Lviv's Uncertain Destination

Lvivs Uncertain Destination examines the citys tumultuous twentieth-century history through the lens of its main railway terminal. Whereas most existing studies of eastern European cities centre their stories on discrete ethnic groups, milestone political events, and economic changes, this books narrative is woven around an important site within the citys complex spatial matrix. Combining architectural, economic, social, and everyday life history, Andriy Zayarnyuk shows how different political regimes created dissimilar social spaces even on the same streets and in the same buildings. His narrative leads us to rethink how the late imperial Habsburg and Romanov, Stalinist and post-Stalinist Soviet, interwar Polish, and Nazi German regimes produced, structured, and controlled urban space. Focusing on railway workers, the book also draws attention to the history of Lvivs wage earners, who constituted the majority of the citys adult population.