The Towns of Southern Ukraine and the Carnival Revolution of 1905-1907
Yegor Vradiy
State Institute Dniprpetrovsk Ministry of Health Medical AcademySeptember 30, 2013
Center for Urban History, Lviv
A traditional examination of the events of the first Russian Revolution of 1905 – 1907 focuses on aspects of direct confrontation between society and the government. Recapitulations of those events conducted by Soviet and contemporary Ukrainian researchers alike typically include examinations of labor strikes, armed conflict, demonstrations, and the like. Yet, in the consideration of raw numbers involved in these confrontations, in the analysis of their stated objectives, and despite the resulting overwhelming criticism of the repressive tactics of the law enforcement bodies of the Russian Empire, the greater part of researchers often completely overlook questions addressing the impact of these events on the everyday lives of urban residents.
During this seminar, we considered the following issues:
- Which revolutionary events had the greatest impact on the everyday existence of Southern Russia’s largest urban centers – Katerynoslav and Odessa?
- How were these events depicted in the popular and revolutionary press and periodicals? What was the "informational reality" of urban dwellers, and how did they parallel with real-time events of the revolution?
- Was "revolution fever" truly endemic to urban life at the start of the 20th century? How did the "carnival atmosphere" of the revolution become the norm?
- The pogrom as an unalterable fact of the everyday: could they have been avoided?
Yegor Vradiy
graduated from Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University. His PhD thesis was “The Anarchic-Communist Movement in Southern Ukraine between 1905-1910.” He is the senior instructor in the Humanities Department at the State Institute Dniprpetrovsk Ministry of Health Medical Academy, lecturing on cross-cultural interaction in the cities of Greater Ukraine and the revolutionary subculture and symbols of the anti-government movement at the close of the 19th – start of the 20th centuries.
His research interests include: the history of anarchism on the territory of Ukraine, late-19th – early-20th centuries; the history of inter-ethnic relation in the towns of Dnipro (Great) Ukraine; and the revolutionary subculture and symbolism of anti-governmental resistance movements of the late-19th – early-20th centuries.
Credits
Сover Image: Ilya Repin - The Demonstration on October 17, 1905