The Problem of Forming Images of the Past and Images of the Future as Elements of the Temporal Picture of the World

Zheltikova Inga Vladislavovna PhD in Philosophy Associate professor, Department of Philosophy and Culturology, Turgenev State University of Oryol 302025, Russia, Orlovskaya oblast', g. Orel, ul. Burova, 26 inga.zheltikova@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Bryzgalov Aleksei Leonidovich Post-graduate student, Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 53/2 Ostrozhenka str., Moscow, 119021, Russia, Moscow region lolos3@mail.ru

1. IntroductionIn this article we will talk about the temporal picture of the world that exists in the consciousness of an individual and the supra-individual consciousness of society.

By a temporal picture of the world, we mean ideas about the present, past and future, which determine the temporal vectors of a person's vision of the world, which, in turn, acts as an element of a person's self-determination. When studying the present of a particular society, it is important to take into account the ideas that persist in this society about the past, and the pictures that it associates with the future. Reflecting on this, Edward Cornish emphasized that the present transforms knowledge of the past into knowledge about the future and at the same time is filled with new meanings ^{[1, p. 234]}. R. Miller and R. Sandford recognize that the ability to "use" the past and the future characterizes our present, and collective ideas about what was, and what may happen determines the readiness of society for change ^{[2, p.74]}. It is possible to trace the connection between the imagination of pictures of the past and the future with the assessments of the present, the desire or unwillingness to actively change it

The study of images of the past is primarily associated with the identification and analysis of national, group and intergenerational identity as factors of collective and social stability ^{[3; p. 4]}. These views are one of the aspects of the political assessment of the present and the future ^{[5, p. 40]}. And the study of images of the future contributes to understanding the range of opportunities that exist in the present social reality, and the attitude of people living now to them. The identification of images of the future of young people reveals those options for the future, the implementation of which young people are ready to direct their efforts, and the options that they will try to avoid, that is, shows in which direction the current generations are ready to change the existing social reality.

The object of consideration of this article will be images of the past and images of the future as a set of representations representing the past and the future in the present. The purpose of our research is to consider the process of the appearance of images of the past and images of the future both on an individual and on a collective level.

Images of the past are studied mainly within the framework of historical science and political science. From a theoretical standpoint, images of the past are considered in connection with the discussion of the problem of the formation of historical consciousness in a specific historical and cultural situation ^[6] or the fulfillment of a political order through the consolidation of specific knowledge about the past at the level of society. The analysis of the specifics of the images of the past, present in certain historical periods, contributes to the understanding of value orientations and features of self-consciousness of social communities of this time ^{[7, pp. 50-54]}. In political science, the image of the past is of interest to researchers as an element of the ideological picture represented by certain political forces ^{[5, p. 41]}, the role of images of the past in the system of public administration is considered ^[3]. Modern researchers turn to the study of images of the past broadcast by cinema ^[8], literature, theater ^[9], mass media ^[10].

Images of the future are studied by philosophers, sociologists, representatives of the humanities. In literary studies, images of the future present in works of art are studied to identify the features of the chronotope of a particular text ^[11] or author ^[12], including by analyzing lexical units ^[13]. Historians turn to the study of the vision of the future in various periods of the past ^[14] to recreate the ideological features of these periods ^[15]. In psychology ^[16] and pedagogy ^[17], individual pictures of the future are considered as elements of a life project and are used as a criterion for assessing the social adaptability of a person, her readiness for self-development. In political science, images of the future are considered as elements of ideology ^[18] in terms of their usefulness for promoting certain political positions ^[19]. Sociologists, through questionnaires and interviews, study the peculiarities of the idea of the future of our contemporaries ^[20], usually focusing on optimism or pessimism towards the future ^[21].

The question of the formation of images of the past as collective representations is raised by some historians and political scientists. Thus, in the second volume of the extensive monograph Saveliev and Poletaev ^[22] trace the specifics of the formation of ideas about the past in primitive societies, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Modern and Modern times, while the image of the past is considered as an element of the overall picture of the world, formed by the type of ideological system, the peculiarity of the perception of time, value attitudes. The authors of the monograph develop the thesis that different factors influenced the image of the past at different times and in different cultures ^[23]. The position of the Fur Coats is similar in terms of installation, reflected in the article "The Image of the Past in the Christian culture of the Middle Ages" ^[6], which describes the images of the past as universal ideological models formed by the same forces as the dominant worldviews highlighted by historians when characterizing large historical epochs.

Regarding the images of the future, we can find an approach close to the above described in the work of F. Polaka "The Image of the Future", in which the author reconstructs several models of the future, successively replacing each other in the historical arena. Unlike Savelyeva and other authors who consider images of the past as collective representations, Polak believes that a decisive role in the formation of images of the future belongs to a specific person who manages to generate social expectations present in society ^[24].

We believe that we will not be mistaken if we say that the question of what are essentially images of the past and images of the future, what are the principles of their appearance and functioning, is still open. In this article we will try to offer our own version of the answer to the question about the genesis of these temporal images.

