City: History, Culture, Society is a peer-reviewed, biannual academic journal that publishes original research articles, book reviews, and supplementary materials pertaining to urban studies. The Journal was founded in 2016 by the Institute of the History of Ukraine of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences and the History Department of Taras Shevchenko National University. City intends to advance and institutionalize urban studies in Ukraine, as well as establish an international network of urban studies-focused researchers. The journal serves as a forum for interdisciplinary dialogue and welcomes contributions from experts in different humanities and social science disciplines. As an e-journal, we plan to experiment with various methods of presenting and producing content, including online lectures and e-conferences, and we are always open to other forms of collaboration. The journal's thematic focus includes, but is not limited to, urban history, urban culture development, and the phenomenon of the city in the global historical process. We encourage submissions in the fields of economic history, historical ecology, urban folklore, and gender studies. Academics, graduate, postgraduate, PhD students, and urban activists are encouraged to submit unpublished, original manuscripts. The Journal is published twice yearly in English and Ukrainian. Other languages may be considered as well (except Russian). Editorial policy The Journal's editorial policy is based on the following principles: Only previously unpublished articles that meet scholarly quality standards and present completed research are accepted for publication. The Journal abides by the policy of double-blind peer review. After the editorial selection, the manuscript undergoes an anonymous external review. The report of two external experts on a submitted article is of critical importance when deciding whether or not to publish it. The editorial board may request that the article be revised and resubmitted. It also reserves the right to withhold explanations for rejected manuscripts. Manuscripts with plagiarized content are not accepted for publication. Since the Journal is non-profit, all publications are free. Any cooperation with scholars from the Russian Federation (those who support the invasion or even have never spoken up against it; still preserve Russian citizenship; cooperated with Russian official institutions after 2014) or scholars who cooperated or were affiliated with Russian academic institutions or informal initiatives (including publications in related journals) is taboo until the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine will be restored. Open access policy City: history, culture, society is an open access journal. The entirety of the published material is immediately and freely accessible to readers. Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-SA 4.0 license is applied to all articles published in the Journal. Copyright The authors retain copyright to their work and grant the Journal the right of first publication under the terms of Archiving All issues of the Journal remain available on the website. Published articles are also preserved by the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in the "Scientific Periodicals of Ukraine" section. ISSN: 2616-4280 Linking ISSN (ISSN-L): 2616-4280 The identifier in the Register of entities in the field of media: R40-05183.
Institute of History of Ukraine NAS Ukraine, Faculty of History of Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University
IT ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDEPENDENT UKRAINE: AN ATTEMPT AT A SOCIO-HISTORICAL PERIODIZATION
Based on an analysis of academic studies, analytical reports, journalistic retrospectives, and regulatory documents, the article proposes a social-historical periodization of the development of IT entrepreneurship in Ukraine from 1991 to the early 2020s. The research is grounded in the approach of social history, which makes it possible to consider IT entrepreneurship not only as an economic or technological activity, but as part of broader social transformations. The focus is placed not merely on quantitative indicators of industry growth, but primarily on changes in the organization of labor, professional practices, forms of interaction, and social perceptions. Within the proposed periodization, five main stages are identified, reflecting the sequential evolution of IT entrepreneurship in Ukraine. These stages encompass the transition from isolated initiatives and the first IT firms of the 1990s, which operated under conditions of institutional uncertainty and limited access to markets, to the formation in the 2010s of a structured industry with established organizational models, a developed community infrastructure, and a growing product segment. The study traces a shift in entrepreneurial logic-from service-oriented models to the emergence of companies that create their own technological products and integrate into global value chains. The analytical focus of the article is concentrated on several interrelated dimensions: the evolution of organizational structures of IT companies, the transformation of professional roles and labor models, the formation of an internal culture of the IT sector, as well as the development of external perceptions of IT professionals as a distinct social group. It is shown that the development of IT entrepreneurship in Ukraine was uneven and largely determined by a combination of global market influences and internal social factors, in particular professional self-organization and horizontal ties within the community. The proposed social-historical periodization does not claim to be definitive; however, it provides an analytical framework for further research on the history of IT entrepreneurship in Ukraine and may be used for in-depth analysis of specific stages, practices, and social transformations associated with the development of the digital economy.
