The western Ukrainian city of Lviv has been many things to many peoples: a Habsburg garrison town, a Polish cultural capital, a Soviet provincial centre, and a Ukrainian nationalist redoubt. Since the collapse of empires in the wake of the First World War, Lviv has lived under at least five political regimes and changed official language, flag, and ideological orientation more times than most cities in Europe. Yet through each transformation, the city has served as a centre for political ideas,