Courtyards, parks and squares of power in Ukrainian cities

Abstract

This chapter examines the planning of urban public spaces and their daily use by residents during socialism. Through the prism of public life in Ukrainian large ordinary cities of Vinnytsia and Cherkasy, three types of urban spaces are characterized – central city squares of power, main urban parks and courtyards in large housing estates. Such ordinary large cities are considered as a political periphery in the Soviet Union's urban network. This research is based on interviews with residents and local experts, analysis of the local media from the socialist times, photographs from the respondents’ family archives, and urban planning documentation and cities’ master plans conducted during socialism. It was concluded that in socialist times in Ukraine, everyday use of large ordinary cities’ public spaces by residents and their involvement in planning and arrangement was clearly hierarchical with contrasted “official” spaces of power, “semi-official” green spaces and almost “unofficial” local spaces of “dosed self-expression”. At the same time, this was conditioned by standardisation, which caused to some extent assimilation of the large ordinary cities and their public spaces. However, in many cases, highly standardised urban facades hid more diverse spaces behind reflecting individual and city-level specificity. Both planning approaches and everyday use of public spaces in large ordinary cities were changing differently taking into account changing residents’ demands and interests caused by growing incomes and technological progress.

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