Myth inertia: rhetoric of Decembrist redemption of nobilities’ guilt in modern humanitarian research

A study of the general mechanisms of historical memory and the identification of its national characteristics are of great public importance. The relevance of this study is substantiated by the need to address this leading problem of the world-wide historical science. The purpose of this article is to explain the phenomenon of “subconscious” references to rhetoric strategies of the Soviet period exemplified on the remembrance of Decembrists. At that time, Soviet intelligentsia frequently referred to Decembrists with the purpose to present positively some historical figures, contributors to cultural development, and even fictional characters whose characteristics were dubious from the standpoint of the communist ideology. After the collapse of the Soviet regime, the need for immersion into the Decembrist narrative vanished. Nevertheless, researchers continue persistently to bind the heroes of their research to the memory of the heroes of December the 14th. One can assume that modern writers are in need of a sacred “metanarrative” - a universal story of culture to which the totality of profane private narratives is bound. In Soviet times such narratives were Lenin’s “three generations”. The novelty of this work is presented in the hypothesis according to which the absence of a uniting story in contemporary Russian culture compels Russian intellectuals to subconsciously use a revolutionary paradigm repeatedly derided by them earlier