Formation resourses of historical memory of perm schoolchildren (based on sociological investgations)

The text is devoted to the problem of formation of historical memory and local identity among schoolchildren. In the social sciences historical memory is considered as a representation of the past, and is a condition for the identity formation, first of all - territorial, that includes civil, regional and local identity. The article presents the analysis of a series of interviews with high schoolchildren of Perm schools. The issue coveres the influence of school history lessons, family history, media sources and commemoration on the ideas of the past of the «small homeland», which in turn underlie local self-identification. Historical memory is formed under the influence of random apocryphal sources. Regional and local identity are the least backed up by historical memory, since less resources are involved in the formation of the latter. The school as a social institution is one of the main channels for broadcasting the state policy of memory. The school acts hand in hand with the other resources of the formation of historical memory, such as the media, cinematography, television, commemorative practices, etc., but it is school history that is a framework for the formation of a national identity. According to mass polls of the residents of the Perm Krai, the memory policy implemented today leads to a gradual increase of the significance of the general civil identity on the background of the other forms of territorial identity. Studies conducted by the author among Perm schoolchildren (a series of focus interviews) show that the framework of local and regional identity is just family history, which inevitably turns out to be more complex and personalized. Consequently, the discrepancy and sometimes direct contradictions between the state memory policy and the historical memory of the family are fraught with the emergence of contradictions between the sense of belonging to the nation and territorial self-identification, which is already an important social and managerial problem.