Taras Voznyak
Lviv. Sine qua non
Philosophy of a Town
Turning to such civilization phenomena as towns, we should at least
realize that they had not been a constant phenomenon which accompanied
the development of the European and other civilizations, especially
towns in our European and often Central European (based on the Magdeburg
law) sense. In fact, it is they that interest us as a specific phenomenon
of the European civilization. There were whole epochs when towns disintegrated,
became practically non-existent, as was the case after the fall of
the Roman Empire. A large populated point is not necessarily a town
– this could be a large Mongolian cluster of shacks or a large conglomerate
of village clay huts – but this is not a town. “A town is like a caesura,
a burst, a new fate for the world. As it arises, bringing literacy
with it, it opens its doors to that, which we call history. When the
town became reborn in Europe in the 11th century it gave
rise to the ascent of this continent. As soon as it blossomed out
in Italy – Renaissance followed. Such was the case in the times of
town communities, polis of classical Greece, during times of
Medina during times of Muslim conquest and until today. All turning
point moments of growth resulted from the explosion of urbanization.
(1.1.413). The appearance of towns and the growth of their systems,
which is very important, lead not only to the rise of the continent
(not that rich in natural and human resources) but also to its domination
over the rest of the world
What lead to which – rise to the birth of towns or towns to the
rise of the continent?
Investigating the birth and development of the town, we should rid
ourselves of the simplistic idea that a town develops from the village.
Not at all. Founding, announcing and building of a town or giving
it town rights – is brought about by a very different law of the functioning
of a certain space (town territory – until now it is a designated
territory with totally different laws and functioning nature than
the surrounding territory), a totally different time regime (not only
rhythm, but a regime). The act of founding of a town does not consider
a populated point which might have occupied the area earlier. The
town was being founded on a different law and in a different time
flow regime. A town, no matter how small, develops from the onset
as a town. A town is not an area surrounding it, it is a point, puanta,
coda. A town does not really spread out, a town is really an anomaly
of spreading out of environs, this is a neighborhood dissonance, a
syncopation. A town, considering its anomaly and the fact that it
is a specific point, cannot even really be part of its surrounding
or country, it is a “place” on the environs. No wonder, in English
“country” is both a state, a location, a territory and a village.
“In the country” – means not only “in the village”, but also “outside
of town”. Hence the town does not quite belong to the “country”- it
lives a different life of its own in all aspects, this is a certain
“place”, a point on a territory. A town is a populated point of a
diverse quality, totally other functions, other speed of functioning,
another time flow. In a “place” where the town is being set up, the
spread of space is condensed into a point (a ring of town walls) and
the time flow is like unfolding of a landscape before a traveler –
towards discreetness and suddenness of the appearance before him in
the surrounding landscape of an artifact like the town. These indicators
in the “town” are not better and not worse, than in a “village” or
territory – they are simply different. A spread-out “village” or “territory”
flow slowly and naturally, according to seasonal changes, “village”
and “territory” spread out in accordance with the relief of the surroundings.
