Kharkiv chronicle in tales

Timeline

Stories by era and year — from the city’s founding to late-Soviet jokes.

1185 · до XVIII века
ECLIPSE
At 4:55 p.m., just before the crossing of the Siversky Donets, the sky darkened—a solar eclipse began. The soldiers panicked; it was hard to imagine a grimmer omen. For according to an old belief, at…
1605–1799 · до XVIII века
QUARTERING TROOPS
"Military guests quartered in Kharkiv at the time cost the city dearly. The Duma had to provide them lodging and see to their various needs…
1651 · до XVIII века
WHERE DID KHARKIV COME FROM?
On a horse in full gear—with shield and pike, bow and arrows—sits a Cossack; behind him rise the towers and walls of a stockade. Thus an old artist portrayed the legendary founder of our city, Kharko…
1657 · до XVIII века
WE BOW LOW
"To the Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of All Russia, Autocrat. Your poor pilgrims of the sovereign Ukrainian far city of Kharkiv, the Cherkasy priest Yere, bow their foreheads…
1660 · до XVIII века
COUNTERFEIT COIN
The police tracked down and arrested two counterfeiters nicknamed Ikonnik and Zolotar. Under investigation they confessed to their crime…
1668 · до XVIII века
CITY UNDER SIEGE
In 1668 an enemy besieged the Kharkiv fortress—but not Tatars or the Muscovite army, rather troops of our countryman, Cossack hetman Ivan Sirko. An old account says they "Kharkiv p…
1673 · до XVIII века
PRISONERS IN... A MONASTERY
The territory of the Kuryazh correctional colony is crisscrossed with underground passages. But these were not dug by inmates trying to escape. The fact is that the correctional facility…”
1709 · XVIII век
THE SWEDES NEAR... KHARKIV
The saying "broken like a Swede at Poltava" might as well have been "broken like a Swede near Kharkiv." For legend has it that Peter the Great planned the decisive battle with Charles XII and his allies…
1712 · XVIII век
"ROHAN"—NOT JUST BEER
For us "Rohan" suggests beer or a new housing district, not the name Kantemir. The land of present-day Rohan, from the early eighteenth century onward, belonged…
1733–1770 · XVIII век
THE RED ROOSTER
In May 1733 a great fire destroyed three hundred yards, the Cathedral and St. Nicholas churches, and all the shops. Half a century earlier the voivode had forbidden Kharkivites of every rank…
1745 · XVIII век
WHAT FOR?
One night in 1745 attackers struck Captain Nazaryev's lodgings. The captain was not home. Bursting in, they broke the gate, smashed windows, beat to death…
1752 · XVIII век
MERRY MONKS
"In 1752 at sotnyk Andrey Topchiy's wedding, St. Nicholas priest Ioann fiercely fought the town ataman Pyotr Bulgakov, calling him a godless, unbaptized infidel," thus begins…
1759 · XVIII век
THE WORLD SOUGHT HIM
Catherine II, approaching Kharkiv from Crimea, noticed an elderly man in plain clothes, lost in thought on a hill. Asked who he was, she was told: the famous philosopher Grigory S…
1762 · XVIII век
MIRACLES DID NOT SAVE HER
The chief shrine of our region was the icon of the Ozeryany Mother of God. In "miracle-working" it supposedly yielded only to the empire's chief icon—the Kazan Mother of God. Its origin…
1765 · XVIII век
THE MUTINOUS COLONEL
In the summer of 1765 Colonel Kh. Krasnokutsky of the Kharkiv regiment was in St. Petersburg and learned news that deeply alarmed him. Catherine II had issued a manifesto on the Sloboda regiments, where…
1773–1932 · XVIII век
"RAKLO," "VANKO," "ZHUZHKA," AND MORE
Kharkiv speech has its own distinctive words found nowhere else. Let us recall a term almost gone from our vocabulary, yet so colorful—the "r…
1776 · XVIII век
A PALACE FOR ONE NIGHT
After conquering Crimea, Field Marshal Potemkin—made Prince of Taurida for it—decided to show the Empress Russia's new lands and arranged for her a journey there…
1777–1917 · XVIII век
WHERE THE GOVERNORS LIVED
Where Kharkiv's earliest rulers lived is unknown, but by 1777 they decided to build a formal residence. It was erected on University Hill by that year…
1781–1995 · XVIII век
THREE COATS OF ARMS
In 1781 Empress Catherine II approved the design of the Kharkiv province coat of arms: "Let it be so." It showed a green field with a cornucopia, fruit, and flowers, and on…
1781–1782 · XVIII век
A SCHOLAR? TO THE CORNER!
