"Steam" Modernization

Despite all the efforts to modernize Galician life, exerted by the Austrian authorities, new forms of cultural or economic behavior constantly encountered significant resistance on the part of its traditional, "old" types. To make an irreversible breakthrough in this direction, both the imperial administration and local adherents of modern capitalism lacked resources. So modern and traditional practices became intricately intertwined on Lviv's soil, forming hybrid phenomena, where neither new nor old could prevail. Speaking of the nineteenth-century Lviv, one cannot ignore the peculiar "Lviv-style capitalism," whose underdevelopment was made up for by local identity. The Zhovkivske suburb, located to the north of the central part of the city, was an important testing area for the implementation of capitalism in Lviv and for the elaboration of specific local practices.

     The emergence of the modern Pidzamche district can be dated to the mid-nineteenth century. It was no coincidence that factors, which led to the emergence of another particular territory in the city, came together in one place. The example of Pidzamche can be regarded as a model of specific cultural and economic processes typical of Austrian Lviv. The history of Pidzamche is inextricably linked to the particular history of the nineteenth century modernization of Lviv and reflects its key points. The contradiction, ambiguity, and vagueness of the district is a direct consequence of the ambiguous, contradictory, and blurred process of modernization and urbanization in this region. From the very beginning, Pidzamche combined purely modern and purely traditional features. Neither of them ever became decisive.

      The same is true for the features of the city in its "Habsburg" period. Pidzamche is the product of the so-called "pursuing," half-way modernization which overtook Lviv as the capital of a marginal province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The urbanization of this Lviv suburb proves that the main objective of Austrian Lviv, that is, "to catch up with the center" and "to become a full-fledged metropolis," was not impracticable and utopian. It required a lot of time and effort to adapt the adopted practices to local conditions, but gradually Lviv began to cope with these challenges. However, the question of the ultimate success of the modernization project in "Habsburg" Lviv will always remain open. The First World War severely disrupted the development of the city in general and of Pidzamche in particular.

      The modern space of nineteenth-century Pidzamche was formed at the intersection of different strategies used by the city in respect to its suburbs. On the one hand, these strategies were determined by the traditionally indifferent and somewhat hostile attitude towards Pidzamche and its inhabitants and, on the other hand, by the awareness of the potential importance of the industrial district for the entire city. Lviv officials and technical elites repeatedly developed specific projects to be implemented in Pidzamche (from a project of a railway between Lviv and Brody to a plan for a new city center at Habrielivka/Gabrielówka), with the aim of the full realization of the district's modern potential, which would finally turn it into an important engine for the modernization of the entire city. Most of these ideas remained on paper, but there were cases of more or less successful implementation of some of them into practice. Private business activity was a critically important factor. The construction of factories meant a slow but radical change of the material environment and social and everyday practices, and therefore a change of the sense of local identity as well.

     Among the main features of the "modern" social space of Pidzamche during the gradual inclusion of Lviv in the advanced European socio-cultural and capitalist context (nineteenth century — early twentieth century), the following ones can be mentioned:— the main "oases of the new" were numerous industrial facilities, which changed the traditional appearance of the district, introduced new, purely capitalist, production practices and relationships and determined daily life;

— modernization initiatives of the authorities were "half-hearted" and insufficient;
— an important point in the process of Pidzamche's modernization was a step-by-step and, unfortunately, very minimal "modernization" of how it was treated by the Lviv elite: from the idea of ​​Pidzamche as a neglected, hopelessly "backward and downtrodden" neighbourhood to the idea of it as an important space which should be worked with for the further development of the entire city;
— the construction of a railway line through Pidzamche was very important and not only accelerated the arrival of new industry here, but also became an important factor;
— there were some significant objects changing the internal symbolic space;
— the perception of Pidzamche as a modern space, where one can realize not only industrial, but also cultural or social modern practices, was typical mainly of "internal" agents, i.e. local (Jewish) industrialists and workers;
— many modernization projects, both external (generated by the authorities and technical elites) and internal, failed because of geopolitical upheavals which had more impact on East Central Europe than on West Europe.

     More detailed history of the formation of Pidzamche's modern social space can be found in other texts of this section presented according to the main stages of Lviv's social and political life in the nineteenth century and is specific research micro focuses.