Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки (Mar 2021)
Territorial Planning Projects of the Urals in 1918: Comparative Analysis
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to analyse the content of the projects substantiating the autonomy of the Urals and the composition of its territories reviewed by the Provisional Regional Government of the Urals (PRGU) in 1918. The presence of theses regarding the formation of a special Ural identity in them gives the study relevance not only due to an extremely fragmented coverage of these projects in the previous historiography but also in terms of filling the gaps in the history of the formation of the special regional social and political thought of the Urals in the context of the PRGU’s coalition activity. Also, it is interesting to consider the projects from the point of view of the continuity of territorial planning practices by Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. To analyse the content and compare projects with each other to identify similarities, differences, and traces of manifestation of regional ideas, the author considers six notes submitted to PRGU by its main departments and the final report. Also, the article refers to individual views of L. A. Krol who initiated the establishment of PRGU, reconstructed according to his memoirs and minutes of the meetings of the PRGU Commission on Borders. It transpires that not all projects contained a reflection on the subject of a special regional identity, which is the essence of regionalism since the reason for the discussions was the pragmatic need to determine the electoral system for the regional parliament. A separate and unique project by Krol, which instrumentally justified the borders of the Urals, taking into account the current, but not the future political situation, cannot be considered regional. The discussion itself where Krol’s proposals were ignored characterises the PRGU as a unique coalition body for 1917–1918 based on the principles of party dialogue.
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