On the morning of August 28, 1781, a gentleman appeared at the Kharkiv post station. He gave his name as Vasily Zuev, adjunct of the Academy in St. Petersburg, sent to study and describe the south of Russia. He…
1785–1787 · XVIII век
TWO CENTURIES IN ONE SPOT
Visitors to the new glass-walled café on Poetry Square little guess whose wall they lean against. It is the oldest building in the city, second in age perhaps only to the Intercession Church…
1787–1791 · XVIII век
A ROYAL VISIT
"The next day, after his arrival, the prince was expected in the cathedral… His Highness came already after the 'It is meet' and stopped not at the seat prepared under the canopy but to the right of the pulpit, in the midst of the church…
1791 · XVIII век
ACTOR-DESERTER
Kharkiv's theater staged the Italian comedy The Prince Chimney Sweep, Chimney Sweep Prince. In the front row sat two governors—the local one and his guest from Oryol, passing through…
1792 · XVIII век
THEY STOLE THE BRIDGE
Kharkivites once found that a bridge on the Lopan… had vanished. They appealed to the City Duma, which knew nothing and asked the governor. He replied that the bridge had been ordered dismantled…
1799 · XVIII век
ONE MERCHANT BEAT TWO GOVERNORS
Merchant of the third guild Yegor Yegorovich Uryupin, elected mayor in 1799, was an awkward figure for the provincial authorities. The Duma he led declared it would act in its own…
1800 · XIX век
AND THERE'D BE NO CITY
Once a leaflet was found on the door of the Ascension Church that towered over Ascension Square (now Feuerbach Square). It proved to be nothing less than a lampoon on His Imperial Majesty Pa…
1803–1827 · XIX век
THE AUTHOR OF "FAUST"—FOR KHARKIV
Oddly, Kharkiv has streets named for Darwin and Shakespeare, and until recently Byron—men who never heard of our city—yet no Goethe Street, though the great thinker, writer, and scholar…
1805 · XIX век
NOT INVITED TO THE CELEBRATION
"I seek to fill the modest vacant post of librarian. Do not refuse me! Grant me the joy of putting in order and revealing the treasures of this institution founded by me, yet…
1805–1819 · XIX век
MOSKAL-CHARIVNYK
Mikhail Semenovich Schepkin first appeared on the Kharkiv stage in 1805 while still a serf. The first review was printed in our city in the Ukrainian Herald in 1819, noting his rare…
1805–1999 · XIX век
FROM THE NOBILITY? REFUSE!
A girl came to the admissions committee of Kharkiv University (after the revolution it was called the Kharkiv Institute of Public Education)—among other applicants submitting documents. — Your surname?…
1810 · XIX век
ON BONES
I remember that long after the war the tram stop near the large grocery store on Pushkinska was still called "Kaplunovska." I did not understand why, and then learned that the building once stood where Kapluno…
1811–1825 · XIX век
THE LONG ROAD
The Decembrist uprising in St. Petersburg on December 14, 1825, failed through the conspirators' hesitation. The government opened an inquiry that for those involved…
1812 · XIX век
THE GOLDEN SWORD
A. P. Nikitin was a career soldier—he finished cadet school while still young. Commanding artillery units, he fought bravely in the War of 1812 and was awarded a golden sword…
1812 · XIX век
NO HIGHER THAN IVAN
Approach Kharkiv from any side and you see the gilded dome of the Dormition bell tower. It stands on the high ground of University Hill. Some…
1816 · XIX век
FIRST IN UKRAINE
In 1816 our city saw the journal Kharkiv Democritus, edited by fabulist and former Kharkiv University student V. Maslovich. The magazine was humorous in tone and…
1823–1841 · XIX век
HOME BY LANTERN LIGHT
Plain folk and prosperous Kharkivites alike tried to get home before dark; in the gloom one might less often meet a robber than break a leg on unpaved streets. At last in…
1827–1840 · XIX век
"THE INSPECTOR GENERAL"—PLAGIARISM?
A young man arrives in a provincial town; the authorities take him for an inspector, and uproar follows. Gogol's Inspector General? No—it is G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko's comedy…
1834–1889 · XIX век
UNDER THREAT OF EXPULSION
A seventh-year pupil of the Second Kharkiv Gymnasium sat in class in torment. A meeting had just forbidden gymnasium students, on pain of expulsion, to attend theaters…
1835–1856 · XIX век
KHRUSHCHEV, ZHDANOV, AND OTHERS
When finishing Kharkiv University, student Khrushchev publicly defended a thesis arguing that revolution was needed to destroy the old order and build a new…
1837 · XIX век
FOR THE VOTES
"To the choirmaster of the Court Chapel, travel money for three to Poltava: for him, his assistant Palagin, and Gulak-Artemovsky, a student dismissed from Kyiv seminary"—so runs a record…
1837–1844 · XIX век
CITIZENS IN HONOR
Imagine a merchant reporting his income to the tax office—not understating it as one might expect, but inflating it. Why? What is the point? By displaying wealth…
1841–1849 · XIX век
THE GENTLEMAN AND THE DOG
Pyotr Petrovich Gulak-Artemovsky was a well-known writer of his day. He translated from Polish and French and wrote lyric poetry, but his original fables in…
1843–1993 · XIX век
BELATED MEMORY
At G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko's funeral in 1843 his Russian friend, scholar I. Sreznevsky, said: "Remember, Ukraine, this grave: here lies one who, animated by love for you, your welfare, and your tong…
1852 · XIX век
PRICE BY ORDER
In 1852 Kharkiv was hit by hailstones as large as hen's eggs. Glass shattered at the Institute for Noble Maidens, the gymnasium, government offices, and most city buildings…
1852–1952 · XIX век
UNPRECEDENTED MONSTER
On 22 May 1869 a crowd of townspeople stirred: first a whistle, then clouds of smoke, and from them—as a reporter of the day put it—emerged an unprecedented monster. Its…
1856 · XIX век
TO THE NEXT WORLD
In 1856 Kokoshkin was transferred from Kharkiv to the capital as a senator. Passing a building under construction in St. Petersburg, he entered out of curiosity and his passion for building works…
1860–1880 · XIX век
ON THE LOVER'S TRAIL
In the town of Bakhmut (now Artemivsk) in Donetsk region lived a couple with four children—all sons. Their tutor was Kharkiv student Pavel Zavadsky. The mother, E. S. Garshina, fell in love with the student…
1861 · XIX век
AMID THE SWAMPS
"Amid vast steppes, in many places still virgin, untouched by the plow and silvered with feather grass, in a purely agricultural province without industry and thinly settled, when…
1861 · XIX век
IN TWO FACES
"This gentleman is quite another sort: mild, courteous, pious, and one who tracks down peasants at investigations—without raising his voice or removing his gloves" (I. Turgenev). "A man of independent means, he indulges…
1861–1999 · XIX век
ARMORED MONSTER
The hulk near the history museum looks strange, like a huge riveted iron box. It is one of the first tanks mastered by world military industry. Its homeland…
1868 · XIX век
WITHOUT WITNESSES
1868. At an ordinary session of the Valky district court a criminal case was heard. It turned out witnesses had not been summoned. — We'll manage! — the presiding judge declared flatly…
1870 · XIX век
FROM THE UNDERGROUND
From time to time well-wishers warned Kh. D. Alchevskaya that a search was coming, and classes paused. By order from the capital, Sunday schools in the country had been banned…
1872–1913 · XIX век
A BEQUEST TO THE CITY
I was always struck by the massive building at the start of Pushkinska, home to the Mechnikov Institute: breaking the street's straight line (small wonder—the Germans settled it!), it juts out almost…
1872–1991 · XIX век
GIVE ME A WHITE MONKEY!
