual.

Mass holidays such as the First of May and the anniversary of the October Revolution served as symbolic saturation ^[15]. So, our use of the term "holiday" is not used in the sense of a watershed with everyday life, but as a form of ritual action, the participants of which are subject to strict regulation of the process, they constitute and represent their community while maintaining an emotionally uplifting background. The phenomenon of the Soviet holiday had a hybrid character of mutual influence of ideological components and elements of traditional rituals ^[16].

K. S. Sablin analyzes Soviet everyday life in the context of the holiday in his research, studying the rootedness of the Soviet model of behavior and the use of the social memory resource by the Russian government in the current conditions ^[17]. One of the forms in which the staging of the Soviet tradition of mass public holidays is used is the representation of the modern version of Victory Day ^[18].

In our opinion, the term of the British scientist Eric Hobsbawm - "the invention of tradition" - is a productive concept in the analysis of the phenomenon of the Soviet holiday in urban space. An "invented tradition" is a set of social practices of a ritual or symbolic nature, usually regulated by explicitly or implicitly recognized rules; its purpose is to introduce certain values and norms of behavior, and the means to achieve the goal is repetition" ^{[19, p. 48]}. As cultural practices of celebrating new, but somewhat quite traditional holidays (from Airborne Forces Day to Milk Day) are becoming increasingly popular forms of ritual activities in Russian cities, there is a need for a comparative description of the structure of a modern holiday.

One of the research tools that can be used in analyzing the practices of urban events is visual analysis due to the rich presentation of events, regular media coverage of public holidays (film and television filming, photo reports). Discourse analysis is also a methodological tool for describing the structure of a holiday.

"Urban rituals". Soviet scenarios

The Soviet past, which seemed to have sunk with all its ideological postulates thirty-three years ago, retains its functioning mechanism in public forms of positioning city authorities and, in particular, in conducting mass actions. Such recurring forms, which received their completed script in the 1960s and 1980s, are solemn meetings, presentation of certificates on the main square of the city, rallies, Victory Day, Children's Day and many other state and city mass holidays. It makes sense to compare, identify the differences and synchronicity of the design and conduct of urban rituals.

The final ritual canon of the Soviet state holidays was established in the 1970s. The design of the festive event during the period of "developed socialism" was carried out by the Central Committee of the CPSU, the regional and city committees of the CPSU, the Regional Committee of the Komsomol and their subordinate organizations. On the eve of the state holiday, slogan technologies were included, and appeals from the Central Committee of the CPSU were issued, for example, by May 1. The content of the ritual idioms has been repeated for decades, and they included glorification of the Communist Party and appeals for increased productivity: "Glory to the leaders and innovators of production!", "Workers of the Soviet Union, unite more closely under the banner of the Communist Party!", etc. Depending on the current international situation, political, emotionally tinged expressions were introduced, for example: "Hands off Vietnam!", "Warm greetings to the peoples of the colonial countries!". The institution of celebration had a strict code. On the eve of the festive event, the newspapers published a detailed sequence of the upcoming action.

Let's give an example of a circular that established the procedure for controlling the flow of masses in terms of holding a demonstration dedicated to the 66th anniversary of the October Revolution, published in the newspaper Pravda Buryatia on November 4, 1983. The memo contained the timing of the event (date, start of the demonstration), the venue was the central square of Soviets. It formed the order of gathering participants by teams, established the rules for building columns in the city districts, signed the responsible persons and the movement from the points of construction to the square: "The workers of the Zheleznodorozhny district line up along the avenue of the 50th anniversary of October and the street. Oktyabrskaya – the head of the column, V.K.Kukshinov" [Plan for the demonstration of workers in Ulan-Ude on November 7, 1983 // Pravda Buryatia. 1983. November 4]. The memo indicated the regulation of the transport direction and the access regime for deputies, members of the bureau of the regional Committee of the CPSU and the City Committee of the CPSU, the executive Committee of the Ulan-Ude City Council of People's Deputies. The organization of public order was entrusted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the BURASR. The mnemonization of such circulars and the mass management system are synchronous in the modern All-Russian campaign "Immortal Regiment" dedicated to May 9th.

The choreography of the mass event took place according to an approved scenario, in which schoolchildren first came to the central square, then students, athletes, workers and intellectuals. Visualization of Soviet politics was expressed in an abundance of kumachov flags, portraits of proletarian leaders and banners of visual agitation. Public dramatizations, depending on the current context, manifested themselves in costumed processions of children dressed as "cosmonauts", "Budennovites", "red pathfinders". Adults, as a rule, dressed smartly, representing a particular enterprise, lined up in columns depicting the symbol of this organization.

