Branding Tiumen’: Official Image and Local Initiatives

This article examines the process by which a historically unsung provincial city develops identity and initiative. Two parallel processes appear to be at work. On the one hand, officials in the city, regional, and central government and in the Orthodox Church are creating a “brand” for the Tiumen’ city and region. On the other, we find grassroots efforts to articulate identity based on historical consciousness and cultural activism. How these two processes interact and what impact these efforts have is the subject of this study. As a first step in testing the effectiveness of both initiatives this article employs a 2013 pilot survey of 76 Tiumen’ students, who are viewed as an important target audience in the processes of image and identity formation. These processes prompt questions about contemporary changes in traditional attitudes toward “being provincial.”