The etymology of the word “krai” comes from “kroyity” (slice), “u-krayaty”
(cut off) – “o-kreslennia” (description, drawing around), u-krayennia
(slicing off) of a certain spread-out territory, a certain field,
and not a designation of a discrete point – town on it. This is clearly
reflected in the etymology of the Ukrainian word “selo” (village),
which means not only a village populated point, but also “silskyi
teren” (village grounds) and comes from the proto-Slavic word “selo”
– tillage or a ploughed field (2.3.596)
The town, instead, does not pay any attention to the surroundings
nor to the seasonal natural changes, it rapes the relief and lives
its own, by far not a natural rhythm of life. The town explodes on
a territory – it torpedoes its spatial and time fabric. It is without
a doubt more sociogenic than the village. Decidedly and uncompromisingly
it molds the space and time to its needs. Contrary to the “village”
which is a human’s compromise and natural space and time, natural
time flow, the town creates its own concentrated and compressed
time and space – its own, more adjusted to the human, or more transformed
by it - urbanized time flow. It is not surprising, therefore,
that towns were born in the later periods of human history, when the
human had enough strength and courage to modify the natural time flow
toward its needs. The most urbane, a town that is the most advanced
in this sense, as of today, is, of course, New York, which does not
even consider the change of day and night, functioning equally around
the clock. Its time flow is probably furthest removed from the natural
time flow. Only technogenic or sociogenic catastrophes can destroy
it, like the stock exchange crashes or the terrorist attack of September
11, 2001. Was this not an attack by the “world village”, “territory”
on “towns” (“world village” not like in McLuhan’s sense, but as in
world periphery?), of one “view of the world”, one “map of the world”
on another, one set of values on another? Besides, the town’s dialogue
with the territory never stopped and will not stop – “the town” needs
resources, and the “territory” needs modern means, meaning technical
resources. Many times this dialogue ended in a conflict and wars,
subjugation and slavery. The slavery of the “Soviet village” to the
“Soviet town” was obvious – the collective farm village enslaved repeatedly
in the most brutal way was sacrificed to the needs of the socialistic
town. New industrial technology and a new “view of the world” was
coming. And it came, at the expense of “territory”, together with
the perversion of Soviet industrialization and the Great Famine. But
it is not always that the relationship between the “town” and “territory”
develops in this manner. In most European countries these processes
were not as dramatic
Here is proof that the town is not born of the village. These are
different levels of the human’s acquisition of time and space for
his own use; various civilization and metaphysical levels. And the
sense of human life is in metaphysics (from the Greek word meta and
physika, i.e., that which followed after the physical), because it
is “metaphysics that lies in the foundation of an epoch, a certain
interpretation of the essence and a certain understanding of the truth,
thus giving it a basis for an image of truth…” Among the substance
phenomena of the New times are…machine technology….which coincides
with the substance of the new European metaphysics” (3.75) – yet it
developed in a new European town as a new European town. It is the
town that became a complicated machine, machine technology (Maschinentechnik)
with all of its communications, highways, electric and electronic,
communal and other networks, i.e. a machine for life. Accordingly,
like this machine, it started designating modern time metaphysics
as a constructed map of the world (Weltbild)
In the antiquity, a town often created villages around it, which
became its small empires and serviced its needs. It also created an
archipelago of small towns, within one day’s walking time, to satisfy
its commercial needs. Let us remind ourselves of the Halychyna towns
and the distances between them – they were all one day’s walk apart,
during those times. Having understood the reasons for their appearance
in the earlier epochs, we will understand the reasons of their downfall
today and their future prospects
The town – village mutual relations – are based, first of all, on
division of work. A whole series of technologies could not be realized
in a village, or they would turn out to be ineffective, and the reverse.
Although long after the appearance of towns, urban folks continued
their farming customs because of their economic needs (like in our,
not the most brilliant times) or due to mental rudiments (like in
newly-baked urban folk somewhere in Sykhiv). For its functioning,
a town needs the work of the village. Yet this battle on the deep
metaphysical level, waged by the marginal folks of the bedroom regions
with the “machine for life” inside the town, on becoming massive in
character, might destroy it or substantially hinder it
Yet, the town itself, like a machine, fuels and speeds up all processes
in economics, social life and culture hundredfold. Ideas quickly give
birth to each other, they become realized more dynamically than in
the surrounding territory, monies circulate and return much faster,
multiplied much more successfully
A town is speed and concentration. It attracts people, resources
and ideas, makes their concentration unbearable, and in the end explosive
(did you ever hear of a revolution in the village? More probably a
riot…) It throws them into its melting pot under the cover of its
roofs, calls it mixing (religious, ethnic and racial), manufacture,
trade, financing, social life and politics. A town – is like a certain
focus in the lens, gathering all these rays. It is in this sense that
the town is a certain reinforcement and accelerator of social,
economic and political processes
A town is a unique and a highly powerful instrument of civilization.
