“Monumental” Latency: Russian Society’s Discontent with the Historical Policy of Alexander I

The article engages with the conflict related to various forms of public commemoration in Russia in the first decade following the victory over Napoleon. From the perspective of memory studies, the author defines the essence of this conflict as Russian society’s discontent with the historical policy of Alexander I and reconstructs its symbolic meaning. Thus, the author shows that the new political cult of the dead, which emerged all over Europe after the French Revolution (Koselleck), shifted the hierarchy of tombstones, park and public monuments, and established the idea of a public “monument of the people’s glory” as an integral element of memorial culture. Placing Russia in a European cultural context, the author focuses on the “latency,” the constant but hidden presence of such monuments in the Russian commemorations of the victory over Napoleon after 1815, the desire of society to have such monuments, as well as the logic behind their rejection by the Russian emperor.