Copyright (c) 2026 Andrii Sidliarenko https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
HEURISTIC POTENTIAL OF GENERAL POPULATION CENSUSES IN HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY
The article analyzes the heuristic potential of general population censuses as a key source for historical demography, using All-Imperial Population Census of the Russian Empire in 1897 as a case study. It examines the role of censuses in the formation of demography as a scientific discipline and their importance for state governance from the early modern period to the twentieth century. Particular attention is paid to the census program, methodology, publication of results, and the structure of its statistical tables. The study explores the informative value of the 1897 census for investigating population size, social structure, urbanization, migration patterns, levels of education, linguistic and confessional composition, occupational structure, and socio-economic transformations in Dnieper Ukraine at the end of the nineteenth century. Special emphasis is placed on methodological challenges in using census materials, including difficulties in reconstructing ethnic composition due to the absence of ethnic self-identification in the census program, the specific recording of native language and religion, and changes in administrative and territorial boundaries. The article concludes that despite the ideological limitations of the census program, the 1897 census remains one of the most reliable and informative sources for the study of historical demography, socio-economic history, and modernization processes. Its heuristic potential has not yet been exhausted and can be further expanded through critical analysis, recalculation of data, and interdisciplinary approaches.
Copyright (c) 2026 Tetiana Vodotyka, Sergiy Vodotyka https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
SEVASTOPOL IN GUIDEBOOKS OF THE NINETEENTH AND THE TWENTIETH CENTURIES: URBAN SPACE BETWEEN MEMORY, WAR, AND THE TOURIST NARRATIVE
This study examines Sevastopol as an urban space in which military experience and narratives of heroism shaped urban identity, spatial organization, and cultural memory. The object of analysis is a corpus of guidebooks published between 1857 and 1969. The central research question addresses how the spatial traces of war—bastions, ruins, and memorial sites—combined with heroic myths, were reinterpreted within tourist and cultural narratives that ultimately formed the symbolic geography of Sevastopol. The theoretical framework draws on concepts of military urbanism (Stephen Graham; Eyal Weizman), lieux de mémoire (Pierre Nora), politics of memory (Aleida and Jan Assmann), and symbolic geography. Methodologically, the study employs content analysis, narrative and discourse analysis of textual and visual materials, as well as a comparative approach that allows for tracing continuity between imperial and Soviet narrative regimes. The comparative analysis of guidebooks and their narrative structures demonstrates a transformation in the image of Sevastopol—from a “city of ruins” and a symbol of sacrifice in the nineteenth century to a canonical “hero city” in the Soviet period. Guidebooks functioned not merely as sources of information for travelers but as instruments of ideological construction of urban space, where memory, myth, and tourism were closely intertwined. The study highlights the role of cultural texts in shaping memory politics and in producing the symbolic space of urban landscapes.
Copyright (c) 2026 Oleg Zubchenok https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
THE HISTORY OF MATCH PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT IN VOLYN. RIVNE MATCH FACTORY
This article presents a comprehensive study of the historical development of match production in the Volyn region, with a particular focus on the Rivne Match Factory. The research traces the evolution of the industry from artisanal to industrial-scale production, highlighting key technological innovations, including the introduction of safety (non-phosphorus) matches. The technological process is examined in detail, encompassing all stages from wood preparation to the application of the ignition compound and packaging of the final product. Special attention is given to the socio-economic impact of the factory on the local community, particularly the creation of employment opportunities for women and children in Rivne in the early 20th century. Based on archival sources, cartographic materials, and unique photographs taken during Semen An-sky’s 1912 ethnographic expedition, the study reconstructs the likely location of the factory and its operational characteristics. The article analyzes the reasons for the factory’s closure in 1922, including economic instability, the establishment of the Polish state match monopoly, and discriminatory policies against Jewish entrepreneurs. A separate section is devoted to the attempt to revive match production in the Rivne region in 1998, which led to the establishment of a modern factory in the town of Berezne. This study underscores the significance of the match industry as a driver of regional economic and social development and contributes to the preservation of historical memory regarding lesser-known aspects of local industrial heritage.
