SIGNIFICANCE OF MAIN MONUMENTS IN HISTORICAL DISTRICTS OF ODESSA AND ST. PETERSBURG FOR PERCEPTION OF THESE CITIES

This paper analyses the significant role of the monuments of historical districts of two major cities in Russia and Ukraine in perception of their images by people. Certain historical monuments and artifacts of Odessa and St. Petersburg have been used by official ideology and propaganda in creating of clear associations-clichés. It has been achieved through the conscious use of color combinations, lush décor, careful placement of the monuments, etc. Future research activities in this field should involve further investigation of the role of locations of socially important historical buildings and analysis of the role of various images of the city and its individual components in fiction and popular tourist literature. These efforts will facilitate holistic understanding of the value of entire cities, as well as of their individual components to collective mentality and to the public policy and ideology.


INTRODUCTION
Investigation of the role of cities in creation of space is a new area of the national school of geourban research that may help to understand the role of the cities in formation of their mental images and in the national geopolitics.
In this study, we relied on the works of our colleagues in the field of perceptual geography and geopolitics [Atkinson & Cosgrove, 1998;Bailly, 1986;Carmona, 2009;Cohen & Kliot, 1992;Harvey, 1979;Gravari-Barbalas, 2004;French, 1983;Miroshnychenko, 2009;Sénécal, 1992;Tuan, 1980].The role and importance of Odessa (Ukraine) and St. Petersburg (Russia) as the focus of the national foreign policies in construction of mental images of the population and of stable narratives in official ideology became possible through understanding the concept of geopolitical representation by Yves Lacoste [Lacoste, 2003, p. 330-331], the methodology of "low" geopolitics in relation to realities of the post-soviet space [Kolosov, 2010], and the concept of loci memoriae by Petri J. Raivo [Raivo, 2004, p. 63-64].
"The city and its concrete form can be perceived by none other than through the images that they radiate" [Sénécal, 1992, p. 35].Many of these images are now iconic objects in the perception of the city by the tourists and the townspeople 1 .Dmitry N. Zamyatin believes that the "geographic image of a city is a system of ordered interrelated concepts of space and spatial structures of the city, as well as a system of signs and symbols that most vividly and informatively represent and describe a certain city" [ Zamyatin, 2004, p. 206].It should be noted that modern Russian geographers examined St. Petersburg specifically from the standpoint of perceptual geography [ Zamyatin, 2004, pp. 209-221, 257-258].Issues of urban perceptual geography are also discussed in the paper by R. Anthony French [French, 1983].
"Political symbols, such as the national flag, the emblem, or the national heroes reproduced in statues, are uniformly distributed throughout the country in public places in such a way that the population comes in contact with ideology and they become one", indicates André-Lois Sanguin [Sanguin, 1984, p. 25].Petri J. Raivo believes that "historical monuments and the rituals associated with them form an important part of the nation's collective memory and traditions, and serve as places that bind the members of the community to the past of their nation" [Raivo, 2004, p. 64]."Historical sites and monuments are of obvious importance in recognition of landscapes by individuals", indicates André-Lois Sanguin [Sanguin, 1984, p. 26].
As Yi-Fu Tuan rightly observes: "...an artifact designed for control is not necessarily something crude and ugly.Beauty, after all, includes the idea of order and order implies constraint.The broad thoroughfares of Paris are splendid monumental artifacts.Yet, at least one reason for their creation by Baron Haussmann under Napoleon III's direction was to minimize the risks of rebellion and fighting of the kind that occurred in 1848" [Tuan, 1980, p. 465].Detailed features of transformation of the iconic images of the monuments in the mental image of the city and the state ideology and propaganda are described by David Harvey on the example of Basilique du Sacré Coeur (Paris, France) [Harvey, 1979] and by David Atkinson and Denis Cosgrove on the example of the Vittorio Emmanuele II Monument (Rome, Italy) [Atkinson & Cosgrove, 1998].

METHODOLOGY
In this work, we focused our attention on commonalities associated with shaping stable images of Odessa and St. Petersburg during the period of their existence under one nation.Their images associated with the Russian Empire period are uncovered by isolating iconic, to their mental perception, buildings and monuments that have become hallmarks of the cities at that time and have maintained this value in our days.Changes in the cities' images in the Soviet Union era have been studied through popular art (images of the cities that appeared in promotional postcards and film-posters of the Soviet period) and symbolic artifacts whose images are linked to the state's official ideology.