Academician B. I. Verkin sent off his students and colleagues with those words. It meant they were to discover something utterly unusual that had never existed before. Obviously they often succeeded, for…”
1874 · XIX век
BALLOON IN THE SKY
Ochakiv peasants watched fearfully as a large balloon flew straight toward them. It approached quickly, lost height, and came down in the woods. Onlookers rode up and saw a man trying to drag the balloon into…
1877 · XIX век
A TURK IN KHARKIV
I traveled several times to Bulgaria for the famous satire and humor festival in Gabrovo. Organizers arranged excursions, including to Pleven, steeped in the glory of Russian arms. Fam…
1878 · XIX век
A FAILED ATTEMPT
Along Zmiiv Road at the city exit a troika raced under gendarme escort. A britzka overtook it; two armed men leaped out. One ordered the driver to stop. He…
1879 · XIX век
ALEXANDER II: "VERY SORRY!"
Kharkiv Governor Prince Dmitry Kropotkin was returning home at night after a ball at the Institute for Noble Maidens. Near his house on Hubernatorska, behind an old giant poplar, a man lay in wait…
1880–1888 · XIX век
ALL-POWERFUL
In youth M. Loris-Melikov befriended the young poet N. Nekrasov and for a time shared a room in St. Petersburg. After military training the count was sent to the Caucasus…
1880 · XIX век
CHEAP LUNCHES
Who does not know A. Lushkin's famous epigram: At the Academy of Sciences sits Prince Dunduk. They say Dunduk should not have such honor—why does he sit there? Because... he eats. The epigram's hero Prince M…
1881 · XIX век
A TERRIBLE MINUTE
The audience gathered in Kharkiv Drama Theater on 4 November 1881 watched Ostrovsky and Gedeonov's Vasilisa Melentieva. The hall was full—the lead, a bold, clever young woman…
1883 · XIX век
FROM KHARKIV TO HARD LABOR
"On the morning of 10 February (1883—Author) I looked at the clock: it was eight, and I left home. I had not taken ten steps when I came face to face with Merkulov (a former member of a terrorist organization…
1883–1885 · XIX век
BETWEEN TRAINS
"In Kharkiv, between two trains, I had time to ride into town. Passing the theater I saw Eugene Onegin announced for that evening. I longed to stay, especially as Kharkiv generally appealed to me…
1884 · XIX век
SELFLESS SERVICE
From the service record of Court Counselor, nobleman A. E. Kovalev: — official of the Kharkiv Chamber of Privileges; — provincial secretary; — excise official of the Kharkiv Treasury Chamber; — official of the Dep…
1886–1888 · XIX век
STEAL LESS!
It happened on the morning of 17 October 1888 near Borki. On a curve a rail came loose from the wheels of a fast train. The locomotive skewed and dug into the ground; cars overturned…
1887–1919 · XIX век
HE TOOK ANOTHER PATH
Yuly Bunin lived in Moscow, studied, and led revolutionary work among students. The authorities disliked it and exiled him to Kharkiv. There, in banishment, Bunin transferred to the local university and continued…
1889 · XIX век
SPRING SONG
In April 1889 a new patient arrived at Alexandrovskaya Hospital on Blagoveshchenskaya Street (now K. Marx Street)—an eighteen-year-old girl from Volhynia. The building had formerly housed the Institute for…
1892 · XIX век
A LADY IN DIAMONDS
"An actress of external means that perfectly reproduce the essence and details of boudoir-and-boulevard life... Roles lack depth, creative spark, living truth"—wrote a reviewer in the press…
1893 · XIX век
A MUSICAL LUNCHEON
An unusual reception took place on 15 March 1893 at the home of Kharkiv Music School director Ilya Slatin, who invited fellow teachers. The lunch honored the most distinguished guest—…
1894–1951 · XIX век
A MERCHANT'S WILL
In 1894 died one of our city's wealthiest citizens, first-guild merchant V. I. Pashchenko-Tryapkin. From the village of Peresechnoye in Kharkiv province, he entered service with a Moscow merchant as a boy…
1895 · XIX век
DEVOTEES OF KIF
"In the university garden, on the left of the main alley leading to Klochkovska Street, on the children's playground a private entrepreneur set up a ca…
1895–1905 · XIX век
THE FIRST REEL
A railway platform. A train approaches. The locomotive, growing ever larger, moves straight at the audience. Black smoke pours from its huge stack. Viewers leap up in fright and rush for the exit…
1895–1905 · XIX век
BEHIND HIS BACK
Late in the evening a group of students burst into the medical club on Yekaterinoslavska Street, where a banquet was underway. They grabbed the guest of honor, pulled him from the table, carried him outside and…
1895–1922 · XIX век
GEORGE GERSHWIN'S TEACHER
The genius founder of the theory of relativity himself bowed before this man, saying that he had done in music what he, Einstein, had done in physics. They met at an experimental research…
1896 · XIX век
THE SWEET LIFE
The compiler of this collection nostalgically recalls his youth when the family's favorite (and quite affordable) treat was the Delis—a chocolate wafer cake. Such cakes were made in various sizes…
1896–1957 · XIX век
A SECRET EVERYONE KNOWS
The famous Kharkiv Locomotive Works was built in 1896 (curiously, the first locomotive was produced there just a year after construction began!). In 1957, in connection with the re…”
1897–1938 · XIX век
A DOCTOR IN POWER
This man studied medicine in Geneva and Zurich, where he encountered psychoanalysis; he spent the last two years of his studies in France. He completed his medical education in 1897 with a doctoral diss…
1899–1901 · XIX век
CIRCUMVENTING THE AUTHORITIES
Despite the government's strict ban on erecting monuments to T. Shevchenko, one appeared in Kharkiv in 1899—in the very center of the city! The authorities could do nothing, since it stood on…