Copyright (c) 2026 Tetiana Samsoniuk, Dmytro Maslov https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
SOME POSSIBILITIES AND DATA FOR OMPARINGTHE EARLY MODERN LVIV AND VILNUSHISTORICAL TOPOGRAPHY AND URBANONYMY
This article presents a comparative analysis of the spatial development and naming practices of two leading cities in East-Central Europe during the early modern period—Lviv and Vilnius. Both cities were founded in the 13th–14th centuries and share a number of structural and historical features. Their origins are tied to princely legends; early settlements formed around castles on elevated terrain; and the development of urban centers occurred following the arrival of German settlers who introduced legal systems based on Magdeburg and Chełmno law. At the same time, the spatial planning and administrative organization of these cities diverged significantly, revealing broader patterns in the evolution of medieval and early modern cities in the region. The authors draw on archaeological findings, legal and fiscal sources, and historical maps to trace how these cities developed from a “castle–suburb” model into more complex structures that included jurydykas, suburbs, and urban villages. Special attention is given to naming practices—particularly of streets and city gates—as markers of memory, spatial organization, and legal authority. Referring to Ferdinand Opll’s typology of city gate names, the article reveals symbolic differences between the two urban landscapes: in Vilnius, gate names typically pointed to nearby settlements, while in Lviv, they referred to distant cities. The article also explores how various ethnic and religious communities—Germans, Jews, Armenians, Ruthenians, Tatars, and others—shaped both the structure of the city and its naming conventions. Through examples such as Jewish Street (platea Judeorum), Ruthenian Street (platea ruthenicali), and Dominican Street (ulica ku Dominicanom/Dominikonų gatvė), the authors show how toponyms reflected community presence. The spatial vocabulary of both cities is analyzed in the broader context of the “spatial turn” in urban history, particularly through the lens of Edward Soja’s ideas. In conclusion, the article shows that comparative urban studies help to understand better how city space was interpreted and organized. At the same time, it opens possibilities for interdisciplinary dialogue between researchers of Lviv and Vilnius. Such dialogue can support mutual borrowing of approaches and methods: for example, in Lviv, studies on historical topography and urban names are more developed, while Lviv-based researchers could also learn from the archaeological practices used in Vilnius for studying the urban space.
Copyright (c) 2026 Maryana Dolynska, Orysia Vira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
DCCC (DNIPRO CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURE): HISTORY OF ESTABLISHMENT, TRANSFORMATIONS, AND INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITIES
The article traces the emergence and development of DCCC (Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture) as a civic-driven institution that combines the presentation of contemporary artistic practices with sustained engagement with local contexts and urban communities. It outlines how an initiative shaped in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity—centered on the audiovisual and new media festival Konstruktsiia (since 2015)—evolved from a primarily “virtual” presence into multiple attempts to secure a permanent venue, culminating in a prototype: the temporary public space Stage:Stage (2017). The project’s international recognition (Special Mention at the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2018 and nomination for the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture—Mies van der Rohe Award) is discussed as a turning point that helped enable negotiations for a long-term home. The text describes the launch of DCCC in the former provincial zemstvo building on Krutohirnyi Uzviz, the ongoing restoration process, and the residency-based institutional model bringing together NGO Kultura Medialna, Artsvit Gallery, and Alliance Française. Particular attention is paid to institutional transformations during Russia’s full-scale invasion: from suspension of activities to the establishment of a social hub (2022), and later the gradual return to programming (2023–2024) through the initiative “DCCC: We Work,” expanded international partnerships, and new infrastructures such as a 51-seat cinema, an Experimental Studio, and a concept shop as a critical design project. The article also maps DCCC’s core program lines—exhibitions, education, residencies, and film programs—as tools for supporting cultural life under wartime conditions
Copyright (c) 2026 Andrii Palash https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
FROM PROJECTIONS OF THE FUTURE TO UNDERSTANDING THE PAST: VDNH AS A LEGACY OF UTOPIA
The article examines the National Expocenter of Ukraine (VDNH) in Kyiv as a space of materialized utopia and as an instrument of Soviet ideological representation. It traces the formation of the complex from its postwar design to its contemporary transformations, with particular attention to the architecture of the ensemble, its relationship to political processes in the USSR, and the role of the Exhibition as a mechanism for visualizing a desired future. It demonstrates that VDNH functioned as a symbolic space intended to sustain belief in the utopian socialist project while concealing the realities that contradicted it. Special attention is given to the post-Soviet period, the decline of the complex, its gradual revitalization after 2016, and the tensions between the commercialization of space and the need to preserve cultural heritage. The article analyzes artistic projects by contemporary Ukrainian artists realized on the territory of VDNH as forms of critical reinterpretation of Soviet heritage, practices of memory work, and decolonial approaches. It argues that these artistic interventions reveal VDNH not merely as a propagandistic architectural ensemble, but as a multilayered heritage site that requires study and preservation.
