This publication is an attempt to show the past of Uman, going beyond the “great stories” of the city, focusing on local and individual experiences. At the same time, it is an attempt to place Uman in the broader context of the empires and states to which the city belonged for centuries, and to fit it more firmly into the contexts of the formerly multi-ethnic region of Eastern Europe. The publication contains 10 chapters and offers selected topics,which open new visions of the famous pages of the city's past and focus attention on the little-known or forgotten stories of Uman and its communities. The book tells about the relationship between the city and the authorities in different periods, about modernization processes, urban culture as an interaction of different communities and institutions, despite what faith and religion are in a city on the border, about the phenomenon of the city through the stories of famous people, about those changes,which two world wars brought to the city, about different memories and legacies in the modern city. This is a publication about the incredibly interesting and complex past of Uman, which is a great cultural capital for the modern and future city.