The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Cities after the Fall of Communism: Reshaping Cultural Landscapes and European Identity
Blair A. Ruble; John J. Czaplicka and Nida Gelazis
Cities after the Fall of Communism traces the cultural reorientation of East European cities since 1989. Analyzing the architecture, commemorative practices, and urban planning of cities such as Lviv, Vilnius, and Odessa, the contributors to this volume demonstrate how history may be selectively re-imagined in light of present political and cultural realities. These essays show that while East European cities gravitate nostalgically toward Habsburg, Baltic, Imperial Russian, and Germanic pasts, they are also embracing new urban identities grounded in ethnic-national, European, Western, and global contexts. Ultimately, the editors argue that one can see a "New Europe" taking shape in these cities, where a strained discourse between different versions of the past and variously envisioned futures is being set in stone, steel, and glass.
What People are Saying
"Speaks not only to present-day policy debates in Eastern Europe but to broader disciplinary questions about the nature of history."—Stephen Bittner, Sonoma State University
"This is an excellent, novel, timely, and sophisticated book which represents an authentic contribution to the field. It should interest specialists, as well as other readers interested in urban and regional history, post-socialist transformations, and the construction of cultural identity."—Sonia Hirt, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Chapter List
Introduction: What Time Is This Place? Locating the Postsocialist City, Nida Gelazis, John Czaplicka, and Blair A. Ruble
Part I. European Cities Old and New: Recreating Medieval Histories
1 The Changing Face of Vilnius: From Capital to Administrative Center and Back, Irena Vaisvilaite
2 The Novgorod Model: Creating a European Past in Russia, Nicolai N. Petro
3 Wroclaw's Search for a New Historical Narrative: From Polonocentrism to Postmodernism, Gregor Thum
Part II. Architecture and History at Ports of Entry
4 Mapping Tallinn after Communism: Modernist Architecture as Representation of a Small Nation, Jörg Hackmann
5 The Persuasive Power of the Odessa Myth, Oleg Gubar and Patricia Herlihy
6 Traveling Today through Sevastopol's Past: Postcommunist Continuity in a "Ukrainian" Cityscape, Karl D. Qualls
7 Locating Kaliningrad/Königsberg on the Map of Europe: A Russia in Europe" or "a Europe in Russia"? Olga Sezneva
Part III. Cities at a New East-West Border
8 Kharkiv: A Borderland City, Volodymyr Kravchenko
9 L'viv in Search of Its Identity: Transformations of the City's Public Space, Liliana Hentosh and Bohdan Tscherkes
10 Lódz in the Postcommunist Era:
In Search of a New Identity, Joanna Michlic
11 Szczecin's Identity after 1989: A Local Turn, Jan Musekamp
Conclusion: Cities after the Fall, Nida Gelazis, Blair A. Ruble, and John Czaplicka
Contributors
Index