Urban Planning and Municipal Governance in a Period of Rapid Change: A Frontier Town in Russian Poland at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

摘要

In 1907, Polish writer, journalist, and politician Adolf Nowaczynski (1876-1944), writing for the weekly illustrated magazine Swiat (World) in Warsaw, observed that the middle-sized towns of the Polish Kingdom, then under Russian domination, were becoming more and more industrialized.1 He portrayed crowded streets, busy, industrious inhabitants, and urban landscapes where factory chimneys had risen next to old church towers.2 Unfortunately, this industrialization did not have the benefit of modern urban planning, and Nowaczynski claimed it threatened the historical monuments of the country.3 His narrative revealed the harsh realities of Polish urbanization: towns were transformed by "horrendous new districts" lacking communal infrastructure, and aesthetics were totally neglected.4 Nowaczynski described the towns of Lublin and Kalisz in more detail. Both were governorate (province) seats, with growing industries and populations.5 According to Nowaczynski, their inhabitants were able to combine concern for historic monuments and local traditions with the economic activity and liberalism of industrial society.6 He claimed that Kalisz and Lublin had been fortunate under the administration of enlightened Russian governors who did not "consider Privislinsky Krai to be like a Tashkent, useful for devastation and exploitation, but they contributed to the beautification of both cities, for example, by establishing imposing public gardens."7 Nowaczynski saw the two cities as the most "Westernized" provincial cities of the Polish Kingdom, forming the main part of the Russia-ruled Polish provinces.