ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to map out the Russian cities roles that have played across time and, in doing so, to illustrate how they have been constructed and how they have inspired representations about their qualities. It contains essays on Moscow and St. Petersburg that move beyond the typical ways these two cities have been explored, including the Moscow text of Russian cinema and on spatial practices in the Russian urban literary narrative. The book illuminates complex connections between Russian cities. It tackles the constructed city, or the various cultures that have built the Russian cities. From the imperial aspects of early-19th-century Tobol'sk to the building of Russian imperial cities in Nizhnii Novgorord and Kazan, from Novorossiisk as a monument to the Great Patriotic War to Vorkuta as a Gulag city.