To support our research, we used certain characteristic objects that reflect the stereotypes of Odessa and St. Petersburg in the tourist guides and textbooks for secondary schools.These objects represent the established mental clichés of these cities [Bakhnev, 2004;Belous & Kolyada, 1989; Economic Geography of the USSR, 1988; Fernandez, 1994;Kulibanov & Chistobaev, 1990;Lappo, 1993;Odessa. Yalta et Crimée, 1997;Selinov, 1930; There is a City by the Sea, 1990].The focus on different perceptions of the city and its parts is important in creation of their mental images in this context 2 .
To determine the effect of the city's cosmopolitan culture on its mental image, one should specifically look at architectural appearance of its historical core.Development of this part of the city determines the 2 Known works of Russian and Ukrainian colleagues on this issue [Aksenov, Brade, Bondarchuk, 2006;Armand, 1992;Dergachev, 998;Lappo, 1993;Zamyatin, 2004] basically contain just a description of associations connected with images of specific cities; however, they are lacking a theoretical and a methodological background necessary for such research.References of publications by the leading world's experts in this field of geography are presented in [Sénécal, 1992, р. 38].
perception not only among visitors but also among the local population.The look of the facade of the city' s downtown buildings is very important.Using the architectural style of classicism as a monumental propaganda was important from the standpoint of authorities because they were interested in creating an aesthetically valuable image of the port-city specifically from the side of the sea.Also, public performance of theatrical works "was not just an entertainment, but a significant part of social and everyday life" [Odessa: City -Agglomeration -the Port-Industrial complex, 1994, pp.180-181] prior to the mass spread of television and radio.Therefore, it is very important to pay attention to the emergence of the cities' first permanent opera houses.Their functioning indicates inclusion of the city in the all-European, and later, in the world' s cosmopolitan elite musical and theatrical cultural development.
Formation of stable geopolitical images associated with Odessa and St. Petersburg by the official ideology and propaganda of the Russian Empire In the "low" geopolitics and in perceptual geography, stable population' s stereotypes, such as motherland, fatherland, countries'/nations' enemies -friends, etc.) articulated by the official propaganda and ideology are very important.The cities, as large objects of reality, have a special role of "reference points" with a high concentration of socially significant symbols of collective mentality.In this context, the role of individual monuments and the appearance of historical districts are essential to the perception of their residents.They are the elements of the spatial identity of the citizens.
From the viewpoint of geopolitics and perceptual geography, Dmitry N. Zamyatin is quite correct asserting that "as a 'northern capital' , the image of St. Petersburg contrasts more 'southern' , but also metaphysically dense saturated images and it itself, in fact, is becoming more southern, more 'warm.' The metaphysics of Petersburg is rooted in the 'physics' of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean (no wonder, since Peter I first moved to the Black Sea and not having achieved a serious success, turned to the Baltic Sea).This is a warm and cozy Mediterranean world (according to Fernand Braudel) at a specific location in the Baltic's" [Zamyatin, 2004, p. 221]."Sweet rhetoric of the eighteenth century is clouding the untruth of the 'Mediterranean' Winter Palace.The middle-class burgher Baltic's hasn't fulfilled the imperial hopes for the images of the 'South'" [Zamyatin, 2004, p. 258].
