Shaping the Soviet Image of the City: The Practice of Renaming Streets and Squares in Western Ukrainian Cities During Stalinism
Viktor Drozdov
Izmail State University of Humanities11.9.2024, 16:00
Library of Center for Urban History
We invite you to Viktor Drozdov's urban seminar on the practice of renaming streets in Western Ukrainian cities during the Stalinist era. During the seminar, the researcher will examine the policy of renaming as a strategy for legitimizing Soviet power and an instrument of memorial policy aimed at symbolically converting the urban landscape in accordance with the official account of the past.
The Stalinist regime's toponymic policy in western Ukrainian cities not only unified urban space based on the official canon but also embedded historical narratives in it by assigning memorial names. In addition, the act of renaming was a kind of commemorative ritual by which the authorities either confirmed the importance of a particular historical figure or removed it from the urban text as unworthy of commemoration.
Based on the study of archival materials, reference books, and the "Lviv Streets" database, Viktor Drozdov will present a comparative analysis of the practices of renaming streets and squares in Western Ukrainian cities (Lviv, Lutsk, Rivne, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Uzhhorod, etc.) in 1939-1953. The research will focus on the memorial names that the communist authorities established in different cities to instill new Soviet myths in the collective consciousness. In addition, the practice of renaming will be considered a tool for cleansing the symbolic space of cities.
Associate Professor of the Department of History and Teaching Methods at Izmail State University of Humanities, Chairman of the Danube Historical and Memorial Commission. Member of the National Union of Local Historians of Ukraine. In 2023, he completed his doctoral studies at Zaporizhzhia National University. He is working on the monograph “Soviet Memory Policy in the Annexed Ukrainian Territories in 1939-1953.” His research interests include memory politics, historical regionalism, historical urbanism, and the history of Stalinism. During his residency at the Center for Urban History with the support of the Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna), he is researching the tools of Stalin’s memorial policy in Western Ukrainian cities and its consequences on urban public space.
Viktor Drozdov
Izmail State University of Humanities
This seminar will be held in a workshop format. Researchers are invited to discuss scholarly projects, research at various stages of development, and completed research that is being prepared for publication.
Participation in the city seminar requires preliminary reading and discussion of the researcher's text. If you would like to join the seminar, please email Yelyzaveta Bobrova ([email protected]), and we will send you the materials in advance.
Credits
Cover Image: Monuments on Svobody Avenue // Collection of Volodymyr Rumyantsev // Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History