Habitatul și modul de trai în Chișinăul interbelic [Articol]

Abstract

Habitat and life way in the inter-war Chișinău. The habitat and way of life evolution in interwar Chisinau was determined by the political, socio-economic and cultural context connected to the trends of Romanian spirituality and the European one as a whole. Coming from the cultural heritage of the Tsarist period, the physiognomy of the city becomes very complex in the interwar period, with a symbiosis between the old and the new. Dictated by the habitat component, the existence of the urban community gave Chisinau a certain specificity. Houses, streets, churches, cathedrals, public gardens, parks, monuments, hotels, shops, banks, etc., as well as recreational venues such as restaurants, pubs, cafes, bodegas become public or private places that reveal important details about daily practices. The demarcation between private and public space seems to be quite difficult, because most of the time these spheres overlap, depending on the groups or social elements to which they refer. As we move through interwar Chisinau, we can see that the habitat area is divided into three zones - the first, the sumptuous one of public buildings and houses; the second (of social importance), of houses in the old part of the city; and the third and last, the outskirts of the city, which in the evening took on the appearance of a provincial fair, with the only difference that the inhabitants were not peasants, but city workers. Although we cannot speak of an everyday life in solitude, given that Chisinau consolidated itself as an urban center in a dominant Russian framework, this aspect left its mark on the norms of conduct adopted in the private space of the inhabitants. In addition to the individual living environment, the daily life of Chisinau residents was marked by the abundance of public premises, very diverse both in terms of architecture and their destination. Inherited from the tsarist administration, sufficiently numerous, divided into categories, but also concentrated largely in the central area of the city, the public institutions of Chisinau included the city hall, the court, the cathedral, schools, cinemas, theaters, museums, bookstores, etc. Among the public access premises were also commercial ones, such as shops, stores, and drugstores, the number of which after 1918 was constantly increasing. Located, especially, in the upper part of the city, the commercial centers and stores bore entirely foreign names. Among the public premises, a separate category were the leisure ones, from luxury restaurants to simple cafes and pubs.