In the perception of the residents of Odessa and St. Petersburg, the "golden age" of their cities coincides with the period of their existence within the Russian Empire -being a free port, for the first of them, and the end of the reign of Catherine II -the beginning of the rule of Nicholas I, for the second [Fernandez, 1994, p. 126, Shlipchenko, 2009, p. 176].This was reflected in the formation of a special display of a nostalgia spirit for the lost greatness of the past and resistance to innovations that entail changing external appearances of the historical districts of the cities 3 .In this context, a recovery, at the beginning of the 1990s, of most names of the cities' facilities that had existed before the Bolsheviks came to power (including the return of the name "St.Petersburg" in 1991), and special efforts by the cities' authorities, aimed at maintenance in a perfect condition of the most important monuments of the cities, especially important in the mental picture of their townspeople (for example, reconstruction of the building of the National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet in Odessa and the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg) should be noted.This policy supports a well-established myth of the romantic-imperial "Northern Palmira" and "Southern Palmira", where cosmopolitan European style 4 "reigned;" this style was created by invited foreign architects and sculptors and was embodied in a particular 3 "In Odessa, where obsession of the past and hysterical and convulsive attempts to 'revive' this past along with rather tangible uncertainty regarding the present resulted in a rather poor condition of historical facilities and most dwellings of the old city" [Shlipchenko, 2009, p. 178]. 4"It is the debt of Petersburg to fill the Empire with the desire of true Europe" wrote Dmitry N. Zamyatin [Zamyatin, 2004, p. 257].
It is important to note that in the historical districts of Odessa and St. Petersburg since their founding, much attention was paid to the use of different colors in order to emphasize not only an aesthetic appeal of the architectural ensembles, but to also express ideological functions they perform in the mental image of the cities.This is largely due to the widespread, in the Age of Enlightenment, of ideas about the symbolic meaning of different colors.This furthermore suggests that color was used as a kind of non-verbal language specifying a particular interpretation of the appearance of buildings or sculptures and of their relations in the surrounding space by creating allegories and experimental constructs. 5and St. Petersburg 6 are dominated by two colorswhite and yellow.White color is a symbol of holiness and purity in Christianity and is traditionally used for exterior decoration of the Orthodox churches.Yellow color in classicism 7 , is the symbol of Apollo the Sun, with whom Louis XIV, who established the regime of absolutism in France, identified himself [Dyakov, 1988, p. 207].Since the construction of the Pavlovsk Palace (1782-1786) in the Russian Empire by British architect Charles Cameron, "the theme of Apollo appears, however without its association with the Sun King, as it was at Versailles.And 5 Based on [Bakhnev, 2004, p. 63, 83, 89;Odessa, 2000]. 6"White columns on a yellow background -this is the true face of St. Petersburg" [Fernandez, 1994, р. 74]."It owes it to the ancient decrees...<...> it should be kept in mind that color in Leningrad plays the role as in no city in the world" [Lappo, 1993, p. 28]. 7In western historiography of arts, it is called neoclassicism.For a detailed explanation of the role of color in architectural ensembles of classicism see [Dyakov, 1988].

The front facades of the buildings in the historic centers of Odessa
this is one of the main differences between the ensembles of the XVIII and of the XVII centuries" [Dyakov, 1988, p. 220].
A single carrier of both types of power in the Russian Empire was personally the Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias himself 8 .The conscious use of a combination of white and yellow colors served as a form of emphasizing the important administrative buildings, the symbols of the supreme power in the spatial structure of the city 9 .
Yellow color dominated the facades of the buildings, which can be interpreted as the rule of secular authority over spiritual authority.For example, "the contrast of golden color and whitewashed architectural details stands out in... the elegant Winter House of Peter" I in St. Petersburg [Ovsyannikov, 1988, p. 148].It was "undoubtedly the center of the left bank of the Neva.<...> It was the focus of the state power: there, the emperor lived and met the Senate" [Ovsyannikov, 1988, p. 148].We can assume that in its decoration, the basic ideas of a perfect color of the front facades of model urban city-centers of the power in the Russian Empire have been laid.This very combination of colors was used for public institutions and residences of the monarch and his supreme field representatives (governors-general and governors) since the end of the XVIII century.
Given that in the construction of St. Petersburg as the state capital, the state town-planning principles of Paris/Versailles were utilized and that typical architectural plans of its residential quarters were developed based on experience of the French architects, we can assert that the image of the Winter House of Peter I (1724) has, in some way, embodied the idea of a model palace of the absolute monarch of that era -the Great 8 These colors together with black were the heraldic colors of the Russian Empire.A combination of white and yellow colors is also present in the Vatican banner -the only modern absolute monarchy in Europe. 9In 1839 after the repairs, the Winter Palace "was repainted with white and yellow" [Custin, 1996, p. 471].The symbols of the supreme power in Odessa -the Imperial Palace -the palace-residency of the governor general of New Russia (1829) has a yellow-white colonnade too [Bahnev, 2004, p. 63].