2. Methods and materialsThe study of images of the past tends to the methods of comparative historical analysis, in which the collective image of the past is reconstructed, compiled on the basis of everyday knowledge, art, philosophy, myths, religious beliefs ^{[6, p.16]}.

The authors of these reconstructions rely on the methods of social and cultural anthropology applied both to the societies of the past and to the existing ones ^{[23, p. 260]}. Sociological studies of the image of the past are carried out by means of questionnaires, methods of continuous sampling from the newspaper corpus ^{[10, p.56]}, discursive and genre analysis of political programs ^[5], finally, by the method of triangulation, combining procedural, intersubjective, intuitive approaches to the analysis of the material ^[4].

In future research, first of all, various methods of collecting and analyzing statistical data are used: sociological surveys followed by descriptive data analysis ^{[25; 26]}, author's methods such as Causal Layered Analysis ^[27], structural-semiotic approach ^[28], hermeneutic analysis, etc. ^{[29; 30]}.

In our research, in addition to those mentioned, we will focus on the hypothetical-deductive method, since the reconstruction of the emergence of images of the past and images of the future refers to unverifiable processes. Using the historical method, we will consider the formation of images of the future for individual authors with an extended extrapolation of the results obtained and images of the past functioning at the collective level. Based on the constructivist method, we will present the formation of ideas about the past and the future by analogy with the emergence of other semantic wholes functioning in society.

3. Past, present, future and their images from the perspective of studyPresumably, images of the past and images of the future have always existed at the level of individual and collective representations, but they have become the object of study relatively recently.

The image of the past is one of the elements of such a subject field as memorial studies, which has been actively developing since the 80s of the 20th century and is represented by the works of such authors as F. Artog, J. Assman, H. Welzer, Y. Lotman, M. Halbwax. The image of the future as a scientific concept has been present in future studies since the 70s of the 20th century, but its active study falls at the end of the 20th- beginning of the 21st centuries and is associated with the centers for the study of the future in Finland, the USA, Canada. Perhaps such an interest in the study of temporal representations is associated with an increase in the importance of visual images and images in general in modern culture, manifested, among other things, in an increased interest in images functioning in the sphere of public consciousness.

Starting a conversation about images of the past and images of the future, it is necessary to highlight the relationship of these concepts with those close to them in meaning.

3.1 The past and the image of the past If by the past we mean the totality of events that have occurred up to the present moment, preceding the "now", then the past can be attributed to an objective reality that no longer exists.

The problem of the reality of the past as an object of study has been considered within the framework of historical science for a long time, since the interpretation of the subject of history study depends on its solution. Supporters of the position according to which historical science studies the past directly, recognize it as a past, but an existing reality, their opponents, who believe that the object of studying history is not the past itself, but its traces present in the present, notice that the events of the past are irrevocably gone and are available to us only to the extent that they left material traces.

Domestic researchers consider the image of the past, first of all, as collective representations of the past – "a set of constructed, historically changeable, but locally stable social representations" ^{[6, p.16]}. The image of the past is understood as the result of "understanding the phenomena of reality in a specific historical and cultural period" ^[8], it is represented by a set of "politically significant events and facts in the life of the state" ^{[5, p.40]} and society. We define the image of the past as a representation of the past present in the consciousness of an individual or an entire social group, that is, the subjective reality of the present. The image of the past is a retrospective picture that exists today and recreates a reality that no longer exists. The memory of the past, the evidence of the past that has come down to us, as well as the historical narrative, are not identical to the image of the past.

Knowledge about the past can be constructive and perceptual. Knowledge about the past is constructive in historical science. The historian literally constructs, recreates history on the basis of traces of the past that have reached his present, putting the accents of his modernity on the picture of the past. An example of this position is the reflections of J. Hazings from the preface to the "Autumn of the Middle Ages" ^[31], which express the author's confidence in the impossibility of reconstructing the past, from which nothing remains. The Dutch philosopher sees the main task of the historian in constructing a plausible picture of the past, relying, on the one hand, on the preserved evidence, on the other, on the vertical of values, which should approach the vertical of values of the constructed time, but undoubtedly bears the imprint of the historian's time. D. Carr ^{[32, p.156-158]} comes to a similar conclusion, considering the gap between the point of view of the historian and the point of view of the historical figure. The latter, as an eyewitness of the events, focuses on the facts of what is happening, while the historian puts together a certain sequence, semantic integrity from the information that has reached him, constructs a historical narrative. The modern approach, referred to as "counterfactual history", emphasizes the contractual and conditional nature of historical knowledge, in which irrelevant past events can be interpreted as historical bifurcation points that open up to alternative present and, more broadly, alternative futures ^[33].