And it is for this reason that it is the cause and the source of the
growth of civilization, of an economic, social and cultural development.
Sometimes they ask if it isn’t the reverse – perhaps it is the economic
and technological development that lead to the appearance of towns.
Indeed, these phenomena mutually support each other. They are, using
the Fernan Braudel terminology, in “mutual perspective”
In order to understand the role and fate of a specific town in a
concrete economic context, we should move from the general concept
of world economics to Braudelian historical world/ economies.
This second concept referred to only a local part of this world and
created a closed economic region. In this sense, throughout history
we have been observing a parallel existence of certain local economic
regions, which could exist independently and effectively over a long
period of time. These former historical worlds/economies existed always,
simultaneously and not always coinciding with the existence of states,
empires, societies and civilizations. For instance, such a world/economy
was Muscovy or, let us say, China. They had certain borders which
changed slowly, taking into account political and civilization
factors – wars, geographic discoveries Yet, at all times every concrete
world/economy had its “town pole, a town which was located in the
center of the concentration of vital conditions which assured its
business activity – information, goods, capital, credit, people, promissory
notes, trade correspondence – they sailed in here and, again sailed
away.” (1.3.17). With the changes of borders of such worlds/economies,
their metropolis changed or was replaced “Ruling towns did not remain
such eternally, they replaced one another. Such moves… were always
a show. They disturbed the quiet flow of history and discovered prospects
that were rare and, therefore, more valuable.” (1.3.22) At a certain
time for Europe such centers were Venice and Genoa. But in time their
influence dropped catastrophically, literally evaporated together
with the information flow, goods, capital, credit, people, letters
of credit and trade correspondence. In the case of Venice it diminished
grotesquely. It was most interesting to observe how such a “town pole”
would move together with the growth of the world/economy borders in
Northern Europe. We can observe the drama when Amsterdam conquered
Antwerpen, and London conquered Amsterdam, or when in 1929 New York
beat London. In each case this was a destruction of a huge historical
mass, indicating the uncertainty of the former balance and the strength
of the new, which was coming. “This touched everything around the
worlds/economies, and the results, which could be guessed beforehand,
were never only economic.” (1.3.22) Such a transfer of the center
of the worlds/economies lead to a certain economic, political and
cultural downfall of old town centers – transforming them into theatrical
props. The example of Venice, Vienna and Lviv is, perhaps, painful,
yet the downfall of Paris or London is even more brutal. In the concept
of the new single world/ economy New York is the unquestionable center
Of course, from our provincial perspective this fact is not that
obvious. For us Paris – is still an unreachable dream, and Vienna,
like an old grandmother, still enjoys the love of the descendants
of former subjects. Instead, with the establishment of the European
Union the role of Berlin may grow substantially
Yet, despite the unquestionable existence of global economics, world
informational space, maybe even transnational culture, the world,
nevertheless, is structured according to economic regions. Moreover
– the global world sets up a hierarchy since between the various still
existing economic regions there are certain levels of technological
and informational mobility, etc. For instance, in contrast to the
largest until recently economic might of the United States, an economic
region of the European Union with a high level of technological development
and competition capability is being established. Along it is the stagnation
of the former post-Soviet space, whose role in the new labor division
for a long time, or even forever, is to become a supplementary “world
village” – an additional resource, of labor as well
Ukraine and Lviv reside on that borderline. They are not even the
center of the stagnating region, they are its periphery. The real
center of the post-Soviet economic region is Moscow, which is concentrating
all resource flows. Ukraine lacked political imagination and strength
to break away from the powerful center of gravity of the former metropolis.
Ukraine has not entered the dynamic, newly created economic region
of EU. It has not even developed really good relationships with it.
