Review of the Book “Peter I in Media Memory” by Denis S. Artamonov & Sophia V. Tikhonova

Abstract

The subject of the review is a monographic study by S. V. Tikhonova and D. S. Artamonov “Peter I in Media Memory”. The monograph consists of three chapters and fourteen paragraphs. Co-authors analyze in the first chapter (“Peter I in the Media Memory of the Digital Age”) the influence of traditional (radio, cinema, television) and new (digital, interactive, social) media on the collective memory. The second chapter (“Peter the Great in the Visual images of Media Memory”) contains a study of historical anecdotes, cartoons, Internet memes, animated films, computer games. The third chapter (“Constructing the image of Peter I in the media environment”) is devoted to the politics of memory and memorial wars around Peter I in comparison with the figures of media memory closest to him – Ivan the Terrible and I. V. Stalin. D. S. Artamonov and S. V. Tikhonova believe that in the 21st century, new media begins to play a major role in constructing the image of Peter the Great. The reviewed monograph is a truly innovative and searching study, which suggests methods and forms of analyzing the memory of Peter I in contemporary society that can be used in the study of other epochs, personalities, events of world and national history.