The perceptual nature of knowledge about the past is in the minds of people who do not turn to the study of historical sources, but get acquainted in various ways – in scientific and fiction literature, popular science publications and broadcasts - with constructive knowledge about the past. Such representations of the past can already be called individual images of the past. Speaking about the individual image of the past, O. A. Nelova writes: "All interpretations of the historical past are based on the previous experience of the individual, received by him from his parents, relatives, teachers, and his own perception of reality" ^[4]. The experience of such an appeal to the past may not necessarily be focused on scientific historical knowledge. Myths, epics, legends, fairy tales, literary works, oral stories act as constructive elements of perceptual perception of the past.

The image of the past is a form of the presence of the past in the present, a kind of collage, including an arbitrary set of events and their interpretation. At the individual level, the image of the past is a picture of the past, intuitively formed by an individual in connection with the desire or need to understand the world and processes in it as a semantic integrity. Such individual images of the past vary depending on the level of education of a person, his acquaintance with constructive knowledge about the past, which are present in society at a certain period, are available for perception, discussion, use in the current social reality.

The elements that make up the image of the past can be divided into three groups: event-based, evaluative and imaginative. The first group includes a specific set of events representing the past on an individual or collective level. According to the correct remark of Kaverzina: "the selection of specific historical events… in itself, it is already ... an internationally conditioned consequence of the interpretative activity of political discourse" ^[5]. Wars, famines, rebellions, natural disasters or effective transformations, reforms, achievements in science and art are events present in the history of any country, but it is their combination, selection, that form a semantic series of images of the past.

The second – the evaluation group of elements – includes value attitudes, ideas about justice and injustice ^[34]. Evaluative elements of images of the past are formed by representations of the past as a "golden age" or "dark past", "heroic" or "criminal past", "cursed legacy of the past" or "pages of ancestral valor", "imperial past" or "colonial past".

Imaginative elements are proposed to be distinguished in public representations by B. A. Grushin ^{[35, pp. 105-106]}, producing the word from the English imagination – imagination, fantasy. He points out that at the collective level of consciousness, the "imaginary" is included – irrational ideas, beliefs, fantastic images, utopian ideas, irrational prescriptions. Imaginative elements combine social myths, stereotypes, archetypes that "complete" the picture of the world with details unique to each society. The imaginative elements of the past include mythologized images of rulers (Vladimir the Red Sun), epic heroes (Ilya Muromets), and legendary events of the past (the duel of Peresvet with Chelubey). Architectural monuments, sculptural compositions of the past, paintings on historical subjects represent images of the past for contemporaries.

Let us consider as an example the image of Russia's past created by Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky in the book "Russia and Europe", published in the 60s of the 19th century. In an effort to answer the question of why Europe is hostile to Russia, the author calls one of the reasons for the violent nature of Europeans, formed due to the aggressive nature of their statehood. Such representations certainly belong to the evaluative elements of the image of the past. The rulers and aristocrats of European countries, according to Danilevsky, are conquerors who establish relations with the indigenous population from a position of strength and continue to act this way in relation to their political neighbors. The history of Russia, in Danilevsky's assessment, is similar to the "life of the saints" ^{[36, p. 190]}, there is no place for social conflicts and violence in it. To demonstrate the harmonious and peaceful past of Russia, the scientist recalls the plot of the "vocation of the Varangians", which reflects the attitude of the people to their history and rulers. The emergence of Russian statehood is thought by most Russians as a voluntary invitation to the rule of a sovereign who is called to take care of his subjects. Therefore, it does not matter at all, Danilevsky believes, whether this event was in the real past or not – it is strongly associated with the history of the country, serves as an example of the consistency of the life of the upper and lower classes. Selecting an event series to demonstrate harmonious development in the past, Danilevsky recalls the baptism of Russia by Vladimir, the abolition of serfdom, carried out "from above", numerous reforms that were carried out in a timely manner and enjoyed popular support. The image of the past broadcast in the book did not include an event series of feudal feuds, popular riots, palace coups, Decembrist uprisings, which runs counter to the assessment of Russia's past as a "life".

3.2 The future and the image of the future If we call the future all events and processes that will occur later than "now", then the future, like the past, should be attributed to a non-existent objective reality, a reality that has not yet taken place.

There is no future, just as there is no past, but it does not exist in another way. If the past has been and left its traces that have reached the present, then there is no future and there are no traces of it in the present either ^{[37, p.39]}. And where the image of the past turns out to be connected with the ontological past and the actual present, the image of the future is rooted only in the present.

The image of the future is the imagination of a non–existent reality, which is thought of as a possible continuation of the present. To the same extent that the image of the past differs from memories and knowledge about the past, the image of the future differs from plans for the future, desires related to the future and futuristic forecasts. The image of the future is a set of ideas about the future, a mental model that reflects the future as a complete reality.

Summarizing the theoretical developments of other researchers, as well as our own experience of studying images of the future, we distinguish four structural elements in them: cognitive, emotional, moral, evaluative-modal representations.Cognitive elements of images of the future include descriptions of future events, processes, and technologies contained in various media.

Thomas Lombardo calls such elements a "future narrative" ^{[38, p.10]} and considers it one of the ways to conceptualize the future. Ideas about the phenomena and processes of the future, unlike the same ideas of the past, do not have a "basic set of events" from which to make a collage of expectations. Social expectations can be based only on the trends of the present, which mentally continue into the future and, unlike the already realized past, are represented by a variety of probabilistic perspectives.  

