Imagining Slovene Socialist Modernity

Veronica E. Aplenc

Description

After the Second World War, Yugoslavia’s small regional cities represented a challenge for the new socialist state. These cities’ older buildings, local historic sites, and low-quality housing clashed with socialism’s promises and ideals. How would the state transform these cities’ everyday neighborhoods? In the Slovene republic’s capital city of Ljubljana, the Trnovo neighborhood embodied this challenge through its modest housing, small medieval section, vast gardens, acclaimed interwar architecture, and iconic local reputation. Imagining Slovene Socialist Modernity explores how urban planners, architects, historic preservationists, neighborhood residents, and even folklorists transformed this beloved neighborhood into a Slovene socialist city district. Aplenc demonstrates that this urban redesign centered on republic-level interpretations of a Yugoslav socialist built environment, versus a re-envisioned Slovene national past or design style. This interdisciplinary study sheds light on how Yugoslav state socialism operated at the republic level, within a decentralized system, and on the diverse forces behind success or failure. With its focus on vernacular architecture, small-scale historic sites, single-family homes, and illegal housing, this book expands our understanding of the everyday built environment in socialist cities.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Visions of Upscale Socialist Modernity: “Above-Standard” High-Rises in the Trnovo Neighborhood’s Historic Core

2. High Socialism’s Promises for Socialist Living: Murgle’s Single-Family Homes and the Individual’s Paradise

3. Where the Socialist Folk Live: Rakova Jelša’s Vernacular but Unsanctioned Architecture Pushes the Boundaries of the Socialist City in High Socialism

4. The Historic District That Wasn’t: History Revisited and Jože Plečnik’s Eternal Architecture Surpassed

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• urban planning
• architectural history
• historic preservation
• Histoire
• USSR
• Habsburg Monarchy
• Eastern Europe
• Yugoslavia
• Soviet Union
• Russia
• History of Europe
• Central Europe
• Eastern
• Yougoslavie
• History
• Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques
• Russie
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612498140
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

