SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN SPACE (the case of Eastern Europe)

Abstract

The article analyses the relationship between socio-political changes and transformation of urban space, which is a revision of the cultural and historical memory. City at every moment of its existence, considered as a set of “places of memory”, each of which performs its role in a symbolic ensemble. Urban development is in very close connection with the transformations of political regimes. Any socio-political changes reflected in the creation of new “places of memory” in urban space and the destruction of the old. Especially clearly this relationship becomes obvious when considering the history and present of cities that perform Metropolitan functions. Capital traditionally has a maximum symbolic value. For example, the development of Moscow in the Soviet period demonstrates how architectural solutions and urban space as a whole became means of expression of the new socialist ideology. The Soviet government sought to establish its values and priorities in all ways, one of which was the new face of Communist Moscow. The dismantling of the Soviet regime became the next stage in the development of urban space. The article concludes that the collapse of the socialism radically changed the face of cities in Eastern Europe.