Palace of Versailles.We can assert this from the fact that in 1717, Peter I visited Versailles that had completely preserved, due to the young years of King Louis XV, settings of the state rooms and the park complex of his famous predecessor.Peter I had a chance to appreciate the effectiveness of the influence of luxury decoration of the palace and the park complex on visitors and could realize that the "unique, unprecedented, and vertiginously high position of the monarch requires exceptional circumstances" 10 [Dyakov, 1988, p. 206].
As pointed out by Andrei V. Ikonnikov, for baroque, the "object-spatial environment was primarily the entourage of a ritual, a spectacle, and a celebration demanding the uplifting nature of image expression" which "could be expressed by compositional techniques meaningful in terms of linear perspective and subordinate in the dominance of a certain axis directed to infinity" [Ikonnikov, 1988, p. 192]."Architectural composition of settlements was established in accordance with the schemes of ideal cities developed in the European town planning...They were subject to strict geometrical principles...As for the functional content of the city... it was specifically expressed in the building of the ceremonial center dominating the residential buildings.The ideas of centralism in emphatic order became leading in that era and subsequently transitioned into reality" [Timofeyenko, 1984, pp. 198-199].As pointed out by R. Anthony French, "Le Blond's grandiose plan for St. Petersburg was never put into practice, but it introduced the concept of a regularly planned city and St. Petersburg grew through the eighteenth 10 The organizational principles of the palace-park complex at Versailles had been already reflected in the first official country seat of the tsar near St. Petersburg, i.e., in Peterhof (the modern Petrodvorets) [Leningrad, 1969, p. 221-230].Here also, the "Big Palace -a former official seat of Peter I" has bright yellow walls decorated with white molding [Leningrad, 1969, p. 228] similar to the Grand Palace of Versailles [Dyakov, 1988, p. 208].Later, this combination of colors was used by Charles Cameron in decoration of the facades of the Pavlovsk Palace [Dyakov, 1988, p. 209, 220]."Multiple copies of Versailles -from England to Russia and from Sweden to the Kingdom of Napoli -show the level of cultural leadership in entire Europe of the Age of Enlightenment." [Braudel, 1998, с. 54] because «Ensemble of Versailles it is metaphor of State order» [Dyakov, 1988, p. 206].century in conformity with the constraints of centralized, planned control" [French, 1983, p. 239].
Dmitry N. Zamyatin states that "the geographical image of Petersburg is quite obviously a core to understanding the imagegeographical space of Russia" [Zamyatin, 2004, p. 221].In this case, "the image of Petersburg can always be built upon using the features and attractions of its architecture and layout and finding connections and metaphors at the level of conceptually important events of the world's history that can be localized and conceptualized through a variety of cultural landscapes... or through other cities" [Zamyatin, 2004, p. 209].
Basically, in the historical districts of Odessa and St. Petersburg, continuous dense development of streets with a virtually complete absence of significant green areas 11 available only near socially significant buildings, dominates (Fig. 1).This was largely due to the fact that "the canonized approach of harmonization of composition at any level -symmetric-axial composition, regular rhythmic composition, geometric correctness of simple forms, or fronts and facades determined by the axial composition corresponds" to the architecture of the New time [Kirichenko, 1988, p. 253].
An important feature of the central parts of Odessa and St. Petersburg is a dissonancea richly decorated facade that contrasts sharply with a virtually complete absence of decoration in the courtyard of the building 12 .The authorities of the Russian Empire were more interested in forming an aesthetically appealing image of an imperial port city seen from the sea.Therefore, the main objects of government, cultural sphere, and city attractions of the cities are as if 11 " A classical... type of a tenement building is designed based on a given configuration of the site which becomes the initial point of the house plan" [Kirichenko, 1988, p. 281]. 12"Classicism corresponds to a multi-character nature of a ceremonial social space of streets and squares and isolated from it private utility internal space of a block or a site..., of the image of the facades of the same buildings -of the frontal side and of the back side." [Kirichenko, 1988, p. 255].