Copyright (c) 2026 Yevheniia Moliar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
A MUSEUM FRAME OF ODESA LIFE DURING THE FULL-SCALE INVASION
The article reflects on how, during Russia’s full-scale invasion, Odesa has been rethinking its relationship with urban heritage and redefining the city’s image—an image long reproduced within an imperial frame. The text emphasizes a double context: the city has been a target of sustained Russian propaganda for decades, yet in 2014 it stopped the so-called “Russian Spring,” which makes questions of self-identification especially acute. Writing from the position of a participant in cultural processes, the author stresses that under conditions of extreme испытання the question “who are we?” becomes a resource for survival, while museums function as infrastructure for producing and articulating meaning. After the evacuation of collections in 2022, Odesa’s museums faced a choice: suspend operations or continue without permanent displays. The article outlines institutional responses—from interventions in public space (MSMO’s project Shoulder to Shoulder) to turning emptied galleries into platforms for processing the experience of war (the Languages of War series at the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum, tribute exhibitions to artists killed in the war, and Alevtina Kakhidze’s solo project Dad, I’m in Odesa!). The author also describes local narrative formats for speaking about safeguarding heritage (the Bleschunov Museum’s graphic novel), the Archaeological Museum’s symbolic turn to Snake Island, the opening of the private genocide museum Territory of Memory, and cultural diplomacy through exhibitions in Kraków and Berlin that shape alternative frames for perceiving Odesa as a Ukrainian and European city. A second focus is decolonization: the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum’s work with the Soviet legacy embedded in its collection; public tensions surrounding the transfer of dismantled monuments to Catherine II and Suvorov; and the UNESCO nomination dossier, which proposes an anti-imperial reading of Odesa’s urban phenomenon (port-city development, multiculturalism, entrepreneurship, and democratic practices of coexistence). The article considers the business community initiative Odesa Decolonization, which seeks to shift the city’s myth from a “criminal” trope to an “entrepreneurial” one. The conclusion argues that in wartime museums can remain community centers even without their collections on display—sustaining memory, resilience, and the construction of a future-oriented civic narrative.
Copyright (c) 2026 Oksana Dovhopolova https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
SOURCES OF THE FORMATION OF THE KRAM COLLECTION:39 YEARS OF EXPERIENCEIN TURBULENCE
The article examines the history of the formation and development of the collection in Khmelnytskyi Regional Art Museum (KRAM) over 39 years of its existence amid continuous socio-political and cultural turbulence. The study traces the transformation of the museum from a Soviet-type art institution to the first state museum of contemporary Ukrainian art in independent Ukraine. Special attention is paid to the shift in collection-building concepts, the decisive role of museum professionals in shaping the acquisition strategy, and the main sources of collection growth, including state purchases, inter-museum exchanges, exhibition projects, art residencies, symposia, and donations from artists and private collectors. The article highlights the significance of KRAM as a representative platform for the study and museification of Ukrainian art processes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It also analyzes the institutional modernization of the museum in the 2010s–2020s, focusing on digitalization, curatorial and educational practices, as well as the museum’s activities during the full-scale war as a socio-rehabilitative and cultural hub. The research demonstrates that a consistent strategic vision, openness to change, and a clear focus on contemporary Ukrainian art have ensured the museum’s institutional sustainability and professional authority.
Copyright (c) 2026 Olena Mykhailovska, Olena Skoruk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 Tetiana Vodotyka https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
SEVASTOPOL IN GUIDEBOOKS OF THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: URBAN SPACE BETWEEN MEMORY, WAR, AND THE TOURIST NARRATIVE
Copyright (c) 2026 Tetiana Samsoniuk , Dmytro Maslov https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
SOME POSSIBILITIES AND DATA FOR OMPARING THE EARLY MODERN LVIV AND VILNUS HISTORICAL TOPOGRAPHY AND URBANONYMY
A MUSEUM FRAME OF ODESA LIFE DURING THE RUSSIAN FULL-SCALE INVASION TO UKTAINE
SOURCES OF THE FORMATION OF THE KRAM COLLECTION: 39 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN TURBULENCE
ARCHITECTURE OF THE THIRD REICH IN POLAND: A CONTESTED HERITAGE?