According to Rolf M., on the eve and during the holiday, the townspeople, recent villagers, developed an urban identity, due to visual, auditory, tactile inclusions into the action of the urban topos. "Communication models were worked out, the tactics of appropriating official attitudes were tested, which became especially relevant when, in the process of urbanization of the post-war period, most people turned into new townspeople" ^{[14, p. 269]}. A citizen had to get from his house to the entrance of a factory or factory, and then walk in a column through the streets of the city to its center. And so it was repeated from year to year. From the report dedicated to the May 1 demonstration: "Today, the city center is welcoming thousands of well-dressed people. Workers and employees of Ulan-Ude go to their holiday... Human streams merge into a powerful river on the main street in order to demonstrate their strength and their achievements in work on Sovetov Square" [Gauchenov V., Kovtun N. The capital of Buryatia rejoices // Youth of Buryatia. 1968. May 1].

The described plot is notable for the fact that the ingrained Soviet holidays, and especially anniversaries (the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, the 70th anniversary of Lenin, the 60th anniversary of the BURASR, etc.) served as an external impulse for the fulfillment of declared plans for enterprises, the commissioning of construction projects in the city (residential buildings, educational institutions, cinemas), introduction of transport hubs. Therefore, the holiday has always pointed to the visible changes that have taken place in Ulan-Ude, emphasizing the transformation of the urban landscape in "universal rejoicing." The photographs, which can be found in any amateur photo album of the 1980s, depict the November demonstration on central street. Three components of the city's festive culture are characteristically reflected here: frames of citizens' interaction in a symmetrical procession and their corresponding physicality (close rows of columns, fur hats as a sign of status clothing), decoration of the procession (balloons, flags) and the construction of the first multi-storey hotel in the city center (delivery, which was expected by the next holiday date) (Fig. 2).

The urban topography in the context of the Soviet and post-Soviet holiday is clearly traced in the transformation of Ulan-Ude's Sovetov Square, which was originally a square surrounded by columns on festive dates. Since 1970, the square has been cleared of trees and has completely formed a space for participants in parades and rallies. During the reform years, it was a place of protest rallies. Recently, Sovetov Square has become a playground (New Year's campuses), a concert venue for municipal festivals, and a venue for youth events (flash mobs, gatherings).

The ethnic component and hybridization of the Soviet holiday in the region

The playful side of the ritual action in the form of a Soviet mass holiday on local soil was embodied in the Surkharban holiday. The hybrid nature of this holiday was manifested in the fact that the traditional summer games of the Buryats were turned into a sports festival with a mandatory welcome parade of participants. At the stadium named after the 25th anniversary of October, and since 1970 at the city hippodrome every year in early July, citizens gathered to watch a sports spectacle. Attention is drawn to similar elements of the formation of people in columns, cars decorated with banners, flags in the hands of participants, a portrait of V. Lenin, slogans and posters according to a similar scenario of marches dedicated to the anniversary of the October Revolution and May Day. The spatial perspective covers an audience of thousands of spectators, emphasizing the actual mass character, and the mise-en-scenes resulting from the sports city festival demonstrate the privacy of communication between parents and children and the various age strata of the celebrants.

The post-Soviet tradition of City Day has been going on since 1991, first in the central cities of the Russian Federation, then in the regions. It was then that the former Soviet cities, which had previously been a single object of socio-cultural policy, tried to find "their own face" and highlight the distinctive identification characteristics of the urban environment. Ulan-Ude is beginning to position itself as a multicultural center. The cultures of the peoples of Buryatia are becoming an integrating resource used by local authorities: Buryats, Semeyskys, Evenks, Cossacks.

Let's take the example of the first City Day, which took place in 1991. The attention to the historical center, marked by the date of the 325th anniversary of the founding of Ulan-Ude, actualized the theme of the construction of the Udinsk prison by the Cossacks in 1666. According to E. Hobsbawm, "the specificity of the "invented" traditions lies in the fact that their connection with the historical past is mostly fictitious" ^{[19, p. 48]}.

Visual analysis of a film document

Documentary filmmakers from the East Siberian Newsreel Studio recorded the anniversary of Ulan-Ude, which was celebrated in 1991. [film magazine "East Siberia", 1991, issue No. 24, plot 1 "Anniversary of the city"]. If the choice of ethnic style in the early 1990s was justified by the "sovereignty parade" and, as the author of the scenario comments on the newsreel: "after immemorial stagnant years, folk customs and rituals are reviving," then the use of a colonial theme - the founding of the Udinsky prison on the site of the sacred udo Udyn Atag causes active disputes among scientists, local historians and social activists.

