Shipovskaya, L. P., Gemonov, A. V. Philosophical Interpretation of Heraldic Symbols in the Old Russia During the Period of the Ruling of the First Romanovs (1613 – 1682)

Abstract: The author of the article makes an attempt to carry out the philosophical analysis of the heraldic symbols in the Old Russia during the ruling of the fi rst representatives of the Romanov dynasty. The object of the semiotic analysis is the symbol of the double-headed eagle on state stamps of the fi rst Romanovs. The author of the article specifi es that being a symbolical aspect of the picture of the world in Russia in the XVIIth century, heraldic images refl ected features of Russian mentality in general and interpretation of the princely power as an important attribute of the Russian society in particular. The main research methods included the following: semiotics approach allowing to reveal the sign and symbolical bases of social life and behavior of people in the society as well as the social and phenomenological approach and the Jungian psychoanalytic concept as heuristic methods of a philosophical discourse of heraldic symbolics. The standard semiotics analysis describing the meaning, the meant and the reviewer (according to Umberto Eco’s methodological scheme) is completed by the Jung’s theory of archetypes as well as dialectics as a universal method of philosophical research. Heraldic symbols are interpreted by the author in terms of the philosophical category "world picture" expressing a universal way of formation of conceptual and fi gurative and symbolical ideas of the world. Thus, the author of the present article outlines an important feature of the period of the historical development of Russia which is the national identity formation.

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