aligned along the waterfronts of Odessa and St. Petersburg (see Fig. 1). 1314The most famous objects of the first city are basically concentrated within Primorsky boulevard that goes straight to the Black Sea 15 ; and 13 Was initially constructed in 1825 in empire style (architect Joseph Bové); was completely reconstructed in 1856 [The Soviet encyclopedic dictionary, 1988, c. 156]. 14Reconstructed in 1883 by architect Viktor J.G. Schröter [Artists of Ukraine, 1992, с. 658]. 15"Odessa is unimaginable without it in the same way as Leningrad is unimaginable without Nevsky Avenue" [Belous & Kolyada, 1989, p. 52].The buildings on Primorsky Boulevard were designed to be perceived from close and far distances from the seaside considering a sharp bluff", at the same time, "the development rhythm...was highlighted by a powerful vertical of the grand steps with a narrowing perspective that was designed to enhance its grand effect even more" [Timofeyenko, 1983, p. 35].
in the case of the second city -within the limits of Big Neva embankments transitioning into one another.The exception are the locations, in the middle of the urban sprawl, of the widely known throughout the world Mariinsky State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet and the Odessa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet (Table 1).
If the construction of the permanent opera house in Odessa was the first in Ukraine, it was the second in St. Petersburg in Russia after Moscow.Till now, the two cities are, respectively, the southernmost and the   18 This list contains current contemporary names of the opera theaters. 19It, as well as the buildings of the opera theaters in Vienna, Dresden, Zagreb, and other cities, was designed by Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann G. Helmer [Odessa, 2000]. 20The Garnier Palace. 21Jean-Christophe Victor points out the pan-european character of the territorial opera art as a unique cultural phenomenon [Victor, 2007, p.46-47].
St. Petersburg and the Imperial Palace and State Public Offices in Odessa) were previously seated, are the monuments to the cities' founders (Peter I and Armand E. Richelieu 22 ).The monuments can be seen from the sea.There is a certain similarity in their locations (see Fig. 1).The monuments are separated from the sea by the embankments with steps to the water, and the monuments themselves are not obstructed from the seaside by other buildings and are best seen from these positions.
In order to enhance the visual effect, the monument to the founder of Odessa stands on a pedestal and the monument to Peter I stands on a large granite slab 23 .
It is important to note that these sites do not have any meaningful decor and, thus, all the attention is drawn to the figures on the pedestals.Such rigor austerity in presentation of the images of the founders of the cities, in our opinion, is related to the common ideas about presentation of the hero image in the art of the era of ancient Rome during the dominance of the style of classicism in the Russian Empire 24 .In sculpture of these monuments, an idealized image of the founder of the city, dressed in ceremonial clothing of the ruler of the Late Roman Republic/Early Roman Empire, is represented.In this style of art, it was the example of an ideal enlightened monarch 25 .
A founder of the city was conceived as a demiurge that created splendor and 22 Full name -Armand Emmanuel Richelieu duke of Plessis [Richelieu, 1994, p. 49]. 23Josef Brodsky, in his story "Far from the Byzantine" was one of the first to conduct an original literary-geographic comparative investigation of the locations of the monument to Peter I and the monument to V.I.Lenin in St. Petersburg (cited based on [Fernandez, 1994, p. 156]). 24As Lev A. Dyakov wrote, "The main idea of classicism...is heroism.Heroism was understood as submission of passion to a harsh will directed by a mind" [Dyakov, 1988, p. 205 No less symbolic is the fact that the monuments to the founders of the cities are connected by direct roads to the other important, to the official mental images of the cities, monuments, i.e., the monuments to the rulers-benefactors (see Fig. 1) who, from the standpoint of the official historiography of the Russian empire, made the greatest contribution to the development of the cities -to Catherine II (in Odessa) and to Nicholas I 28 (in St. Petersburg).The decor of 26 Our statement is based on the following lines from the letter of Etienne Falconet to Denis Diderot about the leitmotiv of the monument to Peter I: "The monument will be simple...I will limit my work only to the statue for this hero that I am interpreting not as a great military leader, not as a great victor though he was undoubtedly both.The personality of a creator, of lawgiver, of benefactor of his country is much higher and that is how it should be shown to the people.<...> the monument speaks about Russia and its Reformer" (cited based on [Leningrad, 1969, с. 119]).As Marquis de Custine correctly points out, "Peter here is the Romans of the Louis XV time" [Custine, 1996, p.124 [Selinov, 1930, p. 16]). 27They differed from the monuments -grave-stones with sculptured images of the dead that were wide-spread in Ukraine as early as in the Age of Enlightenment [Encyclopedia of Ukraine.General Part, 1995, pp.821-822].The monument to Peter I by Carlo B. Rastrelli was molded in 1753 and erected in 1799 [Romm, 1944, p. 17]. 28Actually, during his reign most of the known architectural ensembles and individual buildings in the style of classicism in the historical district of both cities were erected; they were build from the plans of West European architects [Leningrad, 1953, p. 528;Odessa, 1954, p. 520;Popovych, 1998, p. 312].Therefore, both cities "are included into pan-imperial preferences that reflect primarily the taste and artistic ideas of western and cosmopolitan government" [Popovych, 1998, p. 312].