According to the newsreel, the construction of the foundation of the city by the Cossacks in 1991 was fixed with symbolic signs – an Orthodox cross was erected and a stone was laid with the inscription: "A memorial will be erected at this place in honor of the founding of the city. The stone was installed in the year of the 325th anniversary of Ulan-Ude-Verkhneudinsk on 07/06/1991, "while, according to tradition, a memorial stone is being opened here until better times." A prison was staged at the stadium named after the 25th anniversary of October, artists dressed in Cossack uniforms fired a cannon, and this scene preceded the Surkharban dedicated to the City Day: "The main festive event unfolded at the stadium, national rituals were remembered and sports competitions were held here, and it's all called Surkharban in one word." There was a procession of masks from the Buddhist mystery of Tsam along the central Lenin Street. "There is a hope to give the city the missing national flavor," the author of the plot believes.

The event sequences, which were incompatible neither visually nor socioculturally, were presented on the City Day as a "revival of traditions," although it is clear that the roles of Cossacks and masks were performed by artists of amateur ensembles of the Institute of Culture. On a rainy day on July 6, 1991, citizens gathered on Battery Hill for a rally, before which a Cossack ensemble performed. The local authorities, represented by members of the Government, the Supreme Council, and the Executive Committee, were present at the laying of the stone, thereby legitimizing the issue of the founding of the city in the 17th century and the ritual of continuity of the official version of urban history in the modern period.

In this story, in addition, the theme of people's satisfaction with "bread and circuses" is outlined in the midst of festive events, since the holiday is also the saturation of consumer interests. In particular, the camera carefully pans the shopping market that existed on Revolution Square in the early 1990s: "The city has experienced ups and downs in its history. The old coat of arms of Verkhneudinsk depicted the rod of Mercury and the cornucopia, which meant that a noble trade was taking place in the city. Be more modest about it today. But there was still something on the counter during the holiday, and the Ulan-Ude residents were satisfied." Shopping stalls, large crowds, queues for groceries, and advertising banners are recorded: "Thank you for your purchase!" The story about the anniversary of the city ends, as well as the Day itself, with a festive fireworks display.

Thus, the post-perestroika context of the commentary on the City Day, held in 1991, is obvious. But in the newsreel, despite certain cliches of the time, one can trace, importantly, the establishment and invention of the tradition of the City Day of the 2000s. In particular, to this day, the instrumental potential of positioning the city as a multicultural center and approving the vector of events towards the "heroic past" is being used. The ritual recorded on film served as a visual modification of the history of the founding of Ulan-Ude and the subsequent standard for the celebration of the City Day. The ordering effect is achieved not through the traditional construction of a canonical narrative (in this case, a normative version of history), but through the emotional codification of events, things, and/or symbols of the past) ^[20].

In the 2010s, the preparation and holding of city events dedicated to the holidays followed a similar scenario to the late Soviet holidays. The event's designer is the Administration of Ulan-Ude and municipal organizations. It is easy to find a similar context for the use of the anniversary date in the propaganda discourse of the action plan and its coverage in the press. In the absence of a new strong ideological platform, the rhetorical techniques used, which were voiced in the 1970s and 1980s, are being activated. This formal similarity is based on the involvement of similar administrative resources, but, above all, on the mnemonization of public spectacles, which combined the mass character and decoration of urban space. Such chronological stitching can be described as the assembly of history, without taking into account the logic of the compatibility of events ^[21].

City Day changed its date during the 1990s and 2010s, which was related to the current management policy of the City Administration. It was celebrated in the summer, timed to coincide with the end of the school year and the Surkharban holiday. There were variations in the conduct of the City Day, depending on the budget and the actors. In particular, in the 2000s, monuments were unveiled in Ulan-Ude in squares and at transport interchanges on City Day. Despite all the changes, the implementation of festive events continues, approving and expanding the ceremonial every year.

As a ritual of the annual transition, City Day shows the publicity and certain accountability of local executive and legislative authorities in the person of the Administration of Ulan-Ude, the City Council of Deputies to the residents of the city. The representation of the urban community is constituted by formal youth associations, public organizations, the City Council of Veterans, national cultural centers, and territorial public self-government (CBT), which are involved in the preparation and conduct of events. For example, it is not the first year that economic and household acts have been timed to coincide with the City Day, at the same time changing the urban environment at the local level - contests for the best yard among management organizations, the opening of a children's playground, and the opening of a public garden. Representatives of city government substructures (committees), cultural institutions, sports, and healthcare are actively involved in the staged action ^[17].

