Mapping 20th-century Violence --- The Case of Kharkiv

One can read urban landscapes like textures. Looking at European cities as textbooks of human civilization, they tell us a story of rise and fall of urban cultures, of life and death, take-off and devastation. Europe’s history includes, especially in the 20th century, more than one urbicide. In our days Kharkiv, the second capital of Ukraine, has again become the target of disastrous violence, this time by Russian missiles. The talk will attempt to tell the history of a big European city.