COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND ARCHITECTURAL AND ARTIS¬TIC DESIGN OF IVANO-FRANKIVSK DURING “DEVELOPED SO¬CIA-LISM”

Abstract

The article describes the changes that took place as a result of the socialist industrialization of the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR by the example of the Ivano-Frankivsk region and related urbanization. The architecture of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk (Stanislavov, Stanislav) has absorbed features of different historical epochs. Architectural features different from all other styles as well as the scale of development characterized the Soviet period in the history of the city. The urbanization of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Uzhhorod, and especially Lviv, is unique in its historical experience. It was “overdue” and was preceded by a radical military and postwar change in the ethnic and social composition of the population of cities where Jews and Poles were the dominant majority. The rapid increase in urban population of the western region of the republic was at the expense of the Ukrainian rural population. Among other major Ukrainian cities, Ivano-Frankivsk was notable for being one of the few regional centers (inferior to Lviv), that was Ukrainized, and played a decisive role in the national-religious movement of the second half of the 1980s.

The purpose of the study is to analyze in the historical context the specifics of architectural and artistic design, improvement of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk during the rule of the Soviet totalitarian system (“developed socialism”), successes and miscalculations. Objectives: 1) to prove that irreparable damage was caused to the historic part of the city as a result of Soviet reconstruction. Many old buildings could have been in operation for decades, after preventive repairs. They reiterated the fate of their former owners, who were physically destroyed; 2) to generalize the gains and disadvantages in the practice of housing, industrial and communal construction on the example of frequent cases when in the territory of the new building (quarters, neighborhoods and even entire settlements) the inhabitants were not provided with the most necessary elements of improvement. Significant disadvantages were allowed in the landscaping business.

To develop the topic, the authors used a whole group of scientific methods: the principles of objectivity and historicism, which involve consideration of particular phenomena and processes in their development and close connection with the system of relevant social relations; historical facts are considered against the backdrop of political processes, which involves the use of a method of comparative analysis, which clarifies the essence of many significant events for Ukrainian socio-political thought. Design and construction organizations while constructing residential complexes did not always take care of the conservation of natural relief, vegetation, green space. The public carried out systematic work on the improvement of cities, towns and villages. The Party-Soviet authorities tried to chalk up all the achievements. The regional center of Ivano-Frankivsk gained the glory of a beautiful city. At one time, it won prizes in urban competitions. This glory was preserved and multiplied by the city’s inhabitants, despite the adverse political conditions of the totalitarian system through creative approach to the renewal and expansion of the city, attentive and careful attitude to the existing capital buildings and nature.

Keywords: architectural styles, Ivano-Frankivsk, complex development, residential areas, landscaping, planting.