Ukrainian Urban Recovery (part 1): Introducing the Ukrainian Cities at War blog series
(First of several discussions drawing on my Brutal Catalyst: What Ukrainian Cities Tell Us about Recovery from War to be released by KeyPoint Press in autumn 2024)
I’m once again climbing aboard the writing horse to expand on posts, articles, books, and reports elsewhere regarding urban disasters. Whereas previous work tends to consider those disasters across the entire spectrum—floods, typhoons, fires, earthquakes, war, and more—the foci in this and those posts to follow are more specific. First, it is one country that merits our attention: Ukraine. Second, it is the disaster that is war that spawns these words. Third and last: Recovery rather than immediate response dominates the discussions. The material has its roots in Brutal Catalyst: What Ukraine’s Cities Tell Us about Recovery from War, my forthcoming book from KeyPoint Press to be released this autumn. My hope is that both those involved in Ukraine’s recovery and others confronting the punishment of future wars will in some way benefit from these offerings, those of the book, and any further insights you readers provide.
These posts will include a bit of a twist, an occasional respite from the very serious subject that motivates them. Several friends have found it interesting when I recently shared lesser known facts regarding the 1944 Normandy campaign, American Civil War, or other off-the-wall topic. Each of the posts in this series will conclude with a question regarding a finer point of history. Major General (British Army, retired) Mungo Melvin kindly asked me to assist him in conducting his on-the-ground Normandy Battlefield Experience back in 2022. Resulting research revealed, well, revelations new to me despite earlier readings. (Mungo, by the way, is also an accomplished author. His excellent books include Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General and Sevastopol’s Wars. He has also just parented volume XIII of The History of the Corps of Royal Engineers to publication, available from sappershop.com.) Any Civil War queries in future posts are derivative of work underlying my counterfactual novel, Gods’ War, in which Lee commands the Army of the Potomac.
To give you a taste of what’s to come, Brutal Catalyst draws on insights available in looking at three cities’ recovery from WWII: Tokyo, Berlin, and Manila. (I also touch on disasters in Nagasaki, Halifax, and other cities to a lesser extent.) Given the potential for tension between Ukrainians with remaining sympathies for Putin’s Russia and those feeling otherwise, frictions rooted in 20th-century Sarajevo (and unfortunately still extant today) likewise receive attention. In turn, three cities anchor Ukraine-specific discussion, each covering a specific case vis-à-vis occupation and recovery: Cities that (1) completely or largely escaped Russian occupation (Kharkiv), (2) suffered several months subjection to enemy rule before being de-occupied (Kherson), or (3) remain occupied and will therefore pose particularly difficult challenges for urban leaders when they are retaken (Mariupol).
An expanded description of the book appears below. First, however, we have our initial Normandy campaign question. Answers will always appear in the series’ next post. You are welcome to take a cut at an answer if you’d like. Some you will likely find easy. Others not so much. Here’s number 1:
Those buried in the Normandy American Cemetery are exclusively personnel who died in Normandy during or in the immediate aftermath of WWII. There is, however, one individual who was killed during World War I. Who is he and why is he buried there?
Here’s the promised, expanded description of Brutal Catalyst:
Brutal Catalyst:
What Ukraine’s Cities Tell Us about Recovery from War
by
Russell W. Glenn
coming from KeyPoint Press in 2024
Drawing on the examples of Tokyo, Nagasaki, Berlin, Manila, and Sarajevo, urban analyst Dr. Russell W. Glenn illuminates the damage wrought by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to provide insights for effective urban recovery planning and implementation.
Too many historical studies limit recovery discussions to rebuilding cities’ physical features, overlooking the prominence of social and economic features. Recovery must recognize cities for the systems they are, systems in which physical infrastructure—buildings, streets, utilities, and more—must bend to the needs of the living. Social ties and economic health must rise from the rubble no less than will structures of steel and concrete.
Brutal Catalyst employs the travails of three cities to depict the broad spectrum of considerations Ukraine’s urban leaders confront. All three continue to suffer enemy attacks. One of the three (Kharkiv), however, escaped occupation other than on its periphery. Residents of the second, Kherson, lived with Russian oppression for over eight months before de-occupation. The third, Mariupol, will have suffered years of enemy presence before returning to its proper fold. Recovery efforts and potential future scenarios for each receive attention, including the influence of political and ethnic tensions resulting from its experiences.
Capitalizing on both historical and current Ukrainian cases, themes and lessons relevant to the recovery of Ukrainian cities—and that of Ukraine more broadly—address critical issues in detail, including international cooperation and assistance, plans and planning considerations, leadership and management, housing, employment, health care, unexploded ordnance disposal, collaboration with the enemy, corruption, ethnic conflict, education and information campaigns, and the nuclear weapons threat.
The book concludes with a reflection on the future of urban recovery, recognizing that Ukraine’s experiences and decisions will offer models for other cities visited by war. Successful urban recovery will involve local communities and other stakeholders, address the root causes of conflict, and seize opportunities to transform cities for the better. For Ukraine, recovery must ever also consider the continuing specter of Russian aggression.