 The emotional background that determines our ideas about the future is the feelings that the future evokes in us: fear or hope, indifferent attitude or interest in the future, joyful anticipation or chilling horror. Depending on individual assessments, the same event perspectives can be perceived as an embodied ideal or as a gloomy hopelessness. The ethical or moral component of the image of the future, as well as the image of the past, is based on the idea of good and bad, right and wrong, fair and unfair. Finnish researcher Anita Rubin believes that ethical ideas are sufficiently rationalized and based on "social awareness" – knowledge gained from personal social experience and from other people, which is based on moral judgments and awareness of social responsibility ^[39]. In images of the future, ethical ideas are expressed in the assessment of a possible future as more or less desirable.

When analyzing images of the future, we consider it useful to pay attention to such a functional feature as modality or determinant evaluation. It should be understood as an assessment of a particular picture of the future from the position of its possibility, the degree of inevitability of the onset of a certain prospect, the possibility and necessity of influencing it. This idea belongs to Polak, who drew attention to the fact that the future can be seen as "guaranteed" or as "possible" ^{[24, p. 7-12]}. In the first case, no matter how beautiful or terrifying the future may seem, we experience a passive state towards it, being confident that our efforts can neither bring closer nor avert the onset of "preordained" events. In the case of the attitude to the image of the future as a possible prospect, it is assumed that its onset depends on the actions of the living generations.

Due to the display of possible prospects, the images of the future are seen as more variable than the images of the past. At a certain time period, not one, but a number of alternative views on the future begin to exist in culture. We can say that any present mentally continues in a multitude of images of the future, each of which captures one of the possible states of society.

Reconstructing the images of the future of Russia, one can notice this variability of ideas about the future at one time or another. As an example, we can turn to the imagination of the future of Russia in the 20s - 40s of the 20th century. During this period, at least 6 general images of the future functioned on the territory of the country and among the Russian emigration. The retro–utopian vision of the future assumed a return in the next 10-20 years of Russian society to the models of patriarchal society - the dominance of agriculture, the family way of life, the significant role of the Church as a social institution. The communist vision of the future, which appeared in Russia in the 90s of the 19th century and has since remained a popular option for the future, in the 20s - 40s was perceived as a rather distant prospect. Within 50-60 years, society had to get rid of the class structure, implement the principles of collectivism and social equality in life, and make significant progress in scientific and technological progress. The ideocratic image of the future that emerged among the Russian emigration combined the features of the communist vision of the future (a unified state ideology, a static economy, collectivism as a social principle) with a retrotopic ideal (a significant role in society of religion and the Church). The scientific-progressive image of the future included stable attitudes, largely set by the French Enlightenment – the importance of universal education, the progress of medicine and transport, usually public, the emergence of machines to facilitate everyday life. During the period under review, the progress of science assumed the appearance of individual flying vehicles, the consolidation and automation of production. This large-scale perspective covered at least 100 years. The conquest of space is another universal image of the future for Russia, present in the public consciousness of Russia since the 80s of the 19th century and actualized during the period under review. In the perspective of 20-30 years, it was thought not only to enter the Earth's orbit, the development of the solar system, but also the embodiment of a social ideal in space. Expectations of the war were increasing from 1927 to 1941. They assumed a successful defensive war in the next 5-10 years, the victory in which will have a positive impact on the further development of the country [See details 40, pp.29-37].

 3.3. The image of the past and the image of the future in relation to the presentIn our research, we proceed from the hypothesis that the image of the past and the image of the future are representations formed by the present, but not by the entire contemporary social reality, but only by the one in which the author-observer was involved in the actual present for him.

Let's explain what we mean by "present" or actual social reality. The everyday life surrounding a person is perceived as modernity in a certain time extent. The modernity of society is not today, not only this week, month or year. Modernity lasts from one social turning point to another, may include the life of 1-2 generations, may be interrupted during the life of one generation, dividing time into "before" and "after". This milestone can be subjective – "before entering the institute", "before the birth of a child" or objective – "before the pandemic", "before the war", "before emigration". The subjective actual present depends on a person's place in society, his activity, age. The older a person is, the longer his present is. Memories are part of the "real" person, as long as a person is aware of himself, his present lasts.

Speaking about the memory of the past, the experiences of the present and the expectations of the future, we are not talking about time and its modes, but about the event background that makes up the past, present and future, the totality of phenomena and processes that have occurred, are occurring and will occur. Neither a person nor a social group are participants or witnesses of the totality of events that form the objective reality of the present. The subjective present is that part of the actual social reality that is accessible to the subject at the level of activity or observation. Depending on the duration and event saturation of the subjective present, both the picture of the past and the picture of the future that develops in the consciousness of an individual or a social group change. The non-identity of the reality experienced by contemporaries is the reason for the difference between images of the past and images of the future, the multiplicity of images functioning at one time in one society. Social psychologists are sure that individual and group models of thinking, emotions and behavior depend on the context of formation to a greater extent than on individual personality traits ^[41]. Accordingly, certain social conditions have a formative effect on retrospective and perspective paintings.