these monuments is very lush.The presence of numerous minor figures allows one to suggest that there is a kind of allegorical expression of a particular mental attitude.
The main figures of the monuments are made in full dress.It seems possible to decipher the splendor of the decor and the presence of figures at the foot of the pedestal of the monument as indication of the unprecedented prosperity of the cities.This is highlighted by the outfits of the main and secondary figures of the monument: they are dressed in contemporary (to their time) clothes and they have a more realistic look compared with the image of the founder of the first (relatively to the time of construction) urban monument.
The two monuments -of the city's founder and of its principal benefactor, the king (in the official historiography of the Russian Empire) are on one axis and the second monument is as if looking back at the first, thus underlining the continuity of his policy towards the city (see Fig. 1).It is important to note that in the second monument, the main sculpture points directly to this by stretching out its hand towards the monument to the founder of the city.The creation of such iconic landmarks in the cities is associated with the need to consolidate certain associations and narratives in the official mythologized mental picture of their historical past 29 .It is not a coincidence that in fiction literature and urban folklore, these monuments to the cities' founders have a clear emotional appeal and act like real characters (e.g., St. Petersburg's allegoric name of the monument to Peter I is Bronze Horseman [Leningrad, 1969, p. 119] and in Odessa, the name of the monument to Armand E. Richelieu is Duke [History of Ukrainian culture, 2005, p. 1095]).
In our opinion, placing the major hotels in the cities just opposite to the monuments to the rulers-benefactors (Astoria in St. Petersburg and Petersburgskaya in Odessa) only emphasizes the need for paying tribute to them by the guests for their generosity in improvement of these cities (see Fig. 1).In this context, the decision reached in the official historiography and literature of the Russian Empire of comparing both cities with the legendary Palmyra -the ideal of a flourishing city in the classical Russian literature ("Northern Palmira" -St.Petersburg and "South Palmira" -Odessa) 30 as a direct indication of the successful development of these cities under the rule of an enlightened monarch, should be noted.(1917) formed the basis of their plan to seize power in Odessa (1918) [Bakhnev, 2004, p. 39].
The presence of the legendary, in the mass consciousness and in the mental image 30 "South Palmira is seen as the southern reflection of St. Petersburg that is simultaneously bright and seductive, as a window of the Slavic world into the Black and the Mediterranean Seas" [Fernandez, 1994, рp. 61-62].In the print press of the Russian Empire, "Odessa was advertised as the 'Southern Capital' , as the 'South Palmira' , and as the 'Second Petersburg' ." [Zagoruiko, 1960, pp. 53-54]. 31 Today, the cruiser Aurora is a branch of the Central Naval Museum of the Russian Federation.
In the Soviet times, it was turned into not only the city' s symbol, but into the symbol of the whole country and it became, in the official historiography, ideology, and propaganda, one of the sacred images of the Great October Socialist Revolution.In the Soviet mass propaganda, it was conventionally portrayed as a symbol of devastating power of the industrial revolution (Fig. 2) destroying with its exaggerated fire power and with its incredibly strong spotlight retarded old political regime that is hiding in the darkness of night in the shelter of the forces of evil -in the tsar' s palace.
