Narratives of Regional Cultural Distinctiveness and the Unity of Russian Cultural Space

The article is based on field research conducted in Krasnodar Krai and Kaliningrad and Orenburg oblasts in 2022–2024. Its aim is to understand the extent to which narratives about the uniqueness of “one’s own land” are capable of producing a separate historical and cultural space and leading to fragmentation of a country’s territory, held together by a settlement system, a common language, and a shared past. The concept of narrative identity is used as a theoretical framework for the analysis, emphasizing the importance of culture with its extensive repertoire of texts, images, and symbols for personal and collective self-identification. The main sources of information were exhibitions at regional and municipal museums, conversations with their directors and tour guides, and interviews with representatives of local administrations, experts, and journalists. In conducting a comparative analysis of narratives, the authors limited themselves to the three most representative examples in each region. A detailed analysis of tales about “one’s own land” made it possible to highlight the general principles of structuring and presenting information, as well as to identify narrative plots that perform integrating functions. The authors conclude that regional legends have a retroactive rather than proactive nature, and are oriented toward restoring lost order and continuity and linking local historical memory with the country’s historical time. Reconstruction of a positive connection between the past, present, and future significantly limits the disintegrating tendencies inherent in the idea of “one’s own land” and the narratives of regional cultural distinctiveness, ensuring the cultural unity of the Russian space.