Therefore, the Russian capital purchase of everything in Ukraine is
not surprising– it flows here in quite a natural way, because we remain
in its gravitational field, whether we like it or not
The role of such a city like Lviv, which used to be in the historical
world/economy of Central Europe, and after 1939 until today clearly
in the Eurasian economic region, is strange. Even in the 19th cent.
it was a provincial border town not only in the administrative, but
also in an economic sense. Maybe this was its chance
Surprisingly many towns which were centers of historical Central
Europe worlds/economies were also its borderline. Such borderline
towns were Venice and Genoa, Antwerpen and Amsterdam. Even more –
the center of world economics New York is such a borderline town.
It is a meeting place of everything with all, mixing of everything
and everybody. Is this one of the secrets of its brilliant career?
Ukraine and Lviv ended up on the post-Soviet – EU borderline. Our
only chance is to be the center of all of the borderline. However,
we don’t have enough spirit to acknowledge our marginality in order
to finally realize our intermediary function
What is needed here? First of all – an exact formulation of the
assignment. We have to forget about our illusions of becoming the
center of an important independent economic region – for this we don’t
have appropriate resources. We have to take advantage of the borderline.
However, present here are a series of contradictions not understood
by us
The first contradiction is the contradiction between the city
and the state. In ancient times, towns, and not states nor empires
were the islands of progress and freedom. They played smart with the
state, they existed under its wing, but quite free, like Lviv under
the wing of Rzecz Pospolita. Where the states were strong, like Spain
or France, towns developed slowly, alongside capitals which were the
administrative machines, like present-day Kyiv, and not free towns.
It may appear paradoxical, but right now the Ukrainian State in conditions
of the absence of developed self-government and with the need to increase
centralization, meaning strengthening of administration, is unknowingly
hampering the cities’ development, including Lviv. Here we face patriotism
and stand before a choice – either the Ukrainian State, real, such
as is developing, with all of its minuses, post-Soviet rudiments and
growth pains, or our prospects are that of a town drowning in the
periphery of the post-Soviet economic, political and cultural space,
not, however, taking full advantage of its “borderline” position
Additionally, the center is hindering also because monies and capitals
in the post-Soviet economics often are not of a clearly economic entity,
they are also administrative. Therefore free towns and monies clear
from administrative resource do not exist here. Almost all of our
bourgeoisie consists of compradores and capitals are of intermediary
nature. But Lviv is not even an important power center such as Donetsk
or Dnipropetrovsk, so where would the administrative resource come
from?
The blossoming of Lviv started with the Austrian administration’s
desire to locate the administrative center of its largest province
of the Kingdom of Halychyna (Galicia) and Volodymyrya in Lviv. In
the second half of the 19th cent. thanks to the liberalization of
the Empire, Lviv blossomed out as a self administrative economic subject
– “free town” (Freiburg or Freistadt), even though it had been a “free
town” in the 14th – 17th cents., with certain traditions remaining
Perhaps some day the planned administrative territorial reform,
which got stuck in the Parliament, will be brought to life and Lviv
will again become the center of a more powerful region than today
The second contradiction is the contradiction between the town
as a “machine of the acceleration of civilization” and traditionally
rustic Ukrainian society, which slows down this revolving machine.
