Urban Population Identities and Symbolic Value

Abstract

This article examines various aspects of identities conveyed by urban populations, factors of transformation and development of urban spaces, and historical memory as tools for the socialization, stratification, and integration of a polyethnic society in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The empirical base of the study is a variety of material, including a questionnaire survey of the urban population of Yakutia, spontaneous polls, and in-depth expert interviews. The novelty is the research strategy itself, aimed at identifying all the listed actors through the prism of symbolic representations. The study of the symbolic value of the northern cities of Yakutia as informational and cultural spaces, understanding the heritage as a certain mediative mental-material cultural layer with symbolic codes and texts, provides key registers for considering the fundamental problems of the spatial and socio-cultural development of territories in general. The results of the study show that the political identity of the population of Yakutia has been formed according to the historical memory of the Soviet past. A trend towards positioning the region as “northern” or “arctic” has emerged in recent years, which also depends on government policy in the Arctic.