province

Abstract

To Moscow! To Moscow! To Moscow!
A. P. Chekhov, “Three Sisters”
If you were destined to be born in the Empire,
It’s best to find some province, by the ocean…
I. Brodsky, “Letters to a Roman Friend”
The relation between a province and a metropolis, like many other processes, is subject to periodic oscillations. Systole comes after diastole; creative energy tends to move towards the common center one day, and spreads among a number of local centers and objects another day. The trend seems to be changing right now. Some of today’s tendencies convey the suggestion that the centripetal motion is giving way to the centrifugal one. The metropolises’ attractiveness, which was so evident just a short time ago, is melting. It is starting to seem that life in small towns is healthier and safer and can satisfy a lot of cultural needs.
Probably, one of the reasons is degradation of cultural policies of global and national centers. Metropolises “come down” with haughtiness and self-complacence and start to treat the provinces as cultural colonies (p. 18). In return, provinces ignore the models proposed by metropolises and pay more attention to their own identity (p. 27). Once again, the experience of national provincial architecture of the first half of the 20th century (pp. 32, 37) is reconsidered and reassessed. Protection of monuments of the local culture and history
(p. 89), concern for industrial heritage, unique landscapes (p. 96) and unique appearances of small towns are gaining ground.
We are living again in a time of change. How will the drastically changing world affect our attitude to provincial towns, their appearances and lifestyles, as well as the settlement system in general?