Road to the Fair: Trade as a Factor in the Formation of Regional Identity (based on Materials from the Penza Region)

Abstract

The problem of evolution of fairs in the Penza region as a socio-cultural phenomenon and a significant part of organizational culture, as a way of forming a regional identity in the imperial period, is considered in the article. The purpose of fair trading in the culture of everyday life of a provincial society was established on the basis of an analysis of documents from the office of the governor and sources of the epistolary genre. Throughout the 19th century fairs not only acted as a form of organization of import trade and satisfied the needs of the population in manufacturing and colonial goods, but also provided the processes of social interaction, cultural diffusion, translation and assimilation of images of imperial identity through communication, transmission of verbal meanings and visual images in the mass consciousness of the provincial society. During the period under study the general trend in the development of fairs in the Penza province was the processes of decentralization, the development of a network of rural fairs, and, consequently, the democratization of the forms and means of organizational culture, penetrating to a new level of social interaction.