The self-presentation of the city government, which integrates communication with the city's population, takes the form of rallies, solemn meetings, awarding winners of competitions, opening exhibitions, and congratulating newborns born on City Day. The positioning of multiculturalism, the synthesis of street and classical arts, the demonstration of sporting achievements, and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle are expressed in the appropriate repertoire. So, in 2015, an inclusive board game tournament, a national wrestling tournament, a Nordic walking festival, and horizontal bar competitions were introduced into the ritual episodes. The holiday has various locations from the center to the periphery, from the main square of the Soviets to remote neighborhoods, using street, square, park space.

City Day expresses a public spectacle in which children participating in creative teams, athletes competing in tournaments, members of delegations from twin cities, representatives of the clergy presenting the opening of the temple, pop artists invited to the celebration unite at a symbolic assemblage point – "Ulan-Ude is my bright sunny city" (one of the metaphors, used in the media text of the holiday).

Thus, Ulan-Ude City Day, not being an official "red" day in the calendar of public holidays, but an ordinary weekend, performs the functions of forming a symbolic community similar to late Soviet holidays.

The private life of a modern city dweller is becoming more and more atomized. The private life of a modern city dweller is becoming more and more atomized. In support of this thesis, we present the results of an empirical sociological study conducted by the IMBT SB RAS in 2019. To a greater extent, people expect to solve their own pressing problems on their own, according to the total sample – 75.6% of the population of the Republic of Belarus. According to the subsamples: Russians – 76.7%, Buryats – 74.8%, other nationalities – 62.8% ^{[23, p.140]}.

The fixation of urban atomization was carried out by Perm sociologists, who defined the transfer of private practices to the public sphere using the example of garden forms in urban space, the "pupation" of social life within households as an economic and socio-cultural strategy ^[24].

The townspeople no longer necessarily participate in the ritual action en masse, some of them are engaged in ordinary household chores, some go out into nature, those who did not plan to attend the event could find themselves on the festive squares accidentally as spectators. But the contestants and participants of the events act as representatives of all Ulan-Ude residents, and the evening fireworks that frame the celebration reinforce the emotional background of the celebrating urban community. "Regardless of what the individual participants of the ritual think about their actions, the success of its execution is important…They produce a fullness of symbolic meanings, thanks to which cultural interrelations arise that go beyond the boundaries of pure representation and increase the complexity of a social event" ^{[6, p. 152]}.

Every year, the City Day conventionally draws a dividing line between the past and the future, fixing the aspiration for a "round date", in 2024 the 358th anniversary of the city was celebrated. The media discourse and the names of the exhibitions emphasize the historical context: "Ulan-Ude in the panorama of three centuries", "350 sights of Ulan-Ude", "Verkhneudinsk Fair", "From Verkhneudinsk to Ulan-Ude". The constructed ritual action of a city holiday thereby establishes the naturalness of the distinction between before and after, between what happened once upon a time, what happened yesterday and what is today.

The regional identity of the townspeople on the example of the construction of the Ancient City Day

The use of emotional "staples" is based by the designers of the City Day not only on the use of Soviet symbols of achievement installations, but also on the constructed "ancient history". Let's take the example of the project "Ancient City Day" as part of the annual Festival of Hun Culture, held since 2011. This story was initiated by the Fund for the Revival of Historical Heritage "Gunn Foundation" with the support of the City Administration and the Government of the Republic of Belarus. The described holiday, which has the context of the Hunnic period of the history of Buryatia and the presence of an archaeological monument – the Ivolginsky settlement near Ulan-Ude, gave the initiators a reason to consider the city the oldest in Russia. On the part of the Administration of Ulan-Ude, the event has the function of a tourist, investment project ^[17].

The ethnic festival of the peoples of Buryatia "Caravan of Friendship", the festival of decorative and applied arts "City of Darkhanov", performances by historical reconstruction clubs, the urban rally "Roads of the Xiongnu Empire", competitions in national wrestling, archery and horse racing, a display of designer clothing collections, and a craft fair are timed to coincide with the holiday. The urban ritual is held at various sites, both in Ulan-Ude itself and in the suburbs, thereby marking the animated and desired expansion of the boundaries of Ulan-Ude space: the Ethnographic Museum, the Ivolginsky Archaeological Complex (16 km from Ulan-Ude), Mount Tobkhor (Ivolginsky district of the Republic of Buryatia). Since the event is visually vivid, with a costumed performance and active use of the game principle in the form of sports, involving sensory deceptions (staging of the opera by D.Verdi "Attila" in the open air, smells of national cuisine cooked over a campfire, walks in a wooded area, the opportunity to dress up in medieval costume, etc.), the townspeople have a "Hunnish" the ritual action finds a response and they are included in this performance. The content of the discourse about Ulan-Ude in this story is presented as "the ancient capital of the Huns", "the most ancient city of Russia", "the first city of the Xiongnu Empire", "the northern capital of the Huns", "the oldest city in the world", "the outpost of the Hunnic civilization".

An accumulation of the energies of both government structures and public organizations can be detected in the event. The city government uses the cultural potential in order to expand the administrative boundaries, including the territory of the Ivolginsky settlement. A historical resource (research by archaeologists, expertise by museum specialists) is being used to try to increase the age of Ulan-Ude by two thousand three hundred years. The paradox lies in the fact that the appeal to the historical heritage has only a ceremonial character, in everyday reality the territory of the archaeological complex is in an abandoned state.

An analysis of the content of the rhetoric of ritual idioms of the 1980s and modern festive discourse reveals similar methods of ideological coverage of Soviet demonstrations, Surkharban and modern City Day, although these events differ in meaning (Table 1).

Table 1

"The continuity of the ideological discourse of urban rituals of the Late Soviet period

and post-Soviet periods in Ulan-Ude"

(based on the reports of the newspapers Pravda Buryatia, Youth of Buryatia, Buryatia)

Based on visual messages, it is possible to trace similar components of social interaction between festival organizers and the population in the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods. As I. Hoffman pointed out, "social relations presuppose a constant dialectic of presentation rituals and avoidance rituals" ^{[22, p. 97]}. Such practices include rituals of avoiding and presenting holidays to actors – designers in the format of being in the stands, at microphones, speeches by managers, and ribbon-cutting at the opening of a new urban development facility. On the part of the recipients of the holiday, residents of the city, signs of reverence and thanksgiving are positioned, expressed in greeting with flags, balloons, choral performances of hymns, and concert numbers.

Significant temporal differences in the urban festive culture of Ulan-Ude in the 1970s and 1980s and 1991-2010 mainly reproduce the ideological/post-ideological nature of the celebrations ^[26]. Modern holidays, reflecting the postmodern and atomized state of society, primarily have a regional aspect, they are commercialized, have a consumer function for the population, the event has a reason, but not always meaning. They highlight the marketing component that connects professional creative forces. Current city events are more theatrical, syncretize ethnic and religious components (Sagaalgan, Maslenitsa, Trinity). As before, the authorities are appealing to the center in the hope of additional federal funding for the anniversary dates ^[17].

At the same time, the analyzed Late Soviet and post-Soviet artifact events reveal common elements such as the structuring of the urban chronotope (an annual cycle from date to date), the presentation and legitimization of power, the use of significant financial resources, the self-organization of urban communities, the ethnic face of the holiday as a symbolic game and a simulacrum of reality in the presentation of the city holiday ^[27].

Conclusion

Of course, the question of the genesis of urban practices and the constitution of an urban community cannot be reduced only to the performative aspects of the ritual action of a city holiday. The system of holding such events has developed and is based on permanent components: a performance of a story from the history of Buryatia, awards, performances by professional and amateur folklore groups of artists, trade fairs. The local government, represented by the City Administration, relies on the production of symbols that focus the publicity of the urban community, stimulating communication and representation of authority. The instrumental and creative potential of the holidays is used by local authorities to attract investments, including at the federal level. The entertainment and consumer nature of urban holiday culture is in demand among business communities and young people.

The holiday has a powerful mobilization tool and acts as an integrating resource. At the same time, the study of the modern post-Soviet festive event is justified by reference to the established stable forms of conducting this ritual action in the recent past, it is possible to discern the origins of modern power management mechanisms and the specifics of emotional management of history. The interest in the post-Soviet transit of urban rituals in Ulan-Ude is not only theoretical, but also consists in defining the phenomenon of urban mass celebration. Various performative practices in the form of celebrations held in Ulan-Ude, with a political or ethnic bias, found their embodiment, bringing the event designers and the urban community to the stage. The design of the City Day event, its preparation and implementation show its attractiveness to government, commercial structures, and, ultimately, to various segments of the urban population.