| ID | 111646 |
| Title Proper | Bordering time in the cityscape. toponymic changes as temporal boundary-making |
| Other Title Information | street renaming in Leningrad/St. Petersburg |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Marin, Anais |
| Publication | 2012. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Place renaming is an archetypical feature of regime change in (post-)Soviet Russia. In the case of Leningrad / St. Petersburg it is interpreted here as an attempt at temporal boundary-making: in renaming streets, local elites tried to erect a symbolic time border between 'old' and 'new'. Since post-Soviet renaming mostly amounted to returning to places the maiden names they bore in the imperial period, toponymic changes since the perestroika did not imply a radically new semiotic mapping of the cityscape. In choosing memory landmarks for cultural self-identification that refer to an idealised European past, place-namers also tried to establish normative boundaries to situate St. Petersburg in a desired geopolitical space. Like other discursive constructions, these renaming processes are not free of contradictions however. |
| `In' analytical Note | Geopolitics Vol. 17, No.1; 2012: p.192-216 |
| Journal Source | Geopolitics Vol. 17, No.1; 2012: p.192-216 |
| Key Words | Soviet Russia ; Soviet Union ; Russia ; Leningrad ; St. Petersburg ; Geopolitical Space |