A concentration of rustics does not mean an appearance of a dynamic
town. Although, a town does need an inflow of people, but they should
merge into the town social structure and not dilute it. Otherwise
there will always be the danger that we will end up not with a Freiburg,
but with a Freidorf (Free Village). The town as an effective “machine
for life” and a consolidated “community” may become ineffective, as
quite often “the map of the world territory” does not allow us to
create and realize the vision of the town
In history there are multiple examples of such disintegration of
the “machines of civilization”, but not only due to the rustics (this
is the Ukrainian and Lviv experience). In the beautiful young Amsterdam
dishonest construction companies back in the 17th cent., while building
substandard living quarters in the Jordaan district, created a region
for destructive derelicts. The effective social structures of Paris
and Madrid in the 18th cent. were deformed by the elite, which transformed
these cities from trading cities to cities-consumers, towns of luxury
and games. These cities consumed more than they earned. Even a larger
perversion was Berlin in the 18th cent. under Friedrich II. This was
a city of the military and state functionaries exclusively. No less
brilliant an example of the decay of the “machine of civilization”
was the fourth largest city in the 17th cent. Europe – Naples. Joyous
and dirty Naples was filled with derelicts which constituted one-third
of its population. There was nothing that tied them to the state or
town, outside of gallows, as recalled by contemporaries
For contemporary Lviv, if it wishes to become effective as a city,
it is important to first build its vision as a “place” on a “territory”,
which wishes to become a “city”, and not dissolve in it. Two centuries
before Saint Thomas Aquinas, Alain de Lisle said:
“Today everything is not Cesar, it is money”. To say “money” - is
the same as saying “cities” (1.1.440). Perhaps on this basis it would
be possible to again rebuild it
Why exactly Lviv
Reviewing the history of the development of Lviv, in its architecture
we can trace at least four periods of the city’s development, which
formulated its spirit. This is “ruskyi” Lviv which set the tone, renaissance
Lviv – the city of the great trade route, secessionist – a city of
three (Ukrainian, Polish and Hebrew) national revivals, and also a
city of Ukrainian and Polish (we have to admit this) national resistance
We are often asked if Lviv is a European city, in the full sense
of the word, by European meaning only its positive aspects. Yes, of
course, it is, just like Venice or Seville, where, as in Lviv, quite
a bit of historical East has been retained, and whose obligation and
opportunity today is to preserve this variety, which is both an instrument
and an advantage
Lviv is a city of poly-cultural heritage. On its Byzantine foundation
lie tiers of Polish, German, Hebrew, Armenian, Austrian and in time
Russian and Soviet culture. The cultural winds of Europe blew through
Lviv, it is through Lviv that Catholicism, Protestantism, Counter-Reformation,
Hasidism, Frankism and Sionism came to Ukraine. Lviv lived through
the erosion of socialism/communism and nationalism. In order to find
its real image in the soft Vienna secession, the city tried all important
European styles – renaissance, baroque, rococo, classicism
Lviv built its independence on the Magdeburg law, the Koenigreich
Galicien and Lodomerien Autonomy and Austrian parliamentarism. In
independent Ukraine, the city is attempting to exist on principles
of self-government, limited as they may be
In the history of Ukrainian national movement Lviv often played
the key role. First – at the end of the 19th cent. when as a consequence
of the persecutions by the Russian tsar, the center of the national
movement migrated from the Naddniprianska (Dnipro area) Ukraine to
Halychyna. At this point Halychyna was compared to Piedmont, having
in mind its call to play the same role for Ukraine as Piedmont did
in freeing and uniting Italy
The second time Lviv became the principal center of Ukrainian political
life in the 1920-30’s when the totalitarian SSSR system suppressed
any attempts at independence, and only in Western Ukraine, despite
the Polish oppression, did the liberation movement continue to develop.
Nevertheless, Lviv was not able to play the role of the capital of
“Ukrainian Piedmont” to the end
By Hitler’s and Stalin’s decision, Western Ukraine and Lviv, as
an exchange coin, ended up part of the SSSR. How many years was Ukraine
torn between various empires – and finally a chance at unity! As it
turned out – unity with an animal face. Was it this kind of unity
that West Ukrainians dreamed of?
Almost every family in Western Ukraine suffered from this regime.
Coming to their senses, most of the population in one way or another
started to oppose this regime and this opposition lasted until the
1950’s. The communist administration till the end of its existence
did not break the back of the silent, but very stubborn non-acceptance.
