Full Description
Cities are constructed and organized by people, and in turn become an important factor in the organization of human life. They are sites of both social encounter and social division and provide for their inhabitants "a sense of place". This book explores the nature of Russian cities, outlining the role played by various Russian cities over time. It focuses on a range of cities including provincial cities, considering both physical, iconic, created cities, and also cities as represented in films, fiction and other writing. Overall, the book provides a rich picture of the huge variety of Russian cities.
Contents
The City in Russian Culture
"Space, Culture, and the Russian City"
Pavel Lyssakov and Stephen M. Norris
Part I: The Constructed City
The City as Legible Sanctuary
"Siberia's City on a Hill: Tobol'sk at the Apogee of Empire"
Mark A. Soderstrom
The City as a Site of Urban Vision
"Serf Village, Industrial Town: The Creation of Ivanovo-Voznesensk"
Alison K. Smith
The City as Translocal Space
"'Malorossians Have Come!' Ukrainian Musicale and the Making of the Russian Imperial City in the Middle Volga"
Ilya Gerasimov
The City as a Work of Monumental Culture
"The Hero-City of Novorossiisk as a Site of War Myth and Memory"
Vicky Davis
The City as Showpiece
"Arctic Camp, Arctic City: the Gulag and the Construction of Vorkuta"
Alan Barenberg
The City as Genuine Space
"The Paradoxes of Soviet Urbanization: The Search for the Genuine Soviet City"
Milyausha Zakirova
Part II: The Represented City
The City as Narrated Space
"Spatial Practices and the Narrative of the Russian City"
Pavel Lyssakov
The City as Imagined Home
"Journeys Through the Socialist City and Inside the Socialist Apartment: Space and Place in the Moscow Text of Soviet Film"
Stephen M. Norris
The City as Created Text
"Writing from the Ruins of Europe: Representing Kaliningrad in Russian Literature from Brodsky to Buida"
Uilleam Blacker
The City as Imaginary Landscape
"The Geo-cultural Images of Sortavala: Poetics of Place in the North Ladoga Region"
Alexander Izotov
The City as Gendered Space
"The Rise and Fall of the Creative Capitals: Female Directors on Post-Soviet Urban Space"
Anzhelika Artyukh and Arlene Forman