1900–1905 · начало XX века
KING OF LAUGHTER
"Having written four stories in two years, I decided I had done enough for native literature and meant to rest properly—but 1905 rolled in and, picking me up, spun me like a chip. I st…
1901–1985 · начало XX века
SIMON KUZNETS
Semyon was born in Kharkiv in 1901 to a fur merchant's family. Business evidently fared poorly for Kuznets senior, and he decided to try his luck in America—settle there, then send for his fa…
1901–1997 · начало XX века
THE PEARL OF ZALOPAN
When you look from University Hill at the panorama of the Zalopan part of the city, what catches the eye first is the Annunciation Cathedral. It draws you with its scale and inventive architecture…
1901 · начало XX века
UNDER A TRAIN
On the platform of Warsaw Station in St. Petersburg stood a solid gentleman of advanced years. When the train approached, he threw himself under the wheels. The incident, which became known throughout Russia, occurred…
1901 · начало XX века
UNDERGROUND TIME STANDARD
Until the 1960s the most precise time in the Soviet Union was kept in Kharkiv. Fifteen meters underground there was a special room equipped with high-precision electronic…”
1902–1905 · начало XX века
A WOMAN SAVED HIM
1902. Kharkiv's Tivoli Garden (part of the site is now occupied by the new opera house). When in the evening Governor Prince I. Obolensky left the hall after a performance, he was shot at from a br…
1904 · начало XX века
HE SPOILED THE SONG
Chaliapin sang "Nochenka." His eyes were closed; listeners stood enchanted. Suddenly a footman entered and asked the singer something. Annoyed, he broke off, cursed the footman, and shook his fist. "Ah,…
1904–1924 · начало XX века
A LIFE OF STRUGGLE
Spring 1904. University Garden. Among the strolling public—a group of gentlemen. To look at them, one could never guess that these respectably conversing men were leaders of Russian revolutionary terrorists…
1904 · начало XX века
ATTEMPT ON... PUSHKIN
On the night of October 31 a powerful explosion rang out in the very center of Kharkiv, heard in distant parts of the city. The blast wave shattered many windowpanes and left a fairly deep…
1905–1908 · начало XX века
AFTER THE REVOLUTION—INTO RETIREMENT
"General Peshkov's selfless activity and the willpower and tact he showed greatly helped preserve order and calm in Kharkiv province"—thus the Russian interior minister…
1905–1907 · начало XX века
TO ARMS!
What connection could there be between the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin in Odessa in 1905 and our city? A direct one! Our fellow townsman Afanasy Matyushenko led the revolt. He spent his childhood in Derhachi. When…
1906–1915 · начало XX века
STARS IN THE WINDOW
A unique building in Zaikovka—a Christian church adorned with six-pointed stars. Paint-factory owner Grigory Osipovich Goldberg built it at his own expense, whence the church…
1906–1917 · начало XX века
TRAM OR HORSE TRAM?
The early twentieth century. Rails were laid along Pushkinska, Sumska, and other main arteries. On some lines trams clanged; on others crept cars drawn by horse power in the literal…
1906–1918 · начало XX века
A DEFECT OF VISION
In October 1917 a patient was treated at Hirshman's Kharkiv eye clinic. She had damaged her sight preparing a terrorist act in Kyiv in 1906—the bomb exploded…
1907 · начало XX века
A SHOT IN THE BACK
The Kharkiv Medical Society had a country house with farm outbuildings outside the city. In October 1907 oats vanished from the barn—they fed the horses that carried the doctors. At the dacha…
1908–1916 · начало XX века
ILYA MECHNIKOV
At gymnasium Ilya and his classmates founded a "Union of Science." They held debates and wrote papers on scientific topics. Still a schoolboy, he first crossed the threshold of Kharkiv University…
1908 · начало XX века
FATEFUL BULLET
At seven in the morning in May 1908 a shot rang out in a private room of one of Kharkiv's private hospitals. Wh-
1909 · начало XX века
FIRST AND LAST ON THE FREE STAGE
Gluck's violin Melody moved the audience at the Small Theater on Kharkiv Embankment to tears. The guest from St. Petersburg, Vera Komissarzhevskaya, played Nora—the heroine of the eponymous dra…
1909–1911 · начало XX века
BLUE EYE
These words beside a symbolic eye appeared on theater notices, posters, and in the old Kharkiv papers Yuzhny krai and Utro. That was the name of a theater operating here in 1909–1911…
1910–1924 · начало XX века
WITHOUT BRAKES
City residents witnessed a terrible scene: a tram raced down Pushkinska at full speed without stopping, and overturned at the turn toward the Korolenko library. People died, including the conduc…
1912–2000 · начало XX века
SOURCES USED
1. BagalShD. I. History of Slobozhanshchyna Ukraine. — Kharkiv: Osnova, 1990. 2. Bagaley D. I., Miller D. P. History of the City of Kharkiv over 250 Years of Its Existence. — Kharkiv, 1912. 3. Diachenko V. T. Streets and Squares…”
1913 · начало XX века
UNDERGROUND KHARKIV
In 1913 in the courtyard of the Commercial Club on Rymarska Street (now the regional philharmonic) one could watch a curious spectacle. A group of people followed the actions of a man with a detached air…
1913 · начало XX века
YELLOW JUMPER
January 1913. Kharkiv Public Library (now named for V. G. Korolenko). An poetry evening. Guests from Moscow perform—the poets Vasily Kamensky, David Burliuk, our fellow townsman, and twenty-year-old Vladimir…
1913–1927 · начало XX века
STALIN IN A CUBE
For all the pragmatism of his refined mind, Stalin was at the same time quite superstitious and wary of all sorts of fortune-tellers and enchanted places, especially if it could somehow concern…
1914 · начало XX века
DUNG ON ZHANDARMSKA
