The urban environment of Grozny as a space for constructing and reproducing the collective memory of modern Chechen society

The article examines the urban environment of the city of Grozny as a space for the construction and reproduction of cultural memory. Methodological approaches based on developments in collective memory are used, which examines the relationship between individual and collective memory, the role of oblivion in the creation of a new narrative, as well as the concept of symbolic dominance and places of memory. An attempt has been made to reveal two storylines of the meaning of the sign-symbolic redivision of the urban environment of Grozny through the eyes of the younger generation, which knows only the new post-war city, and through the eyes of an old citizen, in whose memory two images of the city are mixed: old and new. The empirical basis of the study was made up of a number of sources: the analysis of regional official documents on the change in toponymy of Grozny, analysis of the site “Good Old Grozny” (interviews with old residents of Grozny), data from surveys and interviews among students and pre-war residents of Grozny. A survey was conducted among students in 2023 (N=92) and 2024 (N=76). Seven interviews were conducted among pre-war residents of Grozny. The results showed that the formation of modern cultural memory in Chechen society is based on different mechanisms. The main features are: 1) construction and selection of cultural memory (CM) by the state; 2) preservation of layers of CM and its transformation at the level of the family and close social environment; 3) a generational gap in the level of value assessment of key historical events of the Chechen society; 4) the dominance of the symbolic dominance of the meanings of urbanonyms on the part of official institutions and agents of influence at the regional level. As a result, the urban environment is constructed as a kind of text-message, declaring a new narrative in the interpretation and presentation of the space in which urban identity and cultural memory of a resident of modern Grozny is formed.

collective memory, urban environment, urban identity, Grozny, toponymy