4. Formation of images of the past and images of the future4.1. The appearance of images of the past

Most researchers of images of the past tend to believe that collective representations are decisive in the representation of the past.

The image of the past is developed, translated and interpreted at the level of public consciousness. For example, Halbwax believed that individual representations of the past entirely depend on the images of the past constructed in society. "Subjective experience here serves as a verifier of information about the past obtained from other sources," the scientist writes ^{[42, p. 138]}.

Some authors, for example, O. A. Matusevich ^{[43, p. 134]}, I. B. Bovina ^{[44, p.10]} consider it expedient to distinguish between "collective representations" and "social representations", referring the former to traditional societies in which they participate in the total regulation of behavior, and the latter to societies modern, where the volume and speed of information dissemination turn collective representations into dynamic education. However, for our consideration, such a distinction is not essential, and therefore we prefer to use the term collective representations in the sense of ideas that are widespread in social groups or society as a whole.

Considering the process of forming images of the past, it is necessary to remember that in the present, in which ideas about the past are formed, there are real traces of it. The past, although it is no longer an existing reality, is a reality that once objectively existed. Traces of the real past are present in the present in the form of material artifacts, written evidence, monumental monuments, memorial signs and memorable places. These are objective traces of the past, and they are the same for all members of society, so the variability of images of the past is limited by the reality of the past itself. The appearance of new evidence of the past: previously unknown documents, artifacts, a significant reinterpretation of information already put into circulation – changes the perception of the corresponding period or even of the past as a whole for almost the entire society.

For example, bright frescoes and mosaics of churches are an integral feature of the idea of Russia's past for our contemporaries. Unlike Russians who lived until the second half of the 19th century, Medieval Russia seems brighter and more joyful to us. This is largely due to the discoveries made during the restoration work in 1859 in the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, in 1881-1882 in the Assumption and Annunciation Cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, in 1899 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Sviyazhsky Monastery near Kazan. Working on cleaning the internal surfaces of the church walls, restorers literally opened the frescoes of Andrei Rublev, Feofan the Greek, Daniel the Black to the light. Without such masterpieces as "The Golden Hair Angel" by an unknown author of the 12th century, "The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ before the Disciples on Mount Tabor" by Theophan the Greek (c.1403), "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev (1411), Russian religious painting would be presented either in the form of low artistic images darkened by time and soot, or in the form of images imitating secular painting and created after the second half of the 18th century. Prior to these discoveries, the rich colors and the originality of the perspective of ancient Russian icon painting were practically unknown to either the general public or professionals – church hierarchs, professors of the Academy of Arts, representatives of the royal court. The works of these authors represent the past of Russia in our present not only thanks to the work of restorers, but also largely due to the understanding of their significance for Russian culture by Pavel Florensky in the work "Speculation in Colors" (1918), the film by Andrei Tarkovsky "Andrei Rublev" (1966), school textbooks and numerous books on art, not without without reproductions of these works.

The considered example shows how the image of the past changes under the influence of objective reasons – the appearance of new evidence about the past in the present, their comprehension by professionals and introduction into wide circulation. However, researchers also identify subjective factors that influence the content of images of the past.

One of these factors is a political order. The desire of power structures to influence the images of the past is associated with the interest of current rulers, government blocs or politicians in legitimizing their political status. An example of a politically engaged image of Russia's past can be considered the theme of the acquisition of statehood by Russia, which is present in the "Tale of Bygone Years", in which the pedigree of the ruling princes is traced from the first, semi-legendary rulers. The representation of the past from the perspective of the legitimacy of the existing government is one of the main functions of the images of the past. Kaverzina analyzes this process by the example of the content of the programs of modern political parties and shows how the image of the past formed in the party program "through the enumeration of politically significant events in state history" is used as evidence of the relevance of the ideology of this party, its patriotism and compliance with the political traditions of the state ^{[5, p.40]}.

The formation of collective ideas about the past is also influenced by those who are commonly called "rulers of thoughts": preachers, philosophers, writers, publicists – people who formed public opinion in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thus, the discussion in literary salons of P.Ya. Chaadaev's "First Philosophical Letter" served as an occasion for a discussion about pre-Petrine Russia, which then developed into a magazine polemic that divided the Russian intelligentsia into Westerners and Slavophiles. In modern society, the decisive role in shaping public opinion belongs to the media, respectively, they have the main influence on the images of the past. This aspect is the focus of Milovanova's attention, who explores strategies for forming a positive or negative image of the past in the work of the media. Thematic selection of factual data, logical arguments, psychological techniques – these are the most common forms of creating images of the past in the press. The latter include the tactics of appealing to ethnic stereotypes, ethical arguments, a reference to positive individual experience, assertions of the value of the past, nostalgic mythologization. "These tactics," writes Milovanova, "are aimed at reducing the logical analysis of the links of the content with the past and present of the addressee and, thereby, at reducing consciousness and critical perception" ^{[45, p. 28]}.

