Page 115 - Ciancia, On Civilization's Edge

unemployment and even a lack of salt, leading Polish officials to worry about the impression that it

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was making on both sides of the border. Other towns at the border, however, appeared to be turning

themselves around. The author of another article in the same newspaper, which was published in the

summer of 1924, recounted how the border town of Korzec “should serve as a model of rational

urban economics” and hoped that the incoming mayor would create a more culturally developed

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town by planting trees, laying down pavements, and standardizing a network of orderly streets.
Certain towns even appeared to be developing these Western models of urban development,

especially by the latter part of the decade. In Zdołbunów, which replaced Ostróg as the county seat in

1925, one British official stated that the Poles had deliberately created better urban conditions in

order to make a positive impression on visitors. The installation of trashcans and improvements in

the quality of street lighting were, he reported in 1927, “in keeping with the obvious desire of the

Polish Government that passengers arriving from Southern Russia shall realise that they have entered

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a real Western State.” At the border, the geopolitical competition between the two states was
neither theoretical nor distant but was instead highlighted through the civilizational value of these

everyday objects.

At the same time, however, the priorities of ordinary people did not lie in showcasing the

benefits of a more “civilized” Polish state, but rather in trying to adapt to the changes in their

everyday lives that came from living next to the border. Following the descent of a wholly artificial

and arbitrary boundary—one that had been shaped by the exigencies of armed conflict and the

wrangling of diplomats in the far-off city of Riga—familial, social, and economic relationships

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became severely disrupted. The use of topographical features to demarcate the border meant that

43 On the view from the church see, “Polish Marches,” Times (London), July 31, 1930, 15. On Ostróg, see
“Ekonomiczne położenie miasta Ostroga,” Przegląd Wołyński, September 5, 1926, 2; “Z Całego Wołynia,” Przegląd
Wołyński, March 11, 1925, 4.
44 “Z Całego Wołynia,” Przegląd Wołyński, July 23, 1924, 4.
45 “Account by Mr R. C. Thomsom of Conditions in Eastern Poland” (Nov 23, 1927) NAL FO 417/22/92.
46 Brown, A Biography of No Place, 7.

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