“My great-grandfather would not have recognized his city⇝: The image of Ekaterinburg / Sverdlovsk in the literature of the urals in the second half of the 1940S

Abstract

The paper considers the image of Ekaterinburg / Sverdlovsk in the 1940s Urals literature. It analyzes the content of the literary and artistic almanac “The Ural Contemporary” (1949), dedicated to the anniversary of Sverdlovsk, the novel by I. I. Likstanov “Green Stone” (1949), poems by E. E. Khorinskaya and others. The characteristic features of the image of the “capital of the Urals” in literature for adults and children are highlighted. The changes that have occurred in depicting of Sverdlovsk in comparison with the previous periods are noted. With a limited list of depicted urban loci, constant mention in various texts of the same key figures and events of urban history in the post-war period, the emphasis is shifted to the image of Ekaterinburg / Sverdlovsk as a city not only with a rich history, but also with a heterogeneous, complex socio-cultural environment. Based on the literary analysis the authors conclude that, although the portrayal of Ekaterinburg / Sverdlovsk saved previously formed images of the city-worker, factory-city, the center of economic life of the mining region, special attention in the second half of the 1940s is beginning to give to the beauty to the urban landscape, the convenience of urban living, the dynamics of urban development. The action in the texts is carried out from apartments and factory shops to the streets, the characters are depicted not only in situations of heroic work and everyday survival, but as ordinary citizens, even idle flankers who notice the quality of their place of residence. It is concluded that such a significant change in the image of Ekaterinburg / Sverdlovsk is associated, on the one hand, with changes in notion of the previous stages of the history of the city, on the other hand, with the desire of the Sverdlovsk Writers' Organization to prove its self-sufficiency. © 2021 Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of RAS. All rights reserved.