«The highest parade ground» or «city boulevard»? Statistics, memory, and personal vendettas in the conflict over public space of Polotsk (1830th – 1908)

Abstract

Using a microhistorical approach and an analysis of archival materials, this article examines the long-term struggle (1830^th – 1908) between the Polotsk Cadet Corps and the city community for control of the central square. It shows how this particular incident reflected the key contradictions of imperial Russia at the turn of the 20^th centuries. Five phases of the confrontation are reconstructed – from local clashes to consideration by the highest authorities (the Senate, the State Council), reflecting the evolution of governance mechanisms from monarchical dictate to bureaucratic arbitration. Particular attention is paid to two aspects that determined the severity of the conflict: 1) its deep personalisation through the figures of the corps director, General A. P. Tyrtov, and the mayor N. V. Litvinov, whose personal motives and career trajectories became the catalyst for the escalation of the conflict; 2) the discursive struggle (the threats of moral decay, sanitary danger, desecration of the symbol of military glory, demographic takeover, and the image of a besieged fortress, constructed by the corps, were contrasted with the legal and economic arguments of city self-government). It is concluded that the dispute over the parade ground was not simply a property conflict, but a clash of fundamentally different models of public space – a closed military-disciplinary one and an open city-wide one.