President D. Medvedev signed an Executive Order On Holding the Year of Russian History in the Russian Federation to promote public interest in Russian history and its role in global historical processes. The article is devoted to a historical tradition of celebrating of “big” government anniversaries, social significance of commemoratives practices for the formation of historical memory. The impact of the historical policy of the state in historiography tradition of the study of the most important events of Russian history is analyzed. The importance of the creation of the Polytechnic institute in St. Petersburg is shown in the common historical context.