This image was created by Sergey M. Eisenstein in the film October (1927)."Without the challenge of reconstruction of event chronicles... E. 33 sought to reveal in the f. 34he meaning of the events.With this f.... the theory of intellectual cinema launched by the director is associated.E. believed that joining two frame-images together produces the third, a concept that contains an ideological assessment" [Eisenstein, 1970, p. 979 It can be argued that an adaptation of the famous myth of the ancient world took place, where the struggle between the light and the darkness in the original interpretations of traditional Christian eschatological conventions takes place.In it, the establishment of the Kingdom of God is possible only after the final battle between good (the heavenly host led by the Archangel Michael and the host of Christian saints) and the forces of evil (a mob of fallen angels led by the Antichrist and human followers), which only temporarily seized power on Earth (Revelation of St. John, Ch. 12, art.7).Before this, the city -"Babylon the great whore", will fall and this will be preceded by descent from heaven of an angel "having a great power; the earth was lightened with his glory" (Ch.18, art. 1 and 2), before this event, "there were lightnings, thunders, and voices, and a great earthquake" (Ch.16, art. 18).
For the first time such an effective method of the Soviet ersatz version of the Christian eschatology in the form of poster art that was so close and clear to the population was used in the films by Sergey M. Eisenstein' October and The Battleship Potemkin (1927).The correct "reading" of the parallel between the heavenly host and the Bolshevik Party on the one hand and the forces of evil and the tsarist regime/ Provisional Government, on the other hand, was clear to any Orthodox believer and to any educated person of the Russian Empire, in which the teaching of theology was a compulsory subject in primary and secondary education.In an exemplary Soviet propaganda text 35 , there are all relevant parallel descriptions of the end of the world and establishment of the Kingdom of God.The image of the angel of Revelation of St. John, illuminating the path and sending thunder and lightning over the city very early in the Soviet propaganda was transformed into the cruiser Aurora (see Fig. 2), whose shot found a special sacred significance in the official Soviet historiography 36 .Numerous Soviet propaganda postcards on the events of November 7, 1917, consistently portrayed this event (see Fig. 2).They present incredibly expressively the spotlight of the cruiser and the vessel itself on a black sky background.Eisenstein, where the vessel has a special meaning.The ship is presented as a kind of refuge of the faithful in their last days not succumbing to blandishments of the earthly unjust authorities (see Fig. 3).The actions of the crew also reproduce the well known from the Holy Scriptures righteous acts of the saints in the latter days.The most spectacular scene of the film is a scene of shooting of the demonstrators on the giant stairs 37 , which is easily identified with the corresponding plot of Revelation of St. John -martyrdom of the faithful Christians from the forces of the Antichrist.The death of innocent people is presented as a death for a cause at the hands of a temporary triumph of evil, but at the end of the picture, it is clearly stated that soon after the final battle between good and 36 Standard official propaganda construction "When the shot of the legendary Aurora announced to the world the victory of the Great October socialist revolution the fight for the Soviet power in the Balta's has reached its final stage" [Balta, 1978, p. 221]. 37Modern name -The Potemkin Stairs.
evil, the latter will be definitively defeated and the kingdom of justice on earth will be established in full accordance with the plot of the Revelation of St. John.This very idea laid the foundation of the sculpture monument "To the Potemkins from the Descendants"38 (sculptor V.A. Bogdanov, architects M. Wolf and S. Lapin, 1965) where the "multi-figure composition captures the beginning of the uprising" [Timofeyenko, 1983, p. 143] on the deck of the battleship when the sailors rise to the rebellion.

CONCLUSIONS
The analysis of the role of the main monuments in the perception of the image of Odessa and St. Petersburg in their historical sections made it possible to establish several general dependencies: 1.The conscious use in the color combinations of the grand facades of the buildings in the historic centers of Odessa and St. Petersburg of white (spiritual) and yellow (worldly power), one possessed by the Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias only) the colors served as an element in the territorial structure of the emphasis of the important administrative buildings -the symbols of the supreme power.
2. There is some similarity in the placements of the monuments to the cities' founders (Peter I and Armand E. Richelieu).They are located on the squares opposite to the buildings of the former (at the time of construction) state authorities of the Russian Empire.They are separated from the sea by the promenades with stairs to the water offering the best angle for their examination.All the attention in the monuments is directed to just figures of the cities' founders in the image of statesmen of the late Roman Republic/early Roman Empire.