Zhandarska was the old name of the square now named for the Red Militiaman, where the historic fire station with its watchtower stands on Poltavsky Shlyakh Street. Once, toward the end of the nineteenth cent…
1914–1918 · начало XX века
SAVING THE STANDARD
Kharkiv residents had to cover an army corps' retreat. The fight on the Ekau River on 12 August was especially heavy. For twenty-four hours under steady fire the regiment slowly fell back from position to position…
1914–1920 · начало XX века
CHAIRMAN OF THE GLOBE
In May 1920 Kharkiv elected a Chairman of the Globe. The famous futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov became him, swept by the waves of civil war into the capital of Ukraine. At first he was appoint…
1914–1969 · начало XX века
LIVING CORPSE
The racetrack. The stands are filled with ladies and gentlemen eagerly following which horse will finish first. Small wonder — they had placed bets! Many racing fans left their fortunes here. And vo…”
1915 · начало XX века
LIKE IN GERMANY
The unkempt Blagoveshchensky Market long vexed city head A. K. Pogorelko, and he planned to set it in order. In Germany the mayor found a solution to the prob…
1916 · начало XX века
FOUR AND A HALF
A platoon leader in the training detachment at Izium was a noncommissioned officer nicknamed Four and a Half. They called him that because the index finger on his right hand was half short. He often joked…
1916–1926 · начало XX века
THE HUMAN POSTER
Once at a concert Марк Бернес began to talk about himself: "I was born in Nizhyn, I grew up in Kharkiv..." Then a man rose from the hall and said loudly: "Don't lie, you were born in Odesa!" After the concert he broke through…
1917 · начало XX века
UNDER THE CITY HEAD'S PATRONAGE
Do any Kharkiv residents today remember crowds breaking down doors for concerts? Not pop—symphonic. Yet at the century's start it happened, for instance when S. Rachmanin… visited.…
1917 · начало XX века
SOVIET BORSCHT
In the early 1930s, through official propaganda, the word "Ukrainian" came to be used only together with "bourgeois nationalism." The phrase "Ukrainian…" became commonplace…
1917–1975 · начало XX века
FIVE FROM THE PAWNSHOP
As is well known, in December 1917 a congress in Kharkiv proclaimed Ukraine a Republic of Soviets. Half a century later, to honor the event, the city’s central square was renamed Soviet Square (now Constitution Square…”
1918 · советский Харьков
OUT INTO THE STREET—AND NO STREET
Whole studies are devoted to Kharkiv toponymy, full of curious detail. Chebotarska, Kuznechna, Rymarska, Katsarska, Stolyarny and Slesarny lanes, the Honcharivka district—all evidently took their names…
1918 · советский Харьков
HONORARY CITIZEN
City historian D. I. Bagaley wrote of him: "Youth (he came to Kharkiv at thirty-one), wealth, and independent status let Durnovo be useful to people. And he was useful when…
1918 · советский Харьков
A HEAD FOR ALL HEADS!
In 1918 Hetman P. Skoropadsky offered D. I. Bagaley the premiership, but he declined—by then disillusioned with politics. Yet Bagaley had administrative experience as Dmyt…
1918–1920 · советский Харьков
CITIZEN OF THE SKY
1920. A detachment of Red Army men stopped by the observatory in University Garden. They were met by the director—a young man. The commander asked to hear about astronomy and see the instruments. — Not here…
1918–1924 · советский Харьков
HELLO, THIS IS KHARK1V SPEAKING!
During one of his trips to Moscow, Chairman of the Ukrainian Council of People's Commissars V. Chubar met specially with V. I. Lenin to report on the development of radio engineering in Kharkiv. The leader was very interested in this issue…
1918–1933 · советский Харьков
SUICIDE IN GOSPROM
Having landed in prison again, Mykola began to think how to escape. He inspected his cell and came up with a plan! At the first light he climbed into the chimney and, bracing with hands, feet, and back against the walls, st…
1918 · советский Харьков
BRANDED WITH A CURSE
In Soviet times party meetings, congresses, and similar official events had to be opened and closed with a collective performance of the party anthem "The Internationale." And not only the party anthem—in 191…
1919–1960 · советский Харьков
AIDE-DE-CAMP TO HIS EXCELLENCY
On 24 June 1919 Volunteer Army units entered Kharkiv. They were greeted with flowers and solemn bell-ringing. A service was held in the cathedral for the "miraculous deliverance of the ancient Orthodox…
1919 · советский Харьков
A WHITE GUARD'S FIND
1919. Kharkiv region was held by General Denikin's Volunteer Army. Colonel Isenberg passed through Velykyi Burluk village. He decided to look into local landowner Zadonsky's estate. It lay in ruins…
1919–1937 · советский Харьков
COMINTERN TOWER
A structure of metal shapes and strips forming a double spiral that twists swiftly upward around the inclined axis of the building. The angle of the axis matches the tilt of the earth’s axis, the spir…
1919 · советский Харьков
TO HELP THE STARVING
Alexei Pavlovich lived and worked in the North. Friends had often invited him to Kharkiv, and he finally decided, on Gorky's advice, to accept the invitation. Our city appeared before the writer gray and…
1920 · советский Харьков
A POEM ON AN EMPTY STOMACH
One April day in 1920 the poet woke up and a poem was born right there in bed. An hour later he was already reading it to his hosts (on Rybna Street—now Kooperatyvna): In an autumnal way it screeches…
1920 · советский Харьков
POLUNDRA
It was early spring 1920, warm sunny weather. Townspeople celebrated Easter and unhurriedly returned from churches—there were about a dozen in the city center alone. In Theater Square…
1921 · советский Харьков
ONE MACHINE IS JUST A MACHINE...