Collective images of the past, imprinted in material forms, are broadcast not only through the media, but also through works of art: literature, painting, sculpture, music, dramatic art. At the same time, works of art themselves are traces of the past. Assman recognizes that the subjects of collective memory – nations, states, the church – construct images of the past with the help of "memorial signs and symbols" ^{[46, p.59]}.

Most researchers agree that individual representations of the past are formed on the basis of collective representations. For example, Nemova believes that an important place in this process is occupied by "one's own life experience during adulthood and the official ideology that presented history from the position of current state interest" ^[4]. D. Carr points out that the picture of the past created by the historian is profaned at the individual level of the layman, for whom personal life experience, historical knowledge and myths and stereotypes existing in society ^[32]. It can be said that the process of forming individual images of the past includes a personal "selection" of an event series representing the past, and constructive historical knowledge that a person gets acquainted with directly through the writings of historians or perceives them in an adapted form.

Individual ideas about the past are actualized by a specific life situation in which the carrier of ideas is included. Associations, allusions, analogies that arise in the present, leave an imprint on the content of images of the past, bringing certain events to the fore for a person, changing their assessment and interpretation. In this regard, individual images of the past differ not only in the issue of assessments of the past, but also in the understanding of cause-and-effect relationships and general trends in historical development.

Assman considers professional and non-professional communications to be an important element in the formation of individual images of the past ^{[46, p.37]}. The discussion of the past, the understanding of its connection with the present, corrects individual images of the past, which are verified in the process of discussing, perhaps arguing and defending their own position. Jacques Le Goff points out that the conceptualization of the image of the past occurs in speech and narration, that is, it turns out to be tied to a specific subject ^{[47, pp.79-82]}. The transition of individual ideas about the past to the collective level consists in enriching personal memories with the memories of others ^{[43, p. 143]}.

Despite the social conditionality of individual images of the past, it must be recognized that collective images of the past absorb individual representations and are adjusted accordingly. In our opinion, the relationship between individual and collective images of the past can be represented using the core and periphery model proposed by J. Assman in relation to cultural memory ^[46]. The core of our analogy is the collective image of the past, formed with an orientation to the real traces of the past and the historical narrative of professional historians. This core is stabilized by social consensus and ideologically fixed. Individual images of the past are more variable and are located in the field of the periphery, including the core only partially. The periphery is formed to a greater extent on the basis of individual memory and interpersonal communications, the presence of historical knowledge and ideas in the personal past.

4.2. The appearance of images of the futureThe role of "past experience" in shaping the image of the future is played by the assessment of current trends available to human observation, their consideration from the perspective of viability in the future and possible consequences.

Sanna Ahvenharyu and co-authors identify two factors that influence the formation of a particular configuration of the future at the level of individual ideas. The first, which we would call objective, they include demographic and interindividual features of the bearer of ideas, that is, gender, age, level of education and cultural patterns. The authors separately emphasize that the currently existing studies mainly concern respondents with a Western, liberal worldview. The second factor can be called subjective, it concerns the psychological characteristics of the bearers of images of the future, how far in the future a person predicts his participation, how much he believes in his ability to influence events and achieve the desired results, whether he sees alternative scenarios, whether he thinks and cares about the future of other people besides himself ^[48].

In general, we agree with our Finnish colleagues and recognize the importance for the content of individual ideas about the future of the place occupied by the bearer of ideas in society, and personal, including psychological characteristics of a particular person. However, we would like to note that the content of individual images of the future does not always directly depend on their carrier. Often, images of the future appear, it would seem, without the participation of the person himself, without his conscious desire to imagine the future. Here, as in the case of images of the past, the role of the subconscious and intuitive associations is significant. It is no coincidence that texts with the representation of images of the future are often labeled by the authors themselves as "dreams". "Of all the types of superstition, it seems to me that the one that undertakes to interpret dreams is the most excusable," A. D. Smybyshev begins the story of the same name. "There really is something mystical in them that makes us recognize in their fantastic visions the warning of heaven or the prototypes of our future" ^{[49, p.216]}. Vera Pavlovna dreams about the future in N.G. Chernyshevsky's novel "What to do?", in a dream the hero of K.S. Merezhkovsky's book "Earthly Paradise, or a Dream on a winter Night" gets to the utopian islands of the twenty-seventh century, the hero of A.V. Chayanov sees in a dream "The Country of peasant utopia", the dream transfers to the future of the heroes of N.N. Shelonsky and E. Bellamy. Ernst Bloch connects the appeal to the future with the sphere of the preconscious, or else-the unconscious, which exists in the human psyche along with the unconscious or already-not-conscious. The preconscious is the ability to detect traces of the future in the present (Not–Yet-Being, as the philosopher calls it), an ability that manifests itself in the twilight state of consciousness between sleep and wakefulness ^{[50, pp. 252-258]}.

