The article covers the concept of “capitaleness” and “geographical identity”. Our research will make an attempt to analyze an institute of capitals at functional as well as symbolic levels. In that case capitals serve not only as a place to dispose the governmental bodies, but their functions include national representation to themselves and the environment. Capitals are the idealized image of nation and national history, a sort of nation in miniature. Interregional di erentiation within a state through establishing and maintaining mental boundaries between center and periphery is the mechanism to detect the territories needing the support for preserving the compliance with national norms and, thereafter, maintaining stateness. Two major territorial bases of stateness are traditionally singled out: nation-building and threats to security or, in other words, mental boundaries marking of “Us” community and actualization of “Oth- ers”. Contemporary political geography is turning to the study of the third mechanism – internal “Other”. Two strategies are possible to prove that interregional di erentiation is a mechanism of nation-building.
Analysis of di erent discursive and institutional practices marginalizing regions would be logical. How- ever such way leads us to the large number of cases di ering from each other in the multitude of variables and, therefore, exclude generalization in the conclusions. Thereupon we consider it possible to address another strategy, such as the search for evidence that center is purposefully opposed to periphery and is given symbolic national and centrifugal functions as well as administrative ones. The existence of one dichotomic pole should con rm the existence of the opposite. There are three cases - of Staraya Ladoga, Myshkin and Kasimov – which interpret di erently the peculiarities of geographical space. Besides, the authors give illustrative examples of the construction of the myth about “stolichnost” and describe the instruments of symbolic politics.
Key words: geographical identity, capitalness, interpretation of space, Staraya Ladoga, Myshkin, Kasimov.
References
1. Basova D. Staraia Ladoga – «voobrazhaemaia» stolitsa Rossii [Staraya Ladoga - "imaginary" capital of Russia]. Sravnitel'naia politika. 2015. Vol. 6, no. 4(21). Pp. 89-93. (In Russ).
2. Blagoderova I. Kasimov: vash turisticheskii gid [Kasimov: your tourist guide]. Shatsk: Shatskaia tipogra ia, 2010. 96 p. (In Russ).
3. Zamiatin D.N. Fenomen/noumen stolitsy: Istoricheskaia geogra ia i ontologicheskie modeli voobrazheniia [The phenomenon/noumenon capital: Historical Geography and the ontological model of imagination]. Perenos stolitsy: Istoricheskii opyt geopoliticheskogo proektirovaniia. Materialy konferentsii 28–29 oktiabria 2013 g. [Transfer of the capital: The historical experience of a geopolitical design. Proceedings of the conference held on 28-29 October 2013] Ed. by I.G. Konovalova. Moscow: Institut vseobshchei istorii RAN, 2013. Pp. 23-28. (In Russ).
4. Kirpichnikov A. N. Gosudarstvennoi Rossii 1150 let. [The state Russian is 1150 years old]. Staroladozhskii sbornik. 2013. Issue 10. Saint-Petersburg: Kalamos. Pp. 7-18. (In Russ).
5. Kirpichnikov A. N. Zaria russkoi gosudarstvennosti [The dawn of the Russian statehood]. Staraia Ladoga – pervaia stolitsa Rossii. Saint-Petersburg: AO «Slaviia». 2013. Pp. 194 -202. (In Russ).
6. Kirpichnikov A. N. Istoricheskaia panorama Staroi Ladogi [Historical panorama of Staraya Ladoga]. Staraia Ladoga – pervaia stolitsa Rossii. Saint-Petersburg. AO «Slaviia». 2013. Pp. 15-51. (In Russ).
7. Kirpichnikov A. N. Ladoga v pervye veka ee istorii [Ladoga in the early centuries of its history]. Staraia Ladoga – pervaia stolitsa Rossii. SPb. AO «Slaviia». 2013. Pp. 51-99. (In Russ).
8. Machinskii D. A. Vtoroe russkoe protogosudarstvo so stolitsei v Nevogarde. Riurikovom gorodke i kon- struktsii russkogo gosudarstva, postroennogo na dvuedinstve Kieva i Nevogarda/Novgoroda (870-1054 gg.) [Second Russian proto state with its capital in Nevogarde. Rurik town and the Russian state structures, built on the double unity of Kiev and Nevogarda / Novgorod (870-1054 )]. Staroladozhskii sbornik. 2009. Issue 7. Saint-Petersburg. Nestor-Istoriia. Pp. 149-177. (In Russ).
9. Machinskii D. A. Pochemu i v kakom smysle Ladogu sleduet schitat' pervoi stolitsei Rusim [Why and in what sense Ladoga should be considered as the rst capital of Russia]. Staroladozhskii sbornik. 2009. Issue 7. Saint-Petersburg. Nestor-Istoriia. Pp. 18-52. (In Russ).
10. Meshcherskaia nov': gazeta o kasimovskoi zemle i dlia kasimovtsev [Kasimovskaya newspaper on the ground and kasimovtsev]. Kasimov: Priokskii kur'er. 10 July, 2014. No. 27. Pp.13, 127. (In Russ).
11. Meshcherskie vesti: obshchestvenno-politicheskaia gazeta Kasimovskogoraiona Riazanskoi oblasti [Political newspaper of Kasimovskogorayona Ryazan region]. Riazan': Pressa, 10 July 2014. No. 56 (1326). (In Russ).
12. Myshkiny palaty [Mouse Chamber]. Myshkin: Masshtab, 2015. 12 p. (In Russ).
13. Okuneva E. Dekonstruktsiia mifa o stolichnosti na primere goroda Myshkina [Deconstruction of the myth
of a capital by the example of Myshkin]. Sravnitel'naia politika. 2015. Vol. 6, no. 4(21). Pp. 102-104. (In Russ).
14. Ostapenko G. Interpretatsiia prostranstva: prostranstvennye kon guratsii Staroi Ladogi [Interpretation of space: the spatial con guration of Staraya Ladoga]. Sravnitel'naia politika. 2015. Vol. 6, no. 4(21). Pp. 94-96.
(In Russ).
15. Rzhevskii Iu.V. Vasilii Temnyi [Vasily the Dark]. Kasimov: Kasimovskaia tipogra ia, 2009. 105 p. (In Russ).
16. Rossman V. Stolitsy: ikh mnogoobrazie, zakonomernosti razvitiia i peremeshcheniia [Capitals: their diversity,
patterns of development and displacement]. Moscow: Izd-vo Instituta Gaidara, 2013. 336 p. (In Russ).
17. Savin S. Stolitsa kak tsentr gosudarstvennogo stroitel'stva – pamiat' o «stolichnosti» Kasimova [Capital as a center of state-building - the memory of the "Capital" Kasimov]. Sravnitel'naia politika. 2015. Vol. 6, no.
4(21). Pp. 105-106. (In Russ).
18. Tislenko M. Kasimov i Myshkin: kak odna prostranstvennaia identichnost' delaet odni goroda bolee stoli-
chnymi, a drugie – net [Kasim and Myshkin: spatial identity as one makes one city more than the capital, and the other – no]. Sravnitel'naia politika. 2015. Vol. 6, no. 4(21). Pp. 110-112. (In Russ).