“I remember Kharkiv in mid-December 1921 vividly. Vladimir Vladimirovich and I wandered through the winter city on the ice, talking as we walked about many things: streets, poets. I recall, at Univers…
1921–1960 · советский Харьков
A CHARACTER OF MIKHAIL BULGAKOV
Two Red Army soldiers, aiming to raise their cultural level, received an order from their commander to go to the opera, and afterward naively describe their impressions: "And the orchestra is frying. Next—…
1923–1999 · советский Харьков
KHARKIV FORGED AND RAISED ME
“On the Square” was and remains the most famous poem of the Civil War years—this poetic masterpiece embodied the essence of those events. Its author was the then very young Pavlo Tych…
1923 · советский Харьков
SURPASSING THE AUTHOR HIMSELF
The favorite composer of the famous pianist Vladimir Horowitz was Sergei Rachmaninoff, close to him in the romantic nature of his work. The nineteen-year-old performer dedicated to him his first Kharkiv c…
1923 · советский Харьков
BUTI-MUTI
Practical chemistry classes were underway at Kharkiv University (then called the Institute of Public Education). Explaining a certain chemical reaction to the students, the professor mixed ingredients in a flask…
1923–1956 · советский Харьков
A BERRY OF LOVE
From the train car that arrived in Kharkiv stepped a young man, slender, high-foreheaded, in a felt hat and open gray herringbone coat, with an à la apache shirt visible beneath. This was a former secret…
1924 · советский Харьков
REPRRESSED POSTHUMOUSLY
One morning, passing the small square where Hirshman, Chernyshevsky, and Artema streets meet, Kharkiv residents were surprised: the monument that had stood in the middle was gone. The official version said it had been accidentally… at night.
1924 · советский Харьков
BALM FOR LENIN
On January 22, 1924, Vladimir Lenin died. Just two days later the Council of People’s Commissars decided to embalm the body. Specialists carried out the operation, yet Kharkiv professor-anatomist V.P. Vorobyov expressed…
1924 · советский Харьков
FOR THE FINGER — TO COURT!
November 7, 1924. The traditional city demonstration marking another anniversary of October. From all sides columns of marchers with portraits and banners converged on Tevelev Square (now Const…
1924–1934 · советский Харьков
CROSSED OFF THE LIST
In 1934 the very first group of outstanding Soviet athletes was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sport. Among the Kharkiv residents on the list was the legendary footballer Mykola Krotov. This supported…
1924–1941 · советский Харьков
PEOPLE AND BEASTS
October 1941. At night, under cover of darkness, several trucks with dimmed headlights entered the Kharkiv zoo. A group of soldiers got out. In a secluded spot, closer to the bot…
1925 · советский Харьков
PARNASSUS ON END
In 1925 an unusual book appeared from the Kharkiv publisher "Kosmos." On its cover a rearing Pegasus was shown, and from it fell a bespectacled writer with a quill behind his ear. The title was a re…
1925 · советский Харьков
THERE IS ONLY THE MiG...
As is well known, “MiG” is the famous brand of high-speed jet fighters. The first were designed before the war and were actively used in combat; production of the last models…”
1926–1933 · советский Харьков
AN UNLUCKY DAY
The hall was full; the famous humorist writer was greeted with a storm of applause. The audience, used to reciters performing his works, anticipated: if they read so amusingly, what would the author himself reveal…
1926–1934 · советский Харьков
WHERE WAS STEEL TEMPERED?
This trial took place in 1926 in one of the wards of the Ukrainian Medical and Mechanical Institute (now the N. Sytenko Institute of Spine and Joint Pathology). Here a blind and paralyzed man as a result of inj…
1926–1932 · советский Харьков
NO SQUEAKING!
