First World War and the formation of a national patriotic tradition in Canada: the battle of Nimy Ridge

This article is devoted to the battle of Vimy Ridge in the spring of 1917 and its influence on the social and political life of Canada. During this battle the Canadian Expeditionary Force achieved major success. The victory had immediate and far-reaching political and socio-cultural consequences. On the one hand, this allowed the Conservative Party to gain a parliamentary majority in the next Federal elections in December 1917. Success of the conservatives gave them the opportunity to pass a law on military conscription and change the order of management of the Canadian army units at the front. But even more important was the strengthening of the influence of Prime Minister R. Borden in the Imperial War Cabinet. On the other hand, the process of turning the battle of Vimy Ridge into one of the main symbols of Canada’s military glory, stimulated by a sharp increase of patriotic sentiments, is really interesting. For its detailed consideration a range of sources of different types was selected, in the center of which there are press materials. Their specific features made it possible to trace the stages of formation of the patriotic myth, as well as the international reaction to it, which was important for the dominion which sought to independence in foreign policy. The analysis of sources was carried out on the basis of methodological approaches of intellectual history - one of the most promising directions for the study of the formation of national ideology.