“Eminent citizen of Rylsk”, Gavrila Derzhavin and the “woeful widow” tombstone of Grigory Shelikhov in Irkutsk and memorial practices in Russia in the late 18th - early 19th centuries

The article discusses memorial practices at a cemetery, i.e., the practices that represent earliest attempts to communicate a late person’s status and his/her lifetime deeds. The tombstone is considered as a set of elements containing semantic load (epitaphs, visuals, design features, etc.), which help to consolidate the image of a deceased person. The gravestone of Grigory Shelikhov, an Irkutsk merchant known for organizing expeditions to Russian America and founding the North-Eastern Company, is selected as a notable example. This monument was constructed on the territory of the Znamensky Monastery of Irkutsk in 1800. It combines typical features as well as some unique elements of gravestones of the late 18th - early 19th centuries (such as indicating poetic epitaphs authorship and the cost of the tombstone, as well as an unconventional image of Empress Catherine II). The authors explore the features of Grigory Shelikhov’s tombstone and the historical context around the Shelikhovs’ activities after the merchant’s death. They demonstrate that the tombstone was an attempt to demonstrate the role of the deceased in establishing the future Russian-American Company. The Shelikhov family used the monument as a tool to secure their right to control the company and to signify the family’s social capital at the local level. The authors make use of field research database “Memorial Culture in Russia: Tombstones of the 18th - 20th Centuries”, collected at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.