New generations grew up, but the opposition remained, creating pre-conditions
for the SSSR disintegration catalysts
After Ukraine’s unification under the Soviet system and strangling
of the nationalistic underground, it appeared as if Lviv finally became
a commonplace regional USSR center, although marked by the “local
specificity”. Even then, however, many Ukrainian patriots believed
that the new national rebirth would start with Lviv
Lviv fulfilled these expectations at the end of 1980’s when as a
result of Horbachov’s glasnost the first sprouts of freedom made their
appearance. It is then that Lviv stepped forward first in the fight
for independent statehood and to a great extent pulled all of Ukraine
with it, having become the center of national renaissance for the
third time
Why Lviv in particular? Finding itself under the communist reign
only in 1939 (ending in 1944), Lviv underwent a lesser doze of the
system’s influence. Even in Soviet times Lviv remained one of the
most Ukrainian cities of Ukraine, where despite all russification
efforts, Ukrainian language dominated. KGB and the communist propaganda
were not able to remove the idea of the national liberation battle
from people’s hearts and minds. The ideals of the underground fighters
of the 1940’s-50’s were replaced by new methods of the 1960’s dissidents.
Lviv became one of the most important centers of the dissident movement
In spite of the atheistic propaganda, Halychyna remained the citadel
of religiosity which was a sign of non-conformism in the Soviet circumstances.
The forbidden Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church continued its existence
under cover
Yet, after obtaining Independence, Lviv ended up at the cross roads.
The attention of political leaders was concentrated on general Ukrainian
matters as a whole, and the national-democratic political establishment
moved to Kyiv. Practically no one was interested in the Lviv region.
National democratic and later post nationalistic leaders saw Halychyna
as their always true home base, a real instrument for the next parliamentary
mandate that one could count on. As a result – the region and the
city started degrading economically, politically and socially. Time
came to realize what was going on. It became necessary to realize
one’s capabilities and prospects. Clearly, one should not build utopian
projects, like a waterway from Gdansk to Galatz, yet if one does not
plan, nothing will be accomplished – the city and the region will
continue to stagnate
An attempt at practical planning
Talking about Lviv, the first thing to realize is the need to move
away from the old industrial approaches to its development. First
of all, because the region has no resources for such a development
(energy and material resources in the region are insubstantial), and
second – the industrial epoch is subsiding in the world. Coming is
the informational epoch, which requires much smaller material expenditure,
however, much more intellectual input. The intellectual resource is
present in the region, although it is not being renewed. Informational
product, be it a TV program, or software require a lot of work, and
the work resources available in the region are very substantial
For the realization of such an informational in the widest sense
of the word project, however, needed are not just work resources,
but highly qualified personnel resources. There, the unquestionable
priority should be the development of the education structure,
a university project, modernization and raising of the level and possibly
conversion of higher education institutions
Lviv, historically a city of many nationalities and cultures, has
a chance of becoming sort of a Strasbourg of Central-Eastern Europe,
a city where the West and East meet, a city of Ukrainian-Polish
, Ukrainian – Jewish reconciliation after centuries of conflicts
and misunderstandings. The European appearance of Lviv is an important
resource in convincing Europeans of the European quality of Ukraine.
Not a bad resource in this situation might be the Ukrainian-Polish
Collegium not only in Lublin, but also in Lviv, and possibly transforming
it into a real university
Lviv could also play the role of a pro-European lobbyist in
Ukraine. It is from here that the pro-European ideas and projects
should generate, yet until now post-nationalists hope for some ephemeral,
non-European third choice for Ukraine, by which they successfully
are pouring water on the Russian mill of the new/old Eurasian project.
In the next elections voters should finally think about the fact that
professional “rescuers” of Ukraine together with small Halychyna oligarchs
have long ago demonstrated that they do not wish and will not concern
themselves with the region or the city, they will use it only as place
d’arms for the capital career
Without a doubt Lviv’s priority should be a powerful media project.