The article analyses architectural heritage of the Third Reich in Poland as an example of dissonant heritage shaped by the traumatic experience of the twentieth century. It examines the evolution of approaches to cultural heritage—from the cult of monuments to the “duty of memory,” which underpins contemporary cultures of collective remembrance. Particular attention is given to the Polish context, where the Holocaust, shifting state borders, ethnic cleansing, and totalitarian ideologies have produced profound conflicts of memory and nonmemory. Architectural heritage of the Third Reich in Poland is conceptualized as a “heritage of atrocity,” closely connected to Nazi policies of occupation, genocide, and urban restructuring. At the same time, the article emphasizes the necessity of scholarly analysis within art history and heritage studies, as some realized projects have become an integral part of the contemporary landscape. Eventually, it highlights the limitations of purely inventory-based approaches and argues for interpreting this heritage as a socially and politically sensitive phenomenon.
Urban Studies: International and Ukrainian Contexts
Copyright (c) 2026 Яцек Пурхля https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Bulgakov Case: the Can(n)on and the Context
«The Bulgakov case» appears to be perfectly tailored for analyzing the changes in Ukrainian cities' symbolic landscape and public spaces today. This paper explores how decolonization affects current practices and «conceptualizations» of heritagization, de-heritagization, and re-heritagization (Harrison, 2013), and how these processes are approached on both institutional and popular levels. Starting with an analysis of how imperial imagery emerged and shaped the «Kyiv myth» and the overall image of Kyiv, to which Bulgakov contributed and which he zealously retransmitted, the paper will examine the role the «Bulgakov myth» still plays in heritagization as decolonization processes gain momentum. Finally, we will analyze possible ways of working with different groups of objects — monuments, and buildings — as part of the heritagization process, i.e., constructing a body of historical and cultural memory in contemporary Ukraine.
Copyright (c) 2025 Світлана Шліпченко, Алла Петренко-Лисак https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Transformations of Public Memory in Berdiansk after 2014
Berdiansk is a Ukrainian city on the Azov Sea shore in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. With almost 200 years of colonial history, this city currently living under Russian occupation is an excellent fit for analysing the memory transformation process in the communities of southeastern Ukraine. This paper examines the memory politics background in the southeast of Ukraine as exemplified by the changes in symbolism across Berdiansk’s city space on the back of post-Maidan politics. In addition, it describes and discusses the transformation of memory sites under occupation and imagines potential commemoration frameworks for the liberated Berdiansk. The considerations for symbolical transformations in Berdiansk draw on the Content Analysis method. Some data comes from the interview with the Research Institute of Urban History Director, Prof. Victoria Konstantinova, who helped implement decommunisation laws. While analysing the relations between Ukrainian memory politics and Russian colonial policy, the author used de/postcolonial optics.
Copyright (c) 2025 Oleksii Minko https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Contamination of ritual: the space of Ukrainian House and its performing
The starting point of this study is the hypothesis that an architecturally mediated place — network node and center of ideology — is the territory of permanent influence, which is capable to reproduce programmed relations regime and adjust social spaces in accordance to it. The unusual tension emerges in relations with places-remains of political systems of the past: connected to another context they become an anachronistic surplus, differently integrated to the surrounding. Totalitarian architectural memorials are of this kind — ideologically strengthened agents of socialization, whose political role is destabilized or transformed into new meaning. Several examples are considered in this article in order to demonstrate different positions in dealing with difficult architectural heritage, but Lenin’s Museum building in Kyiv is explored most of all. It has been appropriated by the Ukrainian House, a representative institution, which inherited established ways of positioning and relation models — often active in new forms of representation. These ways are legitimized due to insensibility and purposeful forgetfulness. That’s why an effective subversion is a demand and it requires a critical interaction with architectural space, but not with a denotation system. The art as a spatial practice can be such an instrument: it displays and changes characters of place, demonstrates unobvious conflicts and proposes side reality. Using the example of temporary exhibition “How are you?” in Ukrainian House — the installation of wartime art which is situationally appropriated and performed the architectural space — it has been revealed the contact points which could be useful in intentional rethinking of architectural memorial and developing strategies of productive interaction. The spatial model of Henri Lefebvre, character category of Christian Norberg-Schulz and theory of territorialized assemblage of Kim Dovey were useful in this research
Copyright (c) 2025 Taras Berezyuk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Practices of Using Urban Public Space During the Russian War in Ukraine (Cases of Mykhailivska Square and Maidan Nezalezhnosti)
Urban public space has two main functions – it's a place for political expression and for interactions between different categories of people. Thus, it becomes critically important in the process of building democracy, which is the reason for close attention to its functioning. During the most acute form of a political crisis – war – some practices are inevitably actualised, while others fade. Identifying and analysing such changes can be key to understanding space semantics and the coexistence of meanings generated by new contexts. Since urban public space is a mirror of the sociopolitical processes taking place in the country (especially when it comes to central squares of large cities), such an understanding can be helpful in tracking the country's broader sociopolitical course. The ethnographic research, on which this article is based, focuses on the cases of two central Kyiv squares, Mykhailivska and Maidan Nezalezhnosti. It aims to provide an exploration into the outlined research field, as well as to open, on the one hand, a broader discussion on the impact of the war on urban public space in Ukraine, and, on the other hand, on the role of space as a narrator, co-creator and translator of meanings.
