Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands: Kyiv, 1800-1905

by Serhiy Bilenky

Overview

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century Kyiv was an important city in the European part of the Russian empire, rivaling Warsaw in economic and strategic significance. It also held the unrivaled spiritual and ideological position as Russia’s own Jerusalem. In Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands, Serhiy Bilenky examines issues of space, urban planning, socio-spatial form, and the perceptions of change in imperial Kyiv. Combining cultural and social history with urban studies, Bilenky unearths a wide range of unpublished archival materials and argues that the changes experienced by the city prior to the revolution of 1917 were no less dramatic and traumatic than those of the Communist and post-Communist era. In fact, much of Kyiv’s contemporary urban form, architecture, and natural setting were shaped by imperial modernizers during the long nineteenth century. The author also explores a general culture of imperial urbanism in Eastern Europe.  Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands is the first work to approach the history of Kyiv from an interdisciplinary perspective and showcases Kyiv’s rightful place as a city worthy of attention from historians, urbanists, and literary scholars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487513832
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	04/13/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Serhiy Bilenky is a research fellow in at the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He has taught at Columbia University and Harvard University’s Ukrainian Research Institute.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables

Acknowledgements

Maps

Introduction

Part I Representing the City

Chapter 1 Mapping the city in transition

Chapter 2 Using the past: The great cemetery of Rus’

Part II Making the City

Chapter 3 Municipal autonomy under the Magdeburg Law, 1800-1835

Chapter 4 Planning a new city: empire transforms space, 1835-1870

Chapter 5 Municipal autonomy reloaded: space for sale, 1871-1905

Part III Peopling the City

Chapter 6 Counting Kyivites: the language of class, religion, and ethnicity

Chapter 7 Municipal elites and “urban regimes”: continuities and disruptions

Part IV Living (in) the City

Chapter 8 Sociospatial form and psychogeography

 Chapter 9 What language did the monuments speak?

Conclusion: Towards a Theory of Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands

Notes

Bibliography 560

Index

What People are Saying About This

Theodore R. Weeks

"Bringing together literary and archival material, Bilenky unpacks a sophisticated knowledge of current trends in urban history."

Michael F. Hamm

"Examining novels, travel accounts, statistical data, and a myriad of archival sources, Bilenky displays a vast knowledge of obscure materials, as well as major works on global urbanism."

Editorial Reviews

"Bilenky’s history of Kyiv is probing, timely, and heady."

—Steven Seegal, University of Northern Colorado, Slavic Review, vol 78 no 2

"This detailed and thoroughly studied examination of Kyiv’s urbanism addresses an important gap in the contemporary scholarship on Ukraine’s modern history. Thanks to its methodological approach and comparative references, Kyiv’s modernism is set into a wider perspective of Europe’s urban development."

—Olena Palko, University of London, European History Quarterly

"This well-researched monograph is an excellent starting point for all further work and will be of great interest to both specialists and the general public alike."

—Fabian Baumann, University of Basel, East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies

"Bilenky creates his detailed image of the city thanks to painstaking study of a multitude of published and unpublished sources. His archival research sheds light on various aspects, especially municipal administration, urban planning, the social structure, and the real estate market. The result is enjoyable reading that adds substantively to our knowledge of Kyiv and Ukrainian society in the nineteenth century."

—Johannes Remy, University of Helsinki, Harvard Ukrainian Studies Journal

"Examining novels, travel accounts, statistical data, and a myriad of archival sources, Bilenky displays a vast knowledge of obscure materials, as well as major works on global urbanism."

—Michael F. Hamm, Ewing T. Boles Professor of History, emeritus, Centre College

"Bringing together literary and archival material, Bilenky unpacks a sophisticated knowledge of current trends in urban history."

—Theodore R. Weeks, professor of History, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

From the Publisher

"Bilenky's history of Kyiv is probing, timely, and heady."

Slavic Review, vol 78 no 2 - Steven Seegal

"This detailed and thoroughly studied examination of Kyiv's urbanism addresses an important gap in the contemporary scholarship on Ukraine's modern history. Thanks to its methodological approach and comparative references, Kyiv's modernism is set into a wider perspective of Europe's urban development."

European History Quarterly - Olena Palko

"Bilenky creates his detailed image of the city thanks to painstaking study of a multitude of published and unpublished sources. His archival research sheds light on various aspects, especially municipal administration, urban planning, the social structure, and the real estate market. The result is enjoyable reading that adds substantively to our knowledge of Kyiv and Ukrainian society in the nineteenth century."

Harvard Ukrainian Studies Journal - Johannes Remy