Karolina Koziura

This article explores ways in which Habsburg nostalgia has become an important factor in contemporary place-making strategies in the city of Chernivtsi, Western Ukraine. Through the analysis of diasporic homecomings, city center revitalization, and nationalist rhetoric surrounding the politics of monuments, I explore hybrid and diverse ways in which Habsburg nostalgia operates in a given setting. Rather than a static and homogenous form of place attachment, in Chernivtsi different cultural practices associated with Habsburg nostalgia coexist with each other and depending on the political context as well as the social position of the “nostalgic agents” manifest themselves differently. Drawing from my long-term ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that in order to fully understand individuals’ attachment to space, it is necessary to grasp both the subtle emotional ways in which the city is experienced by individuals as well as problematize the role of the built environment in the visualization of collective memory and emotions of particular groups. The focus on changing manifestations of the Habsburg nostalgia can bring then a better understanding of the range and scope of the city’s symbolic resources that might be mobilized for various purposes.

Починаючи з 1990-их рр. у постсоціалістичному регіоні почали виникати «маленькі Відні», «Рими»  та «Парижи». Коли йшлося про перемоделювання місцевої урбаністичної пам’яті та ідентичності, ні важливість, ні розмір міста не мали значення. У процесах урбаністичних трансформацій виявилися дві спільні тенденції. Перша пов’язана із усуненням радянських атрибутів, друга – з ностальгійним «пост-габсбурзькими» почуттями, що супроводжували процес відновлення. Сучасні Чернівці, подібно до інших міст Західної України, можна розглядати як калейдоскоп, в якому історія і пам'ять є визначальними факторами у моделюванні міського простору. Міф «маленького Відня на Сході» є не лише частиною основної стратегії створення нової міської ідентичності Чернівців пострадянського періоду, він також є центральним у різних стратегіях націоналізації. У культурологічному сенсі Буковина і Чернівці займають важливе символічне місце, охоплюючи національні міфи видатних українців, румунів та євреїв, історія яких пов’язана з містом. Відтак, «маленький Відень на Сході» може сприйматися як інклюзивний міф, який пропагує міську різноманітність та європейську культуру, але він також може бути зманіпульований та використаний у націоналістичних стратегіях, які демонструють вищість та унікальність цієї групи.
Теоретично та методологічно ця стаття базується на етнографічному практичному дослідженні міських трансформацій пострадянських Чернівців, яке проводилося з 2010 до 2015 року. Через аналіз зв’язків між історією, пам’яттю та ідентичністю у міському просторі це дослідження поміщає сучасні Чернівці у контекст (пост)колоніальної реконцептуалізації Центральної та Східної Європи.

Ukraine, as one of the states which became independent in 1991, can be perceived as an example of the typical transition of Soviet Socialist Republics into democratic states centered on the issue of nationalizing policies and processes. However, there are also differences which make this country a very interesting case study for investigation. Mainly, Russians here form the biggest national group concentrated in the East and South of the country. The persistence and reuse of the “myth of two Ukraines” led to the widespread conclusion that Ukraine is a country which is divided between Ukrainophone West and Russophone East. This article is focuses on the third group, which is somehow hidden in the mainstream linguistic debates, namely the Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine who define themselves as ethnic Ukrainians. Based on the examples of Donbas and Crimean regions, it tries to define whether one can perceive them as a national minority.

Chernivtsi, a contemporary town located in Western Ukraine, is perceived as one of the most multiethnic places in Ukraine. Situated in the Ukrainian-Romanian borderlands, Chernivtsi’s  ruling state and dominant national group has changed four times in its history. Since 1991, this city has been an arena for both a “Ukrainization” policy as well as the revival of national minority institutions. This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Chernivtsi since 2010 and explores why and when ethnicity as a category of practice matters for ordinary people. By using the methodology of the “everyday” and taking “situational” ethnicity as a major approach, for individuals in Chernivtsi, I show “Ukrainianess” becomes an unmarked, obvious and taken for granted category in daily life. Thus, the nationalizing efforts of the Ukrainian state, which since the late socialist period constantly marked “Ukrainianess” as a significant category, can be perceived as successful and other national manifestations do not pose any threat to it.

In the 1990s, the end of the Cold War and the broader global trend in historical apologies prompted a widespread push for reconcilia‐ tion across Central and Eastern Europe. Until quite recently, one could have been forgiven for viewing this reconciliation process as a great success. Yet the latest political developments in the region and the growth in power of populist rhetoric and nationalist sentiments show the urgent need for a new conceptualization and understand‐ ing of reconciliation. Jacek Kurczewski, renowned Polish sociologist and the author of important books on the sociology of law and con‐ flict, has taken up this challenge and, together with a group of re‐ gional specialists, has created a book that traces the meaning and possibility of mutual dialogue and understanding in the region. Alt‐ hough the book’s title suggests a broad overview across the region of the so‐called “Bloodlands,” most of the chapters are in fact limited to the Polish borderlands. Still, despite the rather Polonocentric ap‐ proach, Reconciliation in Bloodlands manages to paint a bigger picture, showing that reconciliation cannot be based on silence; it is rooted in dialogue and multicultural communication.

Mariusz Filip has produced an interesting, thought-provoking work in which he challenges the basic, but still taken-for-granted phenomena of cultural heterogeneity. Although questions of cultural differences, distinctiveness and finally boundaries are central in anthropological inquiry, little (if any) stress is put on the question of the recognition of particular cultures or groups. Thus, Filip enters into polemics with conventional ways of describing phenomena of cultural differences that are analysed in the framework of ethnic studies, and questions classic theories of cultural change and assimilation. To unravel the ways in which the concepts of a group's identity and recognition are mutually constituted, Filip takes the Slovicians as the subject of his analysis. This ethnographic group lived before the Second World War in the Northwest of Poland on Lake Łebsko, with the village of Kluck as their centre. The Slovicians interest Filip for several reasons, most importantly due to the so-called 'identity problem'. According to mainstream theories , the Slovicians are part of the larger ethnos in this region, namely the Kashubians. However, other theories, introduced by Russian ethno-grapher Aleksandr Hilferding, claim that both Slovicians and Kashu-bians can be perceived as distinct ethnic groups whose origin goes back to the Middle Ages – originally Slavs who spoke Slovician (a form of Slavic) until at least the nineteenth century when they adopted the Ger-man language together with the national identification. Being perceived as Germans, they were forced to resettle in Germany by the new Polish administration. Filip argues that the relationship between Kashu-bians and Slovicians is not naturally given but socially constructed. In the first part, Filip lays the theoretical groundwork for his analysis. His aim is to present the history of the Slovicians through long-term processes of group formation. For Filip, identity and ethnicity are dynamic, interferential and changeable factors which he names as