Copyright (c) 2025 Лілія Вахняк https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Rewiev of Pre-modern Towns in the Times of Catastrophes: East Central Europe in a Comparative Perspective, Edited by Michaela Antonin Malanikova, Beata Możejko, Martin Nodl. New York, 2024
Copyright (c) 2025 Ольга Гуль https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
And the Fragile Inspires: The Legacy of Modernism in the Architecture of Southern and Eastern Ukraine
Copyright (c) 2025 Сергій Водотика https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
ATO Memorials in the Urban Space of Kryvyi Rih: Sites and Significance (2014–2024)
The article analyses the features of memorialisation of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in the urban space of Kryvyi Rih, a major industrial city in southern Ukraine. It examines the establishment of key ATO memorials in Kryvyi Rih and their role as sites for official and public remembrance ceremonies. The focus is also on the interplay between memorial and political contexts and the interaction of grassroots and official initiatives, which has created both "official" and "popular" places of memory. Another key point of discussion is the role of ATO memorials in urban commemorative practices, which extend beyond merely honouring fallen local soldiers who died in the Donbas conflict. The article also addresses the commemoration of the Maidan events in the city, which lacks dedicated memorials. In contrast, the political background of the city's elites does not align with Maidan values. The study is based on local media reports, district council websites and city information agencies' websites, and photo and video documentation of commemorative events and memorials in Kryvyi Rih. These sources** thoroughly recorded the history of these memorials and the conduct of remembrance ceremonies. Additionally, the author draws on personal observations of urban commemorative practices from 2014 to 2024. The commemoration of fallen ATO soldiers has become a concern for both the city authorities and various civil society and veterans' organisations, including groups opposed to the city government. In this context, ATO memorials also serve as sites of Maidan remembrance. This underscores the absolute value of honouring fallen soldiers within Kryvyi Rih’s memorial landscape. While the city administration and opposition groups acknowledge this remembrance as necessary, public commemorations sometimes involve separate initiatives and distinct memory sites to avoid engagement with official events. Moreover, ATO memorials are used for ceremonies related to other significant national dates, demonstrating that remembrance of ATO casualties has become a key symbol of Ukrainian independence.
Copyright (c) 2025 Denys Shatalov https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Tetiana Vodotyka https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The imperial consciousness of Joseph Brodsky in the representation of Venice (based on the essay «Watermark»)
Now more than ever, an unbiased, careful, and critical approach to Russian literature is necessary, in particular to that category of literature that critics read as apolitical, since available studies, unfortunately, often do not reflect the real state of affairs, hide facts that do not fit into the traditional imperial cultural mythology, and generally performed within the established ideology. This paper examines the construction of the imperial identity of Joseph Brodsky, a Russian poet, essayist, public intellectual, and Nobel Laureate since 1986. Using the example of the Watermark essay, we analyse one of the signs of imperialism in Brodsky's work, namely the colonial attitude towards women, the motif of the conquest of the city, and the conquest of the woman. The study focuses on the author’s myth of Brodsky and how it correlates with the motif of the conquest of Venice in the «Watermark» essay.
Copyright (c) 2023 Arina Kravchenko https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0