Socialist City

ID: 4

The theme highlights the objects, constructed in Lviv during the period of Soviet Union.

Places

Description

Vul. Universytetska – monument to Ivan Franko

During socialism spaces were invested with ideological meaning and the spaces of everyday life – places of leisure, learning, consumption and domesticity – were no less important as sites for ideological intervention than the more obvious "socialist spaces." The Soviet narrative gave meaning to the structure and functioning of the city. The objects marked with this theme on the interactive map portray the typical socialist organization of public and private spaces and its representative buildings which remind of the urban space anywhere else in the former socialist block. This theme brings together official discourses and urban planning with personal stories about the construction and everyday experience of the socialist city. In addition it leads into an exploration of the material culture – specific artifacts and buildings – that marked residents’ existence during those years.

The theme is conducted by Vlad Naumescu.

Sources:

Buchli, V. (2000). An archaeology of socialism. Oxford ; New York, Berg Publishers.
Bater, J. H. (1980). The Soviet city : ideal and reality. London, E. Arnold 1980: 163-170.
Crowley, D. and S. E. Reid (2002). Socialist spaces : sites of everyday life in the Eastern Bloc. New York, NY., Berg Publishers.
French, R. A. 1995. Plans, pragmatism and people: the legacy of Soviet planning for today's cities. Changing Eastern Europe; 2. London: UCL Press.
Shaw, D. J. B. (1991). Restructuring the Soviet City. The Soviet Union : a new regional geography? M. Bradshaw. London ; New York, Belhaven Press : Halsted Press: 67-82.
Smith, D. (1996) The Socialist City. In Cities after socialism : urban and regional change and conflict in post-socialist societies. Andrusz, G. D. et al.Oxford, Blackwell, 71-99.

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