Socio-cultural aspects of celebrating the bicentennial anniversary of Peter the Great in the Olonets province

In 1872, the Russian Empire widely celebrated the bicentennial anniversary of Peter the Great with the celebration being particularly solemn in the Olonets Province. This commemorative practice can lead to certain conclusions about the axiological components of the society at that moment. The relevance of the article is determined by the novelty of the methodological approach and particular attention to the understudied aspects of the organization of Peter the Great’s anniversary. The purpose of the article is to study the formal and ideological components of Peter the Great’s bicentennial anniversary celebration in the Olonets Province . The article analyzes the anniversary events in Petrozavodsk, Lodeynoye Pole and Vytegra uyezds (districts) on the basis of archival documents and materials of the periodical press. It was concluded that the events had the same formal and ideological components, which were aimed at building a common cultural memory on the territory of the Russian Empire. Through the celebration of Peter the Great’s anniversary the imperial government once again presented the foundational history that ensured its own legitimacy, as well as performed the functions of identification and goal-setting for the “imagined community” that was supposed to identify itself with the Empire.