Kyiv

Abstract

Urban studies is still an undeveloped field in Ukraine, partly as a result of a lack of field institutionalization at Ukrainian universities. On the other hand, only in the early 21st century, urban challenges became a subject of interest of urban activists who started raising questions regarding strategic developments of Ukrainian cities. Thanks to that, the urban agenda has become visible and discussible on some independent research institutions or media platforms. Scholarship on Kyiv is a good illustration of this situation. There are not that many scholarly works dedicated exclusively to Kyiv. Ukrainian historians quite often address Kyiv issues in their research on a more general Ukrainian context. Western historians, focusing on the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union, mention Kyiv in their work but rarely choose this city as a main subject of examination. This article will introduce the reader to themes examined by scholars who have studied the history or current development of Kyiv. The majority of these studies are written in Ukrainian and have never been translated into English. Considering the emerging status of Kyiv studies, this article attempts to strike a balance between being inclusive and, at the same time, selective. A number of the sources cited here are the only existing examinations of a certain topic. Most of the citations refer to books, with just a handful of articles listed in this article. Papers written by Ukrainian historians are typically very short and do not analyze their topics deeply enough to be mentioned in a citation. Western scholars usually finalize their research in book-length publications, and their research on Kyiv is cited in this article. This article is divided into several topical sections, within which citations are organized chronologically, covering the time period from the medieval history of Kyiv to the present day. This article demonstrates that the late imperial history of Kyiv has been researched the best. There will likely be even more scholarship on this period due to the fact that Kyiv archives are rich and open to researchers, and their records have even been published online. In contrast, the Soviet period is barely touched by urban scholars. It is still uncertain to what degree the current challenges of Kyiv’s development will be reflected in scholarship in the near future. In order to get any further updates on the topic, one might consult the publisher Varto, which specializes in Kyiv literature.