Diversity and Local Contexts by Jerome Krase & Zdeněk Uherek

Author:Jerome Krase & Zdeněk Uherek
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Conclusion

The city center revitalization became an important moment during more than 20 years of Chernivtsi’s transformation, and through which various aspects of (post)colonialism were revealed. Until the 2000s, the city had undergone a rapid transition that broke with its Soviet heritage, and then entered into a slow process of Westernization from the outside. Its main characteristics were the changing patterns of the urban economy (from an industrial to a trade center). With it came increasing numbers of shopping centers, Western chain stores, fast food restaurants (especially in the districts closer to the city center) and finally establishment of organizations responsible for ethnic and civic revival.

In the Chernivtsi cityscape, the last 20 years are marked by a slow Ukrainization process. The huge monument of Taras Shevchenko was established in the city center. A number of memorial boards appeared on public buildings. Ukrainian flags became widely visible and, finally, the Ukrainian language entered public spaces as the most important. The revitalization process, which happened in 2008, was a moment in which the citizens of Chernivtsi started to think about themselves as being Europeans inhabiting a “little Vienna.” The old center, together with other eclectic architecture, again became the most representative part of the city. However, it is necessary to take into consideration that in actuality cosmopolitanism has hidden a strong desire to nationalize the city. Although the strongest politics are manifested by Ukrainian elites, Romanian and Jewish elites also have their own agendas. In the unfolding of this process, the Soviet micro-districts remained neglected and industrial areas centered around closed factories and enterprises, and the city center experienced a revival of cultural and social life.

The example of Chernivtsi shows that, as to the question of (post)colonialism, it is not possible to understand it merely in terms of 70 years of Soviet influence and recent transformations. The colonization of this borderland seems to have been a stable factor in the development of this urban setting. Despite a number of various attempts, the peripheral Chernivtsi has never changed into a national heartland. Thus, the post-1991 city is a hybrid of both the present processes which are connected with modernization and globalization as well as past influences and the presence of various other cultures in the region. The question remains, however, whether the shape of today’s Ukrainization of the city will endure or, as history may show, one day change again.

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