The intuitiveness of the images of the future led researchers Tapio and Kaboli, studying the images of the future of modern Finnish youth, to use the method of active imagination, which allows us to get closer to discovering the content of the individual and collective unconscious, cultural patterns and archetypes. Respondents participating in the study were asked to close their eyes, take a few deep breaths and imagine that they went to bed and woke up ten years later. Then they were asked to explain their life situation and the environment, vehicles, daily news and the global situation ^[27].

A factor influencing the configuration of the images of the future can also be the essential subjects created by man, capable of influencing others: literature, painting, sculpture, musical works, films, the organization of urban space, new gadgets, etc. It is interesting to note that futuristic paintings of the past often included urban representations. However, the images of the cities of the future of the 18th and 19th centuries lack such recognizable elements of urban planning of the 20th century as skyscrapers. Fantasy, turned to the future, painted houses with glass walls, mirrored windows, garden houses and houses with musical instruments, but all these buildings were thought of as a maximum of 5-6 floors. Only after the technological breakthrough of the beginning of the 20th century, associated with the use of a load-bearing steel frame, which allowed the construction of buildings above 50 meters, and electric elevators, began to massively build skyscraper houses, and a little later they appeared in the pictures of the future. So the world that we create around us in the present determines the images of our future.

However, we do not all see the future the same way, our future hopes and fears are different ^[52]. This difference stems from the absence of a common starting point in the representation of the future – objective "traces" of the future in the present. The assessment of the trends of the present and their projection into the future is carried out by individuals based on the subjective present, which we wrote about in section 3.3 of this article, different in different societies, social groups, personalities.

Considering these ideas, we propose a model of the emergence of images of the future at the individual level, which includes four components. The first of them is the concrete life experience underlying the generalized picture of the actual social reality. A specific life experience is a refraction of objective and subjective factors that S. Ahvenkharyu and co–authors wrote about - psychological and ideological characteristics of a person and his place in society, conditions set by the social environment. The socio-economic, political, cultural situation in which a particular person is included is realized by him through life experience, more active or rather passive, successful or less successful.

The second component of the individual image of the future is what we call imaginary experience – more or less complete mental models created by interpreting and combining elements of real experience. The imaginary experience reflects the mental characteristics and capabilities of a person, his knowledge base, creative abilities, the ability to analyze a real situation based on available information and draw conclusions. Imaginary experience is the subjunctive mood of real experience, what could happen to us if…

The actual state of the subject is the third component of the images of the future at the individual level. In this component we include a set of emotions, moods, and needs of the present moment. This is a relatively short-term state that acts as a variable that gives fluctuations to the vector of aspiration into the future.

The last, fourth component, which is part of the model of forming images of the future, is the interest in the future. To study a person's interest in the future, his own or the future of society, Western researchers use the concept of Future orientation. It is used primarily in individual and social psychology and is associated with the orientation of the time vector in the consciousness of the subject to the present, past or future. According to G. Trommsdorf, orientation to the future is a multidimensional cognitive-motivational system, including the subjective duration of the time perspective, assessment and comparison of opportunities, motivational and affective aspects ^[53]. Interest in the future manifests itself in hope, people's tendency to think about the future, fear of it or indifference to it at the level of an individual. The interest or non-interest caused by the future is directly related to the actual state of the subject and is generated by associations with real and imaginary life experiences.

Individual images of the future have a much greater influence on collective images than vice versa. This is due precisely to the fact that the "material" for representing the future is the trends of the present, does not set clear vectors in the vision of the future. Assessments of existing trends as important or unimportant for the future, even the very identification of trends to be evaluated, are subjective. Collective images of the future can be represented as a median of individual images, as a coincidence of social expectations and vision of the future.

Regarding this coincidence in the vision of the future, two explanations need to be made. The first concerns the collective variability of the vision of the future. The future is seen as different not only on an individual, but also on a group level, as was shown in the example from section 3.2. Therefore, the model of the center and periphery, which we described in relation to images of the past, where the core was generally valid ideas about the past, and the margins were formed by individual representations, interpreting one way or another, is not suitable here. a collective image of the past. The future is seen alternatively on a personal level, and already generalized pictures of the future are formed from the coincidences of individual expectations. Several images of the future are present in time, outlining several probable vectors of future development.

The second explanation concerns the very "mechanism" of the coincidence of individual ideas about the future. The question of synchronization of social processes is asked by Stephen Strogats, author of the book "The Rhythm of the Universe. How order arises out of chaos" ^{[54, p.203]}. He believes that such social phenomena as fashion, a surge of interest in a work of art or an author, synchronization of applause from the audience at a concert or cars with increased traffic occurs due to the subconscious desire of the individual not to stand out from the crowd, "herd behavior", as Strogats calls it. This not realized or not fully realized attitude leads to the fact that a person, comparing his behavior or beliefs with the behavior and beliefs of his closest people, strengthens similar moments and mixes differences with them. With regard to the object of our consideration, it can be assumed that individual representations of the future arise as the imposition of a particular person's own plans on the forecasts and expectations associated with the future present in society. At the same time, both individual and collective ideas of the future are corrected, the "dissonance" in the vision of the future fades and is leveled, and general ideas about the future, on the contrary, are strengthened.

