INFLUENCE OF SOVIETIZATION AND DECOMMUNISATION ON THE ARCHITECTURAL LOOK OF CITIES AND TOWNS IN TERNOPIL REGION (ON THE EXAMPLE CITY OF TERNOPIL, AND ZALISHCHYKY, TOWN OF SKALA-PODILSKA) IN 1939 – THE BEGINNING OF XXI CENTURY

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of the influence of Sovietization and decommunization on the urban environment of modern Ternopil region: the cities of Ternopil and Zalishchyky and the town of Skala-Podilska. The author gives a detailed analysis of the changes that took place in 1939-1991 in their architectural form. It is stated that if Zalishchyky and Skala-Podilska have preserved to some extent the unique, pre-war building of the centre, having lost some primary monuments, logical city planning, sculpting and decor on the facades, then Ternopil has lost its historical heart almost wholly, becoming a typical socialist city. The reasons that caused the destruction, redevelopment or reconstruction of architectural ensembles and religious-cult objects in Ternopil territory were determined: 1. ideological (ideological opponents and the soviet regime became statues of saints, memorials and graves of participants of Ukrainian liberation competitions, etc; they were destroyed as monuments of national cultural or religious load); 2. Communist regime crackdowns and efforts to conceal their results (entrances to separate, underground premises of Ternopil have been destroyed since they became the mass graves of prisoners in the city prison (1941); 3. impossibility of further exploitation due to “irreparable damage” caused by military actions, lack of funds for reconstruction or absence of economically justified need for operation of the object (yes, in Ternopil a department store destroyed during the war); 4. adaptation of the object for the fulfilment of new functions (the Jesuit church in Ternopil in the postwar period was rebuilt in the premises of a garment factory); 5. human factor when the destruction of memorials occurred as a result of the personal initiative or passive position of party functionaries, “labour collectives” and the population of cities in general.Particular attention was paid to the restoration or reconstruction of architectural monuments and the elimination of totalitarian symbols in the process of decommunization in 1991 - the beginning of the 21st century. It was noted that as of 2016, there were virtually no monuments in Ternopil that had a communist ideological load.