Pages: 369-380

The article shows how narratives of Tiraspol Old Believers shape urban ethnoconfessional space. The empirical basis of the study includes archival materials and field data collected by the author in 2015—2019, including observations and interviews with the urban citizens. Oral narratives about local history are viewed as living evidence shaping different inner versions of the past and ethnoconfessional space within the city, so called Old Believer Tiraspol. In memories, existing important elements of urban space (acting church, museum) come together with the destroyed church and houses, objects that have changed their status. On the basis of interviews a) a map of Old Believers’ places in Tiraspol is elaborated, b) it is being considered what meanings are attached to significant objects as well as what role they play in reproducing locality.

Keywords: Tiraspol, beginning of the 21st century, Old Believers, ethnoconfessional space, local memory, urban community, locality, church, museum, cemetery

Information about author:

Natalia Dushakova (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Russian State University for the Humanities. Miusskaya Sq., 6, Moscow, 125993, GSP-3, Russian Federation; Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Vernadsky Ave., 82, Moscow, 119571, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]