The battleship "Rusalka" monument in anthropologic dimension

Lapin Vladimir Vikentievich

The wreck of battleship «Russalka» September, 7 1893 in the Gulf of Finland during a storm caused a large falsehood determined by the circumstances of the disaster. There turned out to by no eyewitnesses, the ship was found only 110 years later. It lead to a fiction and speculations, engendered by different socio-cultural relations. A monument appeared in 1902 in Revel (Tallinn). The money for its establishment were donated by Russians, that action was a display of civil society activity. The monument was the repository of different Imperial symbols. It was the reflection of the Russian ambition to be a great naval Empire and the exhibition of Peter the Great’s cult. The imperial character of the monument promoted its preservation in the “memorial wars”, which were significant for the area of the former Russian Empire.

Keywords:Estonia, monuments, historical memory, history of empires, civil society