In March 1926 a telegram arrived at the building on Artem Street from Poltava region: "Kharkiv Narcompros We urgently ask you to relay to Kuryazh that we may soon additionally fund the sowing estimate General meeting…
1926–1928 · советский Харьков
AN ORGANIZED CROWD
In the still-famous Soviet silent film "Fragment of an Empire" there is a shot: a peasant who has entered a big city for the first time stares in shock at a huge concrete building. This episode was filmed…
1926–1931 · советский Харьков
BIRTH OF A GIANT
In October 1931 the giant of socialist industry—the Kharkiv Tractor Plant—was commissioned. It was the country's greatest event. A solemn meeting and awards for the builders took pl…
1927–2001 · советский Харьков
QUEEN OF BEASTS
Visitors to the Kharkiv circus watched the ring in admiration. Obeying the trainer, lions rode horses, walked the tightrope, jumped through burning hoops. The lion tamer laid them down…
1928–1942 · советский Харьков
TOWARD "TWO FIGHTERS"
An energetic young man entered the office of Commander V. K. Blücher, who was then quartered in Kharkiv. He asked to be given a military unit along with combat equipment at his disposal. The command…
1929–1969 · советский Харьков
UNDER ANOTHER NAME
In the First World War A. Sharghei served at the front, then joined the White Army. He did not stay long and after Soviet power was established turned to peaceful work. Yet he constantly lived under the threat that White Guard…
1929–1930 · советский Харьков
THEY MET AT "TIVOLI"
Autumn 1929. The summer garden "Tivoli." The popular couplet singer from Odesa Vladimir Koralli was performing. Not for the first time his attention was drawn to a girl who regularly attended his concerts and took a seat…
1929 · советский Харьков
THE LEADER'S LAST "WORD"
In the late 1920s and 1930s Kharkiv saw massive industrial and housing construction. Workers and employees moved from shacks and communal flats into comfortable buildings. They decided to acquire their own…
1930 · советский Харьков
ESCAPE FROM THE MADHOUSE
Late at night (1930) the poet was brought to Saburova Dacha—as people called the Kharkiv psychiatric hospital (after the former estate owner's surname). He was agitated, swearing, threatening. Orderlies subdued him…
1932 · советский Харьков
SPLITTING THE ATOM
Residents of Tchaikovsky, Lermontov, and Yuma streets were surprised—their neighborhood was somehow cordoned off by the NKVD. The cordon lasted several hours, then was lifted. About what happened…
1933 · советский Харьков
A FALSE SUMMONS
In early December 1933 Ostap Vyshnia received a telegram from a gamekeeper he knew. The man invited him to his district for a hunt, promising especially good game. Pavlo Mykhailovych was tempted by the offer and st…
1933 · советский Харьков
IN THE FRESH AIR
In December 1933 the GPU arrested Ostap Vyshnia. The investigator charged him with membership in the UVO—the Ukrainian Military Organization (which did not actually exist). Specifically he accused him of preparing…
1933 · советский Харьков
NOT FUNNY
1933. The railway workers' club on Kotlov Street (formerly Bolshaya Panasovska). This building of original architecture had just been erected, and the management tried hard to draw the public there. That evening…
1933 · советский Харьков
DOWN WITH MOSCOW!
On the morning of May 13, 1933, Mykola Khvylovy gathered his closest writer friends in his apartment in the Slovo building. He treated them to tea, joked, played guitar, recited. Then he went into his study. A sh…
1933 · советский Харьков
RETURN OUR PASSPORTS!
All wives of writers arrested in 1933 were immediately dismissed from work; they received notices that within three days they and their children must leave their apartments and leave Ukraine without pa…
1934 · советский Харьков
FAREWELL, CAPITAL!
June 9, 1934. The central Ukrainian party newspaper "Proletarian" published a report: "Comrade Постишев walks along the rows of those seeing him off. And there are many of them—along the entire platform in dense ranks st…
1934–1953 · советский Харьков
WITHOUT NAMING SURNAMES
In the middle of the night writer V. Mysyk heard a knock. He opened the door. On the landing stood three men in NKVD uniforms—an officer and two soldiers. "Where is your neighbor?" the commander asked. "Which one?" "The one who lives above you." "I have no idea…
1935–1960 · советский Харьков
LEV LANDAU
A researcher at the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology, one Mr. N., received a telegram from Moscow: the Nobel Committee would consider awarding him the Nobel Prize, and therefore…
1935 · советский Харьков
KOBZAR ON HIGH
On March 24, 1935, a crowd gathered in University Garden from the Sumska side. Speeches were made, the orchestra played the "Internationale," and a combined choir with the Dumka chapel performed "Zapovit." The People's Commissar of Enlighten…
1936 · советский Харьков
FATHER AND DAUGHTER
A crowd watched the pilot seat a girl in the cockpit, then climb in himself. One needed full faith in the machine to lift one's daughter into the air—especially as the airplane was of his own design…
1936 · советский Харьков
IN "THE TWELVE CHAIRS"
"A noisy city—the center of the Ukrainian republic. After the provinces it seems as if you've gone abroad," wrote a certain traveler in cassock to his wife Kateryna Oleksandrivna while at the Kharkiv station…
1936–2001 · советский Харьков
MORE PRECISE THAN THE AMERICANS
In the early 1930s a group of U.S. physicists led by the future "father" of the American hydrogen bomb, E. Teller, conducted an important experiment: they determined the nuclear magnetic resonance time of dielectrics at low temper…
1937–1941 · советский Харьков
INVISIBLE TARGET
During a test flight the pilot decided to shorten the program and flew one leg fewer. When he landed, the commander reprimanded him for it. The pilot was greatly surprised: after all his machine…
1937 · советский Харьков
ARCHITECTURAL CACOPHONY
Kharkiv residents and visitors who have not lost their artistic taste cannot help being struck by the architectural mishmash of buildings around Independence Square. It is as if they were built in different eras…”
1937–1967 · советский Харьков
POPANDOPULO — ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
“Theatrical operators had long turned this play into a peculiar operetta divertissement whose central figure is the fixer Popandopulo with his dubious jargon of vulgar words…”
1938 · советский Харьков
MAY TRAVEL NORTH!
A young woman doctor glanced at the next patient—a bald man over sixty, limping badly on one leg. After a cursory look she wrote the standard phrase: "May travel…
1939 · советский Харьков
SONG IS A SHOW
"I was born and grew up in Ukraine, in the city of Kharkiv, on Volodymyrska Street, house 45, apartment 6. When my parents went visiting or to the theater and I had to stay alone, I turned on the lights in all the r…
1939–1950 · советский Харьков
STALIN: “WELL DONE, KHARKIVITES!”
