MEMORIAL PRACTICES IN THE LEGAL POLICY OF PETER THE GREAT: ON THE ORIGINS OF THE IMPERIAL DISCOURSE OF THE CORONATION OF 1724

The article is devoted to the identification of the political and legal basis of the memorial practices used in the coronation of Catherine Alekseevna in order to strengthen the imperial idea. The images and meanings underlying the visual-mnemonic means of legitimizing the imperial title in the absence of its institutional and legislative support are considered. The main dominants of cultural and historical codes formed under the influence of the Byzantine model of the coronation ceremony and ceremonial strategies of Protestant states, primarily the Kingdom of Prussia, are revealed. The role of solar symbols in the formation of the idea of the special political and legal mission of the autocrat monarch and the importance of the imperial title for strengthening the supranational status of subjects of imperial power in line with the theory of the «common good» is considered. The high epistemological significance of memorial research for the problems of historical and legal science related to the identification  of the leading directions of legal policy aimed at the formation of the imperial form of the state and imperial legal consciousness in society is emphasized.