In Ukraine today all informational space not only in the political,
financial, but also in the geographic sense has been monopolized –
all serious media projects are concentrated in Kyiv. Yet, in our opinion,
the German model of the decentralization of the media space, where
the main newspapers are published outside of Berlin, the main TV channels
are also working in the regions although they are broadcast to all
of Germany, would be optimal. Nationwide media resources do not have
to be produced in Kyiv. A good try might be a joint television project
together with EU (similar to the German-French cultural channel Arte),
or a nation-wide internet-project in Lviv. A few reputable Lviv newspapers
would also have a chance
It is Lviv that should be the grounds for trying out a model
of a successful city oriented at the EU and not Russia (like our
other “successful” cities in Ukraine – Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk…) which
was, as a matter of fact, expected in Eastern Ukraine. Lviv, however,
did not become an example of a successful pro-western city, rather
on the contrary
One should not ignore the fact that Lviv (despite the fact that
it is in independent Ukraine) until now remains the largest Ukrainian-speaking
city, so in the full sense, it is a Ukrainian city
Lviv should become the center where the new “Ukrainian idea”,
new “Ukrainian project” would blossom out. It should be a European
kind of a dynamic and democratic union based on diversity, and not
the extensive Eurasian variety, with its Russian speaking leadership
and surzhyk (mixed Ukrainian-Russian dialect)–speaking masses, imposed
by Russia. Lviv should finally overcome the damaging, post- nationalistic
idea of a Ukrainian mono-ethnic state, inherited from the 1930’s
It is difficult to prognosticate the possible future role of Lviv
without taking the resource potential of all of Western Ukraine into
consideration. After the introduction of the administrative-territorial
reform, Lviv, without any doubt, could become the center of a much
larger administrative region than the Lviv oblast, although
this idea is controversial. For the time being it has been successfully
buried by Roman Bezsmertnyi, Vice Prime Minister of Administrative
Territorial Reform.
The Western region has always been a fountain of human resource.
Such is the situation even now – the most valuable scholarly potential
is being washed out as educated youth move to Kyiv or abroad. For
its regeneration and the return of at least some part of the labor
migrants, certain economic conditions would have to be created, but
there are no such prospects in sight. One can see, however, certain
positives in all of this – people who have worked in the West for
a while have learned the culture of work, customs, technology: they
would be the least negatively inclined towards the West. Live contact
with the closest Middle European neighbors removes interethnic strain
in the region. Massive knowledge of foreign languages in Western Ukraine
is incomparably greater than in Central or Eastern Ukraine. In Halychyna
or in Bukovyna simple folks speak everyday Polish, Hungarian or Romanian
without any problems. These are languages of countries who with their
admission to EU have or will become an important resource for collaboration
with EU and NATO
The economic potential of Western Ukraine and Lviv today is insubstantial,
yet what is positively different is the number of newly-emerged small
and medium private businesses evident in the West, in comparison with
the East of Ukraine, where physically and morally outdated raw industry-
metal, coal and energy dominate. It is this business structure in
the Western region, similar to the structure in neighboring Middle
European countries that creates the best base for establishing a middle
class and for development of a civil society
An important prospect for the region is the development of the
transport and leading product infrastructure, which will to a
large extent, precipitate the success of the “European project for
Lviv.” The city should become Ukraine’s effective gate on Europe’s
transport highways. Today, attention is being paid to the reconstruction
and building of modern highways as the EU Transport Ministry have
approved the plan of the prospective development of the European transport
network. It anticipates a development of 9 transport corridors for
cargo and passenger transport through Europe. Two of them will cross
Lviv: transport corridor No. 3 Berlin-Wroclaw-Lviv-Kyiv, transport
corridor No. 5 – Trieste-Ljubljana-Budapest-Chop-Lviv. The future
corridors No.3 and No.5 will unite with the southern trans-European
highway Lisbon-Madrid-Triest, which will be extended to Russia, Kazakhstan,
Central and Southeastern Asia
Until this time the transport network of Ukraine, despite pro-European
declarations, is not developing in the EU direction, but away from
it. Express trains are being introduced first of all to Kharkiv and
Odesa, but not to Lviv or EU. A project of an express train Kyiv-Lviv
would be very timely
No less urgent is the need for further development of a network
of border crossings along all of the Western border of Ukraine. Regional
lobbies should be the principal promoters of the liberalization of
the visa regime on the western border of Ukraine with EU. Yet, surprisingly,
none of the then candidates for Parliament even promised this. Without
this liberalization the Western region and Lviv will end up in a “visa”
famine situation, which will cause strain on border crossings and
encourage mass corruption
Of a strategic meaning is the oil pipeline “Odesa-Brody-Gdansk”.
