Architecture
Historians of architecture document buildings, analyze the formative architectural choices that were made, and research the architects behind these projects in order to better understand how architecture has developed over time. Researching architectural history allows us to understand the society and culture that brought these buildings about, which is central to urban studies. Understanding buildings and cities beyond their aesthetic qualities helps shape an approach to architecture that is informed by relevant social and cultural influences, rather than an understanding centered solely on the architect’s taste or style. This theme focuses on urban planning, the materiality of buildings, the architectural profession, and urban spaces such as heterotopias (like prisons or cemeteries). For our Educational Platform, it is essential to understand why a building was created in a certain way in East-Central Europe at a given point in history and how urban planning influences contemporary patterns of life. Architecture is a product of the society and time period that imagined it and can inform our historical understanding in essential ways.
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Primary Sources
A Socialist Town near Horlivka in Donbas Region, Ukraine: An Article from 1930
The article outlines the key features of a socialist town near Horlivka in Donbas region. This initiative mirrors similar projects undertaken in Kharkiv (“New Kharkiv”) and Zaporizhzhia (“Sixth Village”). The aim of the project is to maximize the socialization of workers’ daily lives. To achieve this goal, there were plans to develop an extensive network of catering and social infrastructure, including nurseries, kindergartens, clubs, and more. Designers envisioned these architectural solutions to alleviate women from household chores and involve them in community service or industry. The socialist town project exemplifies Soviet standardized housing construction, with neighborhoods, residential buildings, and interior designs intended to shape a new socialist lifestyle for its residents. Although such...
Amateur Media and Life in Cheryomushky
In addition to the official media (ekklesia)—the imagined narratives and myths presented through theatrical performances, films, and other sanctioned representations consumed by Soviet citizens in the agora (for instance, in cinemas as part of the public sphere, or via television as a window onto it)—there also existed a private sphere (oikos). But how can we uncover what everyday life was like for ordinary people? One valuable source for accessing this lived reality is amateur film recordings, which captured fragments of daily life in cheryomushky and khrushchovkas. The Soviet Union maintained a unique ideological system that simultaneously restricted and encouraged amateur media. The state promoted amateur filmmaking through official clubs—such as those...
The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!, a 1975 Soviet Film
In 1969, Soviet playwrights Emil Braginskiy and Eldar Riazanov wrote the play Enjoy Your Bath! Or Once Upon a Time on New Year’s Eve, which quickly became a favorite in Soviet theaters. In the early 1970s, the decision was made to adapt it for television, leading to the premiere of the two-part TV movie during the New Year’s holidays of 1975–1976. Much like the 1959 Moscow operetta about the Cheryomushki neighborhood, a popular theatrical plot was reimagined in a new medium—this time, not through cinema but television. Unlike the 1963 film musical Cheryomushki, the adaptation took the form of a television movie enriched with numerous musical interludes, which became widely popular after its...
Moscow, Cheryomushki, a 1959 Soviet Operetta
On December 24, 1958, the premiere of the three-act operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki took place at the Moscow Operetta Theatre. The music was composed by the renowned Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, and the production was widely referred to in the media as the “Shostakovich operetta.” The official opening followed on February 24, 1959, and the work was met with favorable responses from both audiences and critics. The libretto was written by prominent Soviet playwrights and screenwriters Vladimir Mass and Mikhail Chervinsky. The stage production was directed by Vladimir Kandelaki and Leon Zaks, with Grigori Stoliarov as conductor, Georgi Kigel as set designer, and Halyna Shakhovska as choreographer. Two years after the premiere, Shostakovich’s friend,...
Cheryomushki, a 1963 Soviet Film
In 1961, the USSR’s cinematic authorities approved the idea of adapting the operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki into a film, and the search for a director began. The creators wanted someone with a musical background, so they turned to Herbert Rappaport, a professional musician. Rappaport had gained experience in musical cinema through his participation in Grigori Kozintsev’s Don Quixote (1957, Lenfilm), a renowned Soviet film that received international awards. Interestingly, Rappaport—an ardent admirer of the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler—enjoyed the music of the operetta. His idea to adapt the play into a film received support from Nikolai Rabinovich, professor at the Leningrad Conservatory and chief conductor of the local symphony orchestra, who became the conductor...
The term media, used in the title of this module, is a broad and widely circulated concept, often invoked in discussions about “mass culture.” In Soviet historiography, however, media culture was referred to as “culture for the masses”—an attempt to avoid any association with the capitalist notion of culture. Yet, in both the market capitalist system and the state socialist system, the media in the 20th century brought about the emergence of a new media reality and landscape. By the 1960s and 1970s, their functions and status had grown far more significant than ever before. This module also introduces the concept of mediatization, which describes the way media influence, shape, and intertwine with...
From Lviv to New York City, walking tours are a unique form of teaching and public history, transcending the everyday interactions of the classroom. On an urban walking tour, students go to the city but the city also comes to them, often in unexpected ways. This course will provide students with a focused analysis of the walking tour as a tool for higher education and for public history.