Description
Book Synopsis Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second largest city and its former capital. Situated within 40 km of the Ukrainian-Russian border it is one of those East-Central European “liminal” cities which became a center of modernization and pluralization in the borderland area, playing a prominent role in the process of nation building. Volodymyr Kravchenko’s expanded edition of Kharkov/Kharkiv, now in the English-language and including a new chapter on the reconfiguration of the Ukrainian-Russian borderland during and after the watershed Euromaidan event, uniquely uncovers the city’s long history, from the 17th century to today. Addressing issues of regional and national identities, Ukrainian-Russian relations, mental mapping, historical narratives and the ensuing de/reconstruction of national mythologies, this book, fills a unique gap in the literature on Kharkiv.
Trade Review “Kharkov/Kharkiv deals with exceptionally important and politically and culturally contested questions of regionalism in Eastern Europe and provides unique insight into the history of Ukraine and to a lesser degree Russia…I know no other author who could write with such authority, depth and nuance a history of the region which was always difficult to “capture” and explain within the limits of existing national narratives” • Serhii Plokhii, Harvard University
Table of Contents List of maps
List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on Transliteration
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Steppe Borderland
Chapter 2. Town and Gown
Chapter 3. Province in Search of an Identity
Chapter 4. City, Empire, Nation
Chapter 5. To the “First Capital” and back
Chapter 6. Post-Soviet Borderland
Chapter 7. The Frontline
Conclusions
Historical timeline
Bibliography
Index