3. The monuments to Peter I and to Armand E. Richelieu are the oldest surviving civil monuments in honor of particular persons in Russia and Ukraine.It speaks to their exceptional significance in the mental image of these cities.
4. From the monuments to the cities founders, there are straight roads to other important monuments in the official mental picture of the cities -to the monuments to the rulers-benefactors, who made the greatest contribution to the development of the city from the perspective of the official historiography of the Russian Empire.The decor of these monuments is very lush that should have symbolically indicated the unprecedented prosperity of the city.

DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The investigation of the role of the main monuments of the historical districts of Odessa and St. Petersburg in the perception of their images allowed outlining the following possible research directions in the field of urban perceptual geography and geopolitics: 1) Study of features of the city development in the formation of its mental image; 2) Consideration of characteristic locations in the city of significant buildings and artifacts of important social and cultural value; 3) Analysis of the role of various images of the city and its individual components in fiction literature and in popular tourist literature.
All of this will facilitate holistic understanding of the values of the entire city, as well as of its individual components, in collective mentality and in public policy and ideology.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.The model of the historical centers of Odessa and St. Petersburg.Compiled based on [Odessa, 2003; Saint Petersburg and detailed suburbs, 2003] ]. Already in the film The Battleship the archpriest of Habakkuk, of the old-believers, and of the Slavophiles.In this role, he acts as one of the prophets of the 'Holy Russia' displaying a protest of the Russian soul against Western civilization" [Toynbee, 1995, vol. 1, p. 209].

5 .
The presence of the legendary, in the mass consciousness and the mental image of the citizens of Russia and Ukraine, and of established, by the official historiography and state propaganda, ship-symbols clearly associated with Odessa and St. Petersburg is a unique phenomenon in the world's history.The image of Petrograd / Leningrad as the "cradle of the October Revolution" and Odessa as the "center of the uprising on the battleship Prince Potemkin Tavrichesky" was created, in 1927, by S.M. Eisenstein in the benchmark films of the world's cinema The Battleship Potemkin and October in the Soviet ersatz version of Christian eschatology.

Table 1 . First permanent Theaters of Opera in Russia and Ukraine City of location The modern names of the opera house Dates of foundation Year Architect of construction of the contemporary buildings
centers of art the opera in Eastern Europe.As can be seen from Table1, construction/reconstruction of existing opera and ballet theater buildings in Odessa and St. Petersburg was done in one historical era by the architects of a similar trend16.

This led to their modern form in the same architectural style (eclectic) and direction - the Viennese neo-renaissance with baroque elements 17
. It was during that very period when such famous European Theaters of Opera18were built in this style: of the city from scratch taming the forces of Nature 26 .
vividly reflected in the monumental sculpture in antic style (... the monument to A.E. Richelieu, in Odessa, 1823-28, sculptor I. Martos)" [Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1984, p. 367]."Thestatue, in a sharp and concrete form, revealed the inner content of the boulevard and its expressive silhouette and modest size emphasized the scale and rhythm of the development"[Timofeyenko, 1983, p. 26].harmony ].The figure of Armand E. Richelieu "expresses the ideal image of the ruler that is concerned with the достаток and order.This image is supplemented by the bas-relief from the three sides of the pedestal, which reflects allegorically successful accomplishments of the Duke Richelieu in such areas, as agriculture, trade, and law" [History of Ukrainian culture, 2005, p. 1095].Ivan P. Martos, in his letter to Mikhail S. Vorontsov (12.02.1824) explained the idea of the monument to Armand E. Richelieu in this way, "The Figure of the Duke Richelieu is reflected in the moment of motion, not just standing still, which explains his activity; the right hand of the figure points to the Black Sea filled with ships whose trade is to take to all countries the products of land brought from Odessa; the left hand holds the Charter which is the attribute of all great victories and virtues, It was composed in the antic style" (cited based on Was officially named in the Soviet historiography as 1905 Odessa July Armed Revolt [Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1984, p. 445].This was the "first mass revolutionary appraisal of the armed forces" of the Russian Empire during the First Russian Revolution [The Soviet encyclopedic dictionary, 1988, p. 1046].