From Soviet heartland to Ukrainian borderland : searching for identity in Kharkiv, 1943-2004
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation investigates the production of a distinctive local identity in Kharkiv, once the third largest city in the Soviet Union and today the second largest city in Ukraine. Beginning with the aftermath of World War II, it traces the city's growth into a modern Soviet metropolis, characterized by enormous factories, numerous higher education institutions, and an ethnically diverse population. It argues the dynamic interaction between Soviet ideology and local patterns of identification in Kharkiv created a durable local culture that continues to shape the city today. Grounded in archival research, this project utilizes diverse methods in order to get at its subject, including social, political, and cultural histories, discourse analysis, interviews, and the study of urban spaces. It focuses on three major themes: the evolving nature of local urban identity; the intertwining of Soviet and Ukrainian factors in local identity; and the continual renegotiation of the city's regional, national, and revolutionary pasts. I argue that the creation of a distinctively Soviet urban culture in Kharkiv was largely successful; Soviet policies and ideology structured public spaces, forms of political contestation, subjectivities, linguistic practices, and historical memories. The Soviet Union's attempt to imprint the historical narrative of the October Revolution on the urban spaces of Kharkiv found resonance locally, in part because Kharkiv was depicted as the cradle of the Soviet Ukrainian state. This mode of identification was strengthened by the experience of World War II and reconstruction, the post-Stalin revalorization of the Soviet Ukrainian narrative, and the peaceful coexistence between the city's two major nationalities, often celebrated as a model for the union. During the 1970s and 1980s, even dissenting movements in the city operated within a Soviet political paradigm that sought to reform the system rather than destroy it. My dissertation shows the relative success of Kharkiv's integration into the Soviet Union, even as it sheds light on the tensions that led to its undoing.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2016 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Dobczansky, Markian Jurij |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of History. |
| Primary advisor | Weiner, Amir, 1961- |
| Thesis advisor | Weiner, Amir, 1961- |
| Thesis advisor | Holloway, David |
| Thesis advisor | Naimark, Norman M |
| Advisor | Holloway, David |
| Advisor | Naimark, Norman M |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Markian Jurij Dobczansky. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of History. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2016. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2016 by Markian Jurij Dobczansky
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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