EGO-DOCUMENTS DURING «NEW MEDIA» EPOCH: RUSSIAN FEDERATION’S HISTORICAL SCOPE CONTENT

Abstract

Russia Federation’s assertiveness in a geopolitical environment, especially evident during the second decade of the XX century, also found its reflection in its domestic policy. Active instrumentalization of history by Russian authorities in order to form politically requested image of the past and historical cultural imperatives, cannot be understood without using a complex approach toward the implementation mechanism as well as the source studies. Today, when we observe an active development of information and communication, any historian cannot just ignore the historical source sets which are establishing along with “a new media” reflecting social-political and social-cultural trends. In Russia social media are not standing aside from instrumentalization processes. This fact is reflected in the historical problematics’ presence during personal appearances and discussions. We consider a media content as ego-documents with the author’s inner “I” representation. There is a close connection between the content form and a perception of personalized narratives. Such content, filled with historical information, allows not just call for the audience’s empathy, but also to form an invariably positive attitude toward certain historical cases. We distinguish four ego-documents forms which represent a historical knowledge: (1) professional historians; (2) speakers being positioned as historians by the audience; (3) narrators appealing to scientific facts and opinions and presenting their own interpretations; (4) politicians. Forming of the “historical” media content within Russia’s informational environment, allows to follow the human social and psychological needs instrumentalization process. It happens often by calling for empathy and creating politically determined historical pictures of the past.