E-mail: matlin@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (8422) 44-30-66
4/5, Lenin square, Ulyanovsk, 432071, Russian Federation
DSc in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Russian Language, Literature and Journalism, I. N. Ulyanov Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University
Tel.: + 7 (8422) 30-03-70
2/13, Dvortsovaya str., Ulyanovsk, 432071, Russian Federation
Researcher, Center for the Development and Preservation of Folklore — the Branch of the Center for Folk Culture of the Ulyanovsk Region
Although the tradition of placing signs at places where people have died in road accidents has relatively recently become the object of research in cultural geography, social anthropology, and folklore, many aspects of it have already been well studied by scientists in Europe, North America, Canada, Australia, and others. Thanks to their works, not only the specifics of this tradition in the modern socio-cultural life of society are established, but also national, ethnic, and regional features are revealed. Since the 90s of the twentieth century, this tradition has been actively developing in Russia, but the development of its domestic science began only in the 2010s. Therefore, many aspects are still poorly understood. Among them are the connection of tradition with the peculiarities of the road traffic situation on the highways, the degree of development of tradition in different periods, the typology of memorial signs by material and design, their regional features, etc. The article uses the material obtained as a result of field research in 2013, 2014, 2020 and 2021 on the federal highways passing through the territory of three national republics — Tatarstan, Chuvashia and Mordovia — A 151 (Shemursha — Tsivilsk), R241 (Chipmunks — Lesnye Morkvashi), R178 (Saransk — Surskoye), as well as the study of these highways using photos of Google.Maps for 2014 and 2018, highlights the features of this tradition in this territory, and attempts to determine possible solutions to some of these problems, some directions of its further research are also formulated.
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MacConville U., McQuillan R. (2005) Continuing the Tradition: Roadside Memorials in Ireland. Archaeology Ireland. 2005. Vol. 19. No. 1. Pp. 26–30. In English.
Matlin M. G. (2021) Smert’ v landshafte: prostranstvennyi aspekt sovremennoi traditsii otmechat’ mesta gibeli lyudei na avtodorogakh (na primere rossiiskikh federal’nykh trass A 151, P 178, P 241) [Death in the Landscape: The Spatial Aspect of the Modern Tradition of Marking Places of Death on Highways (On the Example of Russian Federal Highways A 151, P 178, P 241)]. Geograficheskii vestnik [Geographical Bulletin]. 2021. No. 4 (59). Pp. 59–72.
Matlin M. G., Safronov E. V. (2014) Kenotafy kak odna iz sovremennykh form ob’ektivatsii pamyati o pogibshikh [Cenotaphs as a Contemporary Form of Objectivization of Memory of the Dead]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie [Ethnographic Review]. 2014. No. 2. Pp. 36–47. In Russian.
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Przybylska L., Liro J., Holly G., Klima E. (2019) Inscriptions on Roadside Memorials in Poland. Death Studies. 2019. Vol. 44. Pp. 419–429. In English.
Reid A. (2013) Private Memorials on Public Space: Roadside Crosses at the Intersection of the Free Speech Clause and the Establishment Clause. Nebraska Law Review. 2013. Vol. 92. Pp. 124–184. In English.
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Santino D. (2019) Performativnye kommemorativy: Spontannye svyatilishcha i publichnaya memorializatsiya smerti [Performative Memoratives: Spontaneous Sanctuaries and Public Memorialization of Death]. Fol’klor i antropologiya goroda [Urban Folklore and Anthropology]. 2019. T. II. No. 1–2. Pp. 14–26. In Russian.
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Tay R., Churchill A., de Barros A. G. (2011) Effects of Roadside Memorials on Traffic Flow. Accident; Analysis and Prevention. 2011. Vol. 43. Pp. 483–486. In English.
Matlin M. G. The Modern Tradition of Marking the Places of People’s Deaths on Highways (On the Example of the Russian Federal Highways A 151, P 178, P 241). Traditional Culture. 2022. Vol. 23. No. 1. Pp. 97–112. In Russian.