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The Post-Soviet City as a Communal Apartment: Spatialized Belonging in Ulan-Ude

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2021

Kristina Jonutytė Open the ORCID record for Kristina Jonutytė [Opens in a new window]
Kristina Jonutytė*
Affiliation:
Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article explores diversity, belonging and representation in the city of Ulan-Ude, Buryatia (Russian Federation). In particular, it looks at their discourses and practices as they take spatial forms in the fast-changing post-Soviet urban environment. Through case studies of two central locations in the city – a statue of Lenin and a Buddhist prayer wheel – the article reveals recent tendencies of “indigenization” (Szmyt 2014) in Ulan-Ude’s material and discoursive space, exploring them as instances that would suggest an image of a “contested city” (Low 1996). However, this article aims at complicating the latter concept, demonstrating that seeming contestations should be read in their particular context, taking into consideration local ideas and practices of accommodating diversity.

Keywords

diversitycosmopolitanismpost-Soviet cityurban inclusionBuryatia
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 50 , Issue 5: Special Issue on Accommodating National Diversity Within States , September 2022 , pp. 1022 - 1036
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for the Study of Nationalities

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