Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century Kyiv was an important city in the European part of the Russian empire, rivaling Warsaw in economic and strategic significance. It also held the unrivaled spiritual and ideological position as Russia’s own Jerusalem. In Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands, Serhiy Bilenky examines issues of space, urban planning, socio-spatial form, and the perceptions of change in imperial Kyiv. Combining cultural and social history with urban studies, Bilenky unearths a wide range of unpublished archival materials and argues that the changes experienced by the city prior to the revolution of 1917 were no less dramatic and traumatic than those of the Communist and post-Communist era. In fact, much of Kyiv’s contemporary urban form, architecture, and natural setting were shaped by imperial modernizers during the long nineteenth century. The author also explores a general culture of imperial urbanism in Eastern Europe. Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands is the first work to approach the history of Kyiv from an interdisciplinary perspective and showcases Kyiv’s rightful place as a city worthy of attention from historians, urbanists, and literary scholars.

Imperial Urbanism in the Borderlands is the first work to approach the history of Kyiv from an interdisciplinary perspective and showcases Kyiv’s rightful place as a city worthy of attention from historians, urbanists, and literary scholars.

• Imprint: University of Toronto Press
• Published: April 2018
• Pages: 512

• epub: 9781487513832
• pdf: 9781487513825
• hardcover: 9781487501723

Serhiy Bilenky is a research fellow in at the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He has taught at Columbia University and Harvard University’s Ukrainian Research Institute.

"Bilenky’s history of Kyiv is probing, timely, and heady."

Steven Seegal, University of Northern Colorado

Slavic Review, vol 78 no 2

"This detailed and thoroughly studied examination of Kyiv’s urbanism addresses an important gap in the contemporary scholarship on Ukraine’s modern history. Thanks to its methodological approach and comparative references, Kyiv’s modernism is set into a wider perspective of Europe’s urban development."

Olena Palko, University of London

European History Quarterly

"This well-researched monograph is an excellent starting point for all further work and will be of great interest to both specialists and the general public alike."

Fabian Baumann, University of Basel

East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies

"Bilenky creates his detailed image of the city thanks to painstaking study of a multitude of published and unpublished sources. His archival research sheds light on various aspects, especially municipal administration, urban planning, the social structure, and the real estate market. The result is enjoyable reading that adds substantively to our knowledge of Kyiv and Ukrainian society in the nineteenth century."

Johannes Remy, University of Helsinki

Harvard Ukrainian Studies Journal

"Examining novels, travel accounts, statistical data, and a myriad of archival sources, Bilenky displays a vast knowledge of obscure materials, as well as major works on global urbanism."

Michael F. Hamm, Ewing T. Boles Professor of History, emeritus, Centre College

"Bringing together literary and archival material, Bilenky unpacks a sophisticated knowledge of current trends in urban history."

Theodore R. Weeks, professor of History, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale