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supposed to do (and what Volhynia’s towns were failing to do) and arguments about towns as Jewish

spaces. As was the case throughout the interwar years, debates about towns were never simply about

towns, but were entangled with political contests between state agents and local people—and

between different groups of local people.

***

Following the administrative expansion of many Volhynian towns in the early 1930s, representatives

of modernizing state initiatives appeared to have prevailed, and by the middle part of the decade

more optimistic voices began to emerge. To some extent, this shift was based on actual developments

in several towns that were brought about by more rational urban planning. In larger towns, like Łuck

and Równe, the authorities planned and partially carried out work on sewer and water-supply

systems, while Volhynia (Wołyń), which had replaced the Volhynian Review as the local Sanacja title

in 1933, featured architectural blueprints that imagined the complete redevelopment of part of Łuck

72
into an enormous square surrounded by important public buildings. In fact, the newspaper’s pages

were filled with an increasing number of articles about the beautification of towns, the draining of

73
formerly muddy thoroughfares, and the triumph of Polish theater.
At the same time, Józewski’s reports continued to emphasize that making Volhynia’s towns

less “Russian” and “Jewish” and more “Polish” were parallel processes—and that the work of the

provincial administrators was far from complete. According to his 1933 report, the Polish authorities

72 On the sewer system in Równe, see “Projekt kanalizacji miasta Równego,” AAN MSW 4167. On the water-
supply system in Łuck, see “Zjazd lekarzy powiatowych województwa Wołyńskiego dnia 18 i 19 marca 1938r.”
AAN MOS 508/26. Mędrzecki deals briefly with improvements to urban water systems, “Przemiany cywilizacyjne,”
112. On the new plans for Łuck’s town center, see “Życie gospodarcze: dwie próby architektonicznego rozwiązania
centrum miasta Łucka,” Wołyń, November 18, 1934, 5-6.
73 “Równe ma przyszłość przed sobą,” Wołyń, June 30, 1935, 4; “Wczoraj, dzis i jutro miasta Kowla” Wołyń,
October 27, 1935, 7; T. Swiszczowski, “Czy Równe jest kulturalnem miastem?,” Wołyń, October 29, 1933, 4.

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