Nele Fischer and Sasha Dannenberg consider the role of plausibility in constructing images of the future. They define plausibility as an agreement between the participants of social interaction about the correspondence of a certain knowledge or image to previous knowledge. A plausible picture of the future is a picture that inspires confidence among the participants in its discussion, it must fit into existing categories and, consequently, into the corresponding concepts of reality. The authors note that what is perceived as very plausible within the framework of a certain image of the future, thus positions itself as deserving special attention ^[55].

Evaluation of a certain model of the future as plausible or implausible occurs in the process of direct or indirect communication, which is why images of the future that are of a public nature – literary works about the future, feature films, discussed political projects, act as a kind of "coordinates" of ideas about the future. It is through them that individual representations are coordinated. We can say that plausibility in this sense serves as a marker of consistency of concepts.

 Albert Bandura, considering individual and collective ideas about the future, recognizes their mutual influence. "Such a group awareness of the future," he writes, "will have common characteristics with the individual, but it is likely that some psychological features of the individual level will not be used at the group level. Group-level phenomena are also likely to exhibit new properties, such as group dynamics, which cannot be reduced to an individual level" ^[56].

We want to illustrate the relationship between individual and collective images of the future with a model of crystallization of, say, an oversaturated saline solution. Individual ideas about the future existing in society, vague perspective pictures, emotional experiences related to tomorrow, value orientations of the future can be likened to the most oversaturated solution. Individual paintings of the future that have received public distribution – works of art, scientific projects, political programs – act as a homogeneous element that creates a framework for the growth of the image of the future. In a certain period, there are several such frameworks – vectors in the vision of the future, which form similar visions of the future around themselves, which crystallize around this vector, "stick" to it, strengthen, and ensure the growth of the crystal image. The most significant images of the future for their time are those that have the greatest response in the public consciousness, differ in the greatest plausibility. It is with them that the ideas about the future of individuals will be synchronized, correcting themselves and correcting the collective image of the future. The images of the future, however worked out at the individual level, but not demanded by the public consciousness, do not become a point of growth of a new crystal and do not turn into a collective image of the future.

5. ConclusionIn this article, we turned to the study of the process of the appearance of images of the past and images of the future at the individual and collective levels.

At the beginning of the work, it was suggested that there should be a process of mutual influence between individual and collective representations. At the individual level, the socio-cultural environment acts as an element of life experience and the life world and creates a certain mood of individual consciousness. Collective representations serve as a kind of median of individual expectations and memories. However, with a closer study of the process of formation of temporal representations, it became noticeable that it is at the collective level that the differences between the emergence of images of the past and images of the future are manifested.

Images of the past based on traces of the past preserved in the present and reconstructed knowledge about the past reveal the dominance of collective representations over individual ones. It is the general cultural ideas about the past that act as the core around which individual images of the past are formed as various variants of its interpretation. The actual present influences, first of all, the collective representations of the past, and those, in turn, are reflected in individual retrospective paintings. Therefore, in a certain time period, there is one collective image of the past in culture, formed by ideology and social consensus on the basis of the historical narrative of professional historians based on real traces of the past. Individual images of the past are multiple, since they depend on the level of awareness of a particular carrier, his memory and ideological attitudes.

The future has no traces in the present. Images of the future, rooted only in the actual social reality, can demonstrate a fairly large range of options for seeing the future. At the same time, individual images of the future have a formative influence on collective ones, and not vice versa, as in the images of the past. This is due to the fact that the vision of the future depends on the perception of the present, those trends that are assessed worthy of continuation or significant enough to influence tomorrow. Any assessments are inevitably subjective.

Individual images of the future would be infinitely diverse if it were not for the effect of synchronization of social representations due to the fact that in the process of communication we influence the participants of communication, as they influence us. At the same time, the power of the influence of individual images of the future on each other is not the same. The most plausible and convincing or attractive and vivid images of the future find more support, it is with them that individuals begin to coordinate their vision of the future. Alternative vectors are being formed in the public consciousness, setting directions in the vision of the future. Therefore, there are always several collective images of the future present in the present.

Why do images of the past and images of the future arise at all? We associate the answer to this question with the desire or need to understand the world and the processes in it as a semantic integrity. The process of self-awareness as an individual, as well as culture, society as a whole presupposes awareness of oneself on the scale of society not only as this society is now, but also as it has been up to the present moment and, perhaps, will be in the future. Ideas about the past and the future are part of the present, and their study is aimed primarily at understanding the processes taking place here and now, the causes and meanings behind current events.

Images of the past and the future are constructed in the present, and therefore act as elements of the actual social reality. Therefore, the present itself, or, more precisely, the events taking place in it, are influenced by ideas about the past and the future. However, this topic, as well as the topic of the mutual influence of images of the past and images of the future, requires further independent research.