IMAGINING SLOVENE SOCIALIST MODERNITY
CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES
The demise of the Communist Bloc and more recent conflicts in the Balkans and Ukraine have exposed the need for greater understanding of the broad stretch of Europe that lies between Germany and Russia. The Central European Studies series enriches our knowledge of the region by producing scholarly work of the highest quality. Since its founding, this has been one of the only English-language series devoted primarily to the lands and peoples of the Habsburg Empire, its successor states, and those areas lying along its immediate periphery. Salient issues such as democratization, censorship, competing national narratives, and the aspirations and treatment of national minorities bear evidence to the continuity between the region s past and present.
SERIES EDITORS
Howard Louthan, University of Minnesota
Daniel L. Unowsky, University of Memphis
Dominique Reill, University of Miami
Paul Hanebrink, Rutgers University
Maureen Healy, Lewis Clark College
Nancy M. Wingfield, Northern Illinois University
OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES
Combating the Hydra: Violence and Resistance in the Habsburg Empire, 1500-1900
Stephan Steiner
Transleithanian Paradise: A History of the Budapest Jewish Community, 1738-1938
Howard N. Lupovitch
Finding Order in Diversity: Religious Toleration in the Habsburg Empire, 1792-1848
Scott Berg
Unlikely Allies: Nazi German and Ukrainian Nationalist Collaboration in the General Government During World War II
Pawe Markiewicz
Balkan Legacies: The Long Shadow of Conflict and Ideological Experiment in Southeastern Europe
Bal zs Apor and John Paul Newman (Eds.)
On Many Routes: Internal, European, and Transatlantic Migration in the Late Habsburg Empire
Annemarie Steidl
IMAGINING SLOVENE SOCIALIST MODERNITY
The Urban Redesign of Ljubljana s Beloved Trnovo Neighborhood, 1951-1989
Veronica E. Aplenc
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright 2023 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.
978-1-61249-812-6 (hardback)
978-1-61249-813-3 (paperback)
978-1-61249-814-0 (epub)
978-1-61249-815-7 (epdf)
Cover image: Trnovo s redevelopment captured on Eipprova Road: high-rises (1980s) in distance, commercial buildings (likely nineteenth century) in middle, and Jo e Ple nik s Grada ica River embankments (1929-1932) in foreground. (Photograph by author, 2013.)
To my family
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
1. VISIONS OF UPSCALE SOCIALIST MODERNITY
Above-Standard High-Rises in the Trnovo Neighborhood s Historic Core
2. HIGH SOCIALISM S PROMISES FOR SOCIALIST LIVING
Murgle s Single-Family Homes and the Individual s Paradise
3. WHERE THE SOCIALIST FOLK LIVE
Rakova Jel a s Vernacular but Unsanctioned Architecture Pushes the Boundaries of the Socialist City in High Socialism
4. THE HISTORIC DISTRICT THAT WASN T
History Revisited and Jo e Ple nik s Eternal Architecture Surpassed
EPILOGUE
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WRITING A BOOK NEVER HAPPENS IN A VACUUM, EVEN THOUGH IT MAY BE ONE IN dividual s undertaking. This book has its roots in a dissertation that I began in the early 2000s, and then it blossomed into a new project as I expanded my data, dove into new scholarship, and essentially researched a new topic. It has been an exciting project to engage with, and I am indebted to many. The list here is too short to express my full gratitude but is a modest start.
During my doctoral studies, I profited from very good guidance by Brad Abrams and Bruce Grant. I have enjoyed and benefited from having some wonderful colleagues in the United States, including Rebekah Klein-Pej ov , Heather DeHaan, Vladimir Kuli , Kimberly Elman Zarecor, Juliana Maxim, Brigitte LeNormand, Elissa Bemporad, and the late Mark Pittaway. In many conversations, they and a wider circle of colleagues have helped shape this project. In Slovenia, I have been fortunate to have thoughtful, terrific colleagues at all stages of this project, including Tatiana Bajuk Sen ar, Mateja Habinc, Aleksander Sa a Ostan, Tina Poto nik, Mitja Velikonja, Ira Zorko, and Tanja Petrovi . I also value the many exchanges I have had with numerous colleagues at conferences in the United States and Europe; sometimes, even the shortest conversation can lead to important insights. I want my express my appreciation to Trnovo local historian Breda Cajhen for her generosity and enthusiasm. At the University of Pennsylvania, Jacquelyn Greiff and Hejia Wang were excellent graduate assistants. I also want to express my gratitude to colleagues in the Society for Slovene Studies for their early interest in my project, and to fellow University of Pennsylvania Kruzhok seminar members for their collegiality. A very special thanks goes to my writing partners for their invaluable engagement, friendship, and support over several years, especially Jessie Harper, Catrice Barrett, and Anika Wilson and Linda Lee of the Folk Gals Group.
A special word of thanks is due to the knowledgeable and helpful staff in two archives, the Ljubljana Historical Archives (Zgodovinski arhiv Ljubljana) and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Ljubljana office (Zavod za varstvo kulturne dedi ine Slovenije, obmo na enota Ljubljana). I also want to thank professional staff in the Department of Urbanism, City of Ljubljana (Oddelek za urbanizem, Mestna ob ina Ljubljana) for kind assistance early on.
I am grateful to Jon Wallace for his excellent thoughts on project conceptualization, writing, and organization at an early stage. A word of thanks, too, goes to copy editor Barbara Peck for her review of the almost-final version of the manuscript. Early versions of some chapters benefited from participation in summer Penn Faculty Writing Retreats in 2015 and 2016, and the collegiality extended by fellow participants was invaluable. Two anonymous reviewers for Purdue University Press provided in-depth commentary on a previous draft of this project and I appreciate their insights and engagement. The Purdue University Press s editorial team also has my gratitude. They have been wonderful to work with.
Research for my dissertation was supported in part by a grant from IREX (the International Research Exchanges Board) with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the United States Department of State (Title VIII Program), and the IREX Scholar Support Fund. None of these organizations is responsible for the views expressed in this book. Additionally, research for my dissertation was supported in part by a Fulbright grant, within the Fulbright/IIE student programs, and by an SAS (School of Arts and Sciences) Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania. None of these organizations is responsible for the views expressed in this book.
I am grateful to the following for permission to use previously published material.
Portions of chapter 1 and chapter 4 were originally published in a slightly different form in Veronica E. Aplenc, Held in Suspension: Competing Discourses on Urban Modernity in 1960s Slovenia, Yugoslavia, in Patrick Haughey, ed., Across Space and Time: Architecture and the Politics of Modernity (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2017), 207-32. Reprinted by permission of Taylor and Francis Group LLC.
Portions of chapter 3 were previously published in Veronica E. Aplenc, Vernacular Architecture (Un)Defined for Socialism: Slovenian Dislocation from the Temporally Defined Past, in Papers from the International Scientific Thematic Conference EAHN 2015 Belgrade: Entangled Histories, Multiple Geographies (Belgrade: European Architectural History Network and University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture, 2018), 136-45. Reprinted by permission of EAHN.
On the personal front, special thanks-again-to my unforgettable great-aunt Vida Hribar-Jeraj. I am grateful for the intellectual exchange and lovely friendship I have enjoyed with my uncle, Dr. Primo Aplenc, and his family. Some of our conversations have directly influenced this project. I am also grateful for the enduring friendship and hospitality of Jo ica and Franci Savenc over several decades. A wide circle of friends has cheered me on, even when there was yet another deadline, and I cannot express my thanks enough to the late Joe Clarke, Manca Podjed, Beth Spillman, Michelle Levister, Erin Hughes, Lidija Bavec Flotta, the Slack Mates, and so many friends from Philadelphia s Clark Park area. My parents, the late Veronika Cankar-Aplenc and Andrej M. R. Aplenc, each influenced this project in their own indelible way. Finally, my brother Richard Aplenc, sister-in-law Tina Gli ovi Aplenc, and delightful niece and nephew have cheered me on with wonderful friendship and unforgettable encouragement. A loving thanks to them all.
INTRODUCTION
R EADING THE TRAVEL SECTION OF MAJOR U.S. NEWSPAPERS TODAY, A PER son could easily get the impression that socialism never came to many small cities and towns in Eastern Europe, that area roughly stretching east from Germany, across Central Europe, and into Russia. Generally best surveyed from the local castle, which is usually on a hill, these small cities often boast either Renaissance or baroque architecture in their downtowns, and occasionally a Gothic church. The large towns have similar historic architecture, but generally without the castle. After visiting the internationally renowned must-sees, such as Prague and East Berlin, travelers inspired by newspaper articles and television travel shows often set off in search of hidden gems or the real Eastern European cities.
Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is one such city. Built on the Roman colony of Emona and first written about in the 1200s, Ljubljana developed as a medieval market town in the southern reaches of th