ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|12 pages

The city in Russian culture

Space, culture, and the Russian city

part I|153 pages

The constructed city

chapter 2|25 pages

The city as legible sanctuary

Siberia’s city on a hill: Tobol’sk at the apogee of empire

chapter 3|24 pages

The city as a site of urban vision

Serf village, industrial town: the creation of Ivanovo-Voznesensk

chapter 4|23 pages

The city as translocal space

“Malorossians Have Come!” Ukrainian musicale and the making of the Russian imperial city in the Middle Volga

chapter 5|32 pages

The city as a work of monumental culture

The hero‑city of Novorossiisk as a site of war myth and memory 1

chapter 6|20 pages

The city as showpiece

Arctic camp, Arctic city: the Gulag and the construction of Vorkuta 1

chapter 7|25 pages

The city as genuine place

The paradoxes of Soviet urbanization: the search for the genuine Soviet city 1

part II|141 pages

The represented city

chapter 8|27 pages

The city as narrated space

Spatial practices and the narrative of the Russian city

chapter 9|37 pages

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

chapter 10|23 pages

The city as created text

Writing from the ruins of Europe: representing Kaliningrad in Russian literature from Brodsky to Buida

chapter 11|29 pages

The city as imaginary landscape

The geo-cultural images of Sortavala: poetics of place in the North Ladoga region

chapter 12|23 pages

The city as gendered space

The rise and fall of the creative capitals: female directors on post-Soviet urban space