Urban Transformations and Cultural Negotiations: Space, Identity, and Power in Interwar Eastern Europe and the USSR

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores the dynamics of interwar modernization to understand the relationship between notions of belonging and urban and emotional geographies in interwar Eastern Europe and the USSR. Through case studies from Lviv, interwar Polish cities, and Stalinist Moscow, the papers examine the effects of modernization on individuals and communities as they navigated physical and ideological disruptions in their built environments and cultural identities. One paper analyzes interwar Lviv as a transcultural hub where Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish modernists engaged in creative exchange, challenging static national narratives and reimagining urban belonging. Another investigates Jewish youth in interwar Poland, tracing how emotional geographies of antisemitism and contested identity shaped their sense of place and belonging. The final paper shifts to 1930s Moscow, reconsidering Stalinist urban reconstruction as an ongoing process of disruption, where demolition and monumental projects—such as the unbuilt Palace of the Soviets—appropriated historical sites to reshape the city's visual and ideological landscape. By bringing together perspectives from art and architectural history, urban studies, and emotional geography, this panel highlights the intersections of modernization, cultural negotiation, and displacement in Eastern European cities. It asks how individuals and communities responded to rapid change, how physical and emotional spaces were contested, and how historical narratives of urban transformation continue to shape our understanding of the past.

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Stéphane Gaessler, U of Toronto (Canada)

Papers

• ‘A Strange, Curious, and Creative City’: Modernism and Transculturation in Interwar Lviv - Karolina Koczynska, Pratt Institute

• Mapping Emotional Displacement: Individual and Collective Placemaking among Jewish Youth in Interwar Polish Cities - Sophia Jewell, U of Alberta (Canada)

• Disrupting the Monument: The Palace of the Soviets, the Strastnoi Monastery, and Stalinist Urban Reconstruction, 1931-1941 - Henry Jennings, U of Sheffield (UK)

Discussants

• Madeline Stull, Indiana U Bloomington

• Madalina Meirosu, Arizona State U