Allotopia. Alien and another in the space of the East European city. Dmitrieva M.E.

Cities of Eastern Europe, with their Palimpsest of historical layers, can serve as clear examples of the dramatic conflict of memory. The wars rolled through the regions of Eastern Central Europe, the migration and deportation of residents, traces of imperial violence and the struggle for national or regional independence, a frequent change in political regimes, as well as the multinational composition of the urban population, which has developed for centuries-all this leaves a deep mark in the urban environment. The book of Marina Dmitrieva is dedicated to the search for places of another in the cities of Central and Eastern Europe. The author analyzes how the regimes of a long and recent past intersect and argue with each other in the urban environment, and Les Lieux de Memoire - “commemorative places” (fr.), By the definition of Pierre Nora, suddenly turn out to be alien to this environment. From historical monuments to photographs taken by foreign observers in the countries of the socialist bloc, a variety of objects of the Eastern European visual culture are the subject of the study.

Marina Dmitrieva, an art historian, an employee of the Research Center for History and Culture of East Central Europe (Leipzig), teaches at the University of Leipzig.