HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF THE “GENIUS-PLACE” RELATIONS (TAKING THE TOWN OF VERESCHAGINO AS AN EXAMPLE)
The article contains the results of a comprehensive study conducted by the author's team in 2020 - 2022. The investigation focuses on historical milestones of the development and current state of the cultural image of Vereshchagino - a small town of Perm Krai. In the course of the study it was found out that in the difficult situation of socio-economic development, which is typical for Vereshchagino today, the representatives of local intellectual communities have a strong desire to promote positive images of the town in the regional mass media through cultural brands. The historical figure of Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842 - 1904), an outstanding Russian painter and writer, stands out in this endevour. Thanks to cultural events held in the town from time to time dedicated to his creative work, it can be argued that city residents have the necessary minimum of knowledge about the history of the founding of Vereshchagino, and the personality of the Russian ascetic claims to be a ’genius’ of place. However, this positive aspect, in fact, does not act as a decisive factor in implementing the effective cultural branding strategy of the town. In the media environment of the Ural macro-region, one can find a lot of stories about the fact that historical ties do absolutely not connect ’genius’ (V.V. Vereshchagin) and ’place’ (Vereshchagino). Together, this leads to serious risks for the small town. So the risk of losing the image of a ’genius’ in a town that does not have a significant historical and cultural aura, can lead to sad consequences, in particular, negatively affect the quality of everyday local history work with children and youth. In the framework of this article, the authors bring up for discussion the prospective proposals for the development and implementation of the geocultural branding strategy for a small town aimed at creating a positive and attractive image of Vereshchagino on the basis of its historical and cultural potential. This is the purpose of this study, which is consistently disclosed through the solution of research objectives: to identify and characterize historical facts, legendary stories, testifying to the relationship of ’genius’ and ‘place’; to determine the role of the historical person V.V. Vereshchagin in the modern cultural landscape of the small town; to formulate proposals for developing and implementing the geocultural branding strategy for the town of Vereshchagino. As a methodological basis for writing the article, the provisions are used such as the concept of geocultural branding of Russian cities (D. N. Zamyatin, N. Yu. Zamyatin) as well as the conceptual views of domestic researchers on the application of historical-museum and library practices in creating and promoting urban cultural brands.