Yet, a recent transfer of its main office from Lviv to Kyiv seriously
diminished Lviv’s contribution towards its use and eroded the economic
base of the city
For an effective functioning of the region and the city, of great
importance is the development of free economic zones on the border
with EU and in Lviv itself. As a matter of fact, while we
are not yet candidates for EU membership, we may do this despite
EU’s non-acceptance of such models. The free economic zone “Yavoriv”
adjoins the Western border of the city and in its time had seriously
enlivened the economic activity in the region, followed by
the processes of moving production from Middle European countries
which were joining the EU, to the adjoining Ukrainian territory, especially
to the free economic zones near the border. This was clearly a positive
move, as a primitive movement of products was complemented by concrete
investments, creation of additional work places, and relief of social
strain in border regions. The level of cooperation of the region and
Lviv with Middle European countries is much higher than in the country,
as a whole. The new orange government, however, did manage to
hit this economic zone with great power and
numerous attempts at the creation of a free economic zone in Lviv
itself is being diligently blocked in Kyiv
An economic resource of the region and the city is the EU proximity.
In this context of interest would be a further development of Euro
regions on the EU border which would stimulate the trans-border cooperation.
At this time a concept of another Euro region “Sian” with its center
in Lviv and Rzeszow is being developed which would become the
mechanism of the development of trans-border cooperation
The Carpathia, Volyn region and Lviv have a great tourism and
recreational potential. For the development of this resource a
series of preconditions have to be executed: a pleasant atmosphere
has to prevail in the region for all newly-arrived (particularly for
those touring for “sentimental” reasons), obligatory creation of the
hotel business, service, museum tours (including the castles around
Lviv). The most urgent matters are the problems of water supply, restoration
and maintenance of the historical center of Lviv
The most immediate plans of Ukrainian politics is achieving an associated
member status with the EU and creation of a free trade zone. At the
same time the principal forms of Ukraine’s collaboration with its
western neighbors is collaboration within specialized structures,
such as the Vyshehrad Four and the Central-European initiative. For
Ukraine and Lviv the principal partner in this integration is Poland
and Lviv could become the center of Ukrainian-Polish cooperation
in the framework of Ukraine-EU collaboration. All preconditions
for this have already been set up
One of the approaches of Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration is
to draw closer to NATO. In this sense, the Western region of Ukraine
and Lviv, as the location of the Ukrainian Army Western Operations
Command Headquarters and dislocation of the Ukrainian-Polish batallion,
in Yavoriv the location of the largest training grounds in Europe
which enforce the Ukraine and NATO “Partnership for Peace” programs,
have a chance to become one of the actual centers of this very process
Certain steps in realizing the process of Ukraine’s integration
to EU could become the creation of permanent supranational institutions,
centers of dialogue for politicians, scholars and artists, the first
example of which became the Summit of Central Europe Presidents. The
project of establishing one of the residences for the President of
Ukraine in Lviv, obviously in case of a practical, not just verbal
European choice of Ukraine, makes a lot of sense. Absolutely indispensable
is the development of a network of General Consulates of foreign
countries as well as representatives of various international
institutions
No less important, yet poorly promoted and not taken advantage of
is the fact that Lviv is the location of three all-Ukrainian religious
centers – the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the Roman-Catholic
Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church. Lviv is a unique domain
of two Cardinals and can become a great spiritual center, center
of ecumenical dialogue preconditioned for it by the Ukrainian
Catholic University
Only an open city of Lviv has a chance not to drown in hopeless
provinciality, not to ossify in a petrified Galapagos and become a
successful Ukrainian European city
1 Braudel F., Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism.
Kyiv, Osnovy, 1998
2 Fasmer M. “Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language. Moscow,
Progress, 1987
3. Heidegger M. Holcwege. Die Zeit des Weltbildes. Frankfurt am
Main, Vittorio Klostermann, 1950
