Across the Europe, smaller cities are shrinking; people en mass move to 
capital cities and metropolitan centers. Demographic processes in different 
part of the continent are different, but the spots of capital cities and 
their suburbs are clearly visible almost everywhere. Big city as an idea 
seems very attractive and becomes for many a decisive factor when they 
chose a place to live. However, perception of the city as of provincial, 
peripheral, and/or small might vary from country to country, depending 
on the local context. Germany has more than dozen of cities with population 
over half a million, and Frankfurt (Oder), having ca 60 000, probably would 
be absent in top 100; but in Estonia, it would share the 3rd place with city
of Narva. What it feels like to be from a smaller city? Though coming from 
different states, my interlocutors – participants of Viadrinicum summer 
school, Aleksandra and Elena, as well as one of its organizers, Kirill – 
have a commonality: they all come from the places of approximately the size 
of Slubfurt. We have talked about their life in native towns-cities. 

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