Paper short abstract:

Monuments to saints are a relatively recent innovation for post-Soviet urban landscape and therefore problematic. They are often seen as contestants of urban spaces, limiting the variety of practices in them. We shall discuss performative and discursive practices which drive or oppose this process.

Paper long abstract:

Starting from 2000s, numerous monuments, commemorating popular Orthodox saints were erected in Russia including 80 statues of saint patrons of matrimony Petr and Fevronia of Murom, 27 statues of St Nicholas, etc., changing both the commemorative landscape of the post-Soviet cities and traditional Orthodox reservedness towards sculptural icons (especially located outside places of worship). The change, however, is problematic for all urban stakeholders, from city administration and businesses who regard it from a political stance, to clergy discussing the sacral status of these unfamiliar objects, to urban activists feeling danger of religious expansion. These objects are simultaneously framed as places of memory and worship, spaces for tourist photography and vernacular religion rituals, centres of urban festivities and rallies, replacing Soviet commemorative objects or entering into complex semiotic and spatial relations with them. But also they highlight controversies of ownership of urban spaces. Any monument, and a monument to a saint specifically, limits the repertoire of socially approved practices in a public space where it stands - therefore monuments to saints can produce or reinforce sacred locations, revitalize abandoned spots, alienate existing points of attraction or even secure empty spaces from unwanted real estate development. In the paper we'll discuss urban practices (both performative and discursive) driving these processes and the place of monuments to saints in the weave of sacral and commemorative geography of contemporary Russian cities.