Suchergebnisse

The article is devoted to reflecting the image of a city in verbal data — topographic names. The author bases the research upon the ideas of the cultural-semiotic approach to city studies, upon the conception of a city as a text and palimpsest and sets the goal of investigat­ing semantic changes in the toponymic text of Ekaterinburg examined in its historical dynam­ics. The main stages of modification of the Ural city toponymic image are characterized via the metaconcept of chronotopos. As a tool of linguocultural analysis per se, generalised onomasio­logical, semantic models, or cultural semantic codes, are used. These involve landscape-distinctive, social-functional and social-symbolic codes. The paper defines the specificity of the realisation of cultural semantic codes in the toponymy (urbanonymy) of Ekaterinburg relative to three chronotopic junctures determined by the city renaming landmark acts — Ekaterin­burg, Sverdlovsk, Ekaterinburg. Topical meanings are revealed in the toponymic portrait of the city in different periods of its life. The changes that increase in the toponymy in the framework of one chronotopic juncture and contribute to the transference of a part of cultural experience to the next historic period are traced. In the image of Ekaterinburg represented in its toponymic text, traits of the city's territorial identity underpinned by its natural and geo­graphical, economic and social factors are indicated.

Based on the material of Boris Ryzhy's earliest poems, this article examines the contexts of his perception and comprehension of Sverdlovsk (or "my city"), which was an important element of the biographically verified "direct" lyrical statement of the poet. The article aims to determine the meaning and role of the images of Sverdlovsk / Ekaterinburg in the poems of Boris Ryzhy from 1992–1993 taking into account the process of his self-determination as a poet. The sources of Ryzhy's texts used are lifetime and posthumous publications of poems in Ekaterinburg periodicals and separate collections, as well as materials by A. V. Kuzin and O. Yu. Ermolaeva. As a result, the author of the article shows that B. Ryzhy's "city" in this period is still far from acquiring a holistic individual appearance and independent meaning, since it simultaneously depends on several processes that are inevitable for a novice author — mastering general literary topoi and eliminating poetic influences (V. Mayakovsky, I. Brodsky, and V. Kalpidi), developing one's own style and outlook. Special attention is paid to the comparison of V. Kalpidi's and B. Ryzhy's poetry in the aspects of 1) the relationship of their lyrical hero with the "city" and 2) the use of complex urban imagery oversaturated with stylistic devices. It is concluded that Ryzhy's overcoming the episodic influence of Kalpidi's complicated manner to a certain extent confirmed Ryzhy in his own worldview positions. It is assumed that the results of this work will become a preparatory stage for further analysis of the dynamics of the formation of the "Sverdlovsk of Boris Ryzhy" — an established literary phenomenon that affects the image of modern Ekaterinburg.

The study showed that the implementation of the new economic policy in Ekaterinburg-Sverdlovsk made a positive impact on the city's economy. The abolition of forced mechanisms of administration and the encouragement of private initiative in trade and industry caused the increase of the city's economy and contributed to the growth of its population.

This article considers the history of the unrealised project of the establishment of "free mining towns" in Russia (in the Urals) in the first half of the nineteenth century. Only free people were to live and work in such towns. In 1802, the outstanding mining figure A. S. Yartsov filed a note addressed to Emperor Alexander I, in which he proposed several measures to improve the domestic mining industry. The creation of mining towns inspired by European Bergstдdte was one of these measures. A special committee on the reform of the mining part was established under the influence of Yartsov's note. In 1804, the French architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux published a treatise L'Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l'art, des mœurs et de la legislation (Architecture Considered in Relation to Art, Morals, and Legislation) in Paris. The work was preceded by a dedication to the Russian emperor. The project of the ideal mining city of Chaux was presented in the publication. With the help of architectural forms, Ledoux dreamed of creating an ideal environment for the moral development of people. Could the French architect have known that at the very same time in St Petersburg work was being carried out for a legal justification of the establishment of "free cities" in Russia, a country where serfdom was still a reality? This assumption does not look improbable. A special committee prepared a draft of new mining legislation, which was approved by Alexander I on July 13, 1806. Ekaterinburg received the status of a mining city on May 1, 1807. However, afterwards the emperor lost interest in liberal projects. Ekaterinburg remained the only mining city in Russia. The content of the concept of a "free mining city" also changed: the dream of free labour was replaced by the idea of independence of such a city from the governor's power.

This paper reconstructs Ekaterinburg's economic landscape in 1914. The research is based on the 1910 city map and quantitative data from the 1914 city phonebook and relies on the space syntax method. During the study, the authors created a database including 390 local companies' phone numbers before World War I classified in accordance with the Fisher-Clark economic sector model (primary sector — extraction of raw materials, secondary — manufacturing, tertiary — service industries, quaternary — finances and information services, quinary sector — administration, education, medicine, sciences, etc.). The research demonstrates that there were just a couple of primary sector businesses in Ekaterinburg in the early twentieth century. Most secondary sector plants and factories had been moved outside of the city, while the others were evenly distributed following the environmental regulations and proximity to labour force. Tertiary sector firms dominated in the western part of the city and formed a commercial district around Market Square. The quaternary sector companies had almost the same location, spreading further to the northwest. Quinary sector organisations were dispersed all over the city with a notable concentration in the center and north-western part. The reconstruction of the Ekaterinburg economic landscape reveals that its centre occupied the area around the dam that locked the Iset River running through the city and spread towards the west and north-west part in the early twentieth century forming the city's future business district.