My first memories of television date to the very beginning of the 1950s, when I was still a schoolboy. The whole family gathered in the living room, and neighbors often dropped in. Everyone settled in and watched reverently…”
1940 · советский Харьков
NIGHT RUN
In March 1940 two tanks left the gates of the Kharkiv Locomotive Works. But instead of heading for the training ground they set course for Moscow. For more than a day in bitter frost and blizzard through snow-covered…
1941 · советский Харьков
MUSIC IN STONE
Kharkiv is unimaginable without the Law Academy (former Commercial School), the motor transport college (former Land Bank), the puppet theater (former Volga-Kama Bank), the institute named for M…
1943 · советский Харьков
LET HIM MAKE THE PEOPLE LAUGH
In late summer 1943 Stalin met with the head of the Ukrainian government, Korniichuk. After discussing the restoration of the republic's industry and agriculture, the leader unexpectedly turned…
1943 · советский Харьков
AND YOU'RE NOT ASHAMED?
In October 1943 Ostap Vyshnia was summoned to the camp commandant. He ordered him to pack his things and, as required, take a bath first. The writer understood he was being sent somewhere. Then, under escort…
1943 · советский Харьков
DEATH TO THE VULTURES!
In 1943 over Kharkiv his plane was met by fascist vultures. Three of them fell victim to our ace. The first Junkers crashed over Rohan, the second over Merefa, the third over Danylivka. Our sky w…
1943 · советский Харьков
A TREASURE FOR THE REICH
"Head of Control Group 'P4' Berlin 14, Sept. 1943 Prinz Louis Strasse t.16-43-61 Secret! To the Reich Minister through the head of the Main Political Directorate To the reception office Regarding the transfer…
1943–1945 · советский Харьков
HITLER SENTENCED HIM
That imposing voice was familiar to several generations of Soviet people. They listened to it especially closely during the Great Patriotic War, when Information Bureau reports on Kharkiv… were read over All-Union Radio.
1943 · советский Харьков
PRELUDE TO NUREMBERG
A military bus with bars on the windows pulled up to the old opera house on Rymarska Street. The crowd parted to let it through to the service entrance. The guards opened the rear doors and, one after another…”
1943–1953 · советский Харьков
GADA STREET
Near the confluence of three rivers — Kharkiv, Lopan, and Netech — lay the main fish market, offering not only local catch but also imported goods. Hence the central Podil Street, like the local squa…”
1946 · советский Харьков
A “PASQUIL WRITER” KHARKIV-STYLE
1946. One Kharkiv resident unfolded a fresh issue of Pravda, the Central Committee’s main newspaper, and found there… his own surname. Next to the names of famous writers such as Mikhail Zoshchenko and Anna A…”
1948 · советский Харьков
FOUNTAIN
On Sumska Street, opposite the new opera house, stands a lacy gazebo with a fountain called the Mirror Stream. A structure unusual for Kharkiv’s architectural style — and indeed it was borrow…”
1949–1978 · советский Харьков
BIRTH OF A DUET
In the Kharkiv circus (still in the old building), the famous clown Karandash (M. Rumyantsev) toured with his troupe. Many in it were his young apprentice trainees who were only just preparing…”
1954–1979 · советский Харьков
THE COMPOSER DID NOT LOSE A MELODY
In 1954, Edita Pieha performed in Kharkiv for the first time — together with the hugely popular Leningrad vocal-instrumental ensemble Druzhba. She was only eighteen, but the success was ph…
1956–1999 · советский Харьков
NOTHING BUT HUMOR
When he came to Kharkiv after the war, Ostap Vyshnia stayed at his younger sister Maria's apartment. Once she saw her brother leafing through a thick book and laughing. "What are you reading?" she asked…
1956 · советский Харьков
A PUSH
1956. Competitions for pre-conscription youths were held at the KhTZ stadium. Among others, a very tall eighteen-year-old apprentice pattern-maker with a lush head of hair came onto the field. Having no idea about techni…”
1957 · советский Харьков
HONORED — UP THE FLUE
In 1957, the sensational feuilleton “Stilyagi” appeared in Pravda, satirizing a characteristic phenomenon of its time. Thus a new word was first recorded in print, already quite…”
1957–1985 · советский Харьков
KNIGHT OF FRANCE
In the autumn of 1957, someone knocked on the door of a famous lecturer on international affairs in the apartment on 8th Congress of Soviets Street (now Chichi-Babina Street). KGB officers entered. With a search. They turned out every drawer and shook every book from…”
1957 · советский Харьков
THIRD ATTEMPT
From a Chernihiv village, an unknown force drew a young man to the theater. An attempt to enter the Kyiv Theater Institute ended in failure — literacy let him down. A year later, another try — to the same place,…”
1958–1959 · советский Харьков
BLUE HORSE
One summer day in 1958, pedestrians on Sumska Street witnessed a curious sight. From Gorky Park past the regional party committee building a motorcade sped at breakneck speed:…”
1959–1960 · советский Харьков
PLACE OF DEATH — BAYKONUR
If you enter the old cemetery on Pushkinska Street opposite Molodizhny Park, you can immediately see three identical obelisks on the left. The birth dates differ, but the date of death is the same... October 24…”
1960–1980 · советский Харьков
HELLO, IT'S ME!
I first saw Natalya Fateyeva “live” in 1960 at KhTZ, where I took part in filming the movie Battle en Route, directed by her husband, the wonderful actor and director Vladimir Basov (about the film — n…”
1960 · советский Харьков
BATTLE EN ROUTE
That was the title of G. Nikolaeva’s well-known novel of its time, awarded the State Prize. At its center was a theme typical of the thaw: conflict between a hidebound director and a progressive m…”
1961 · советский Харьков
FIRST VICTIM
It was the last day of the experiment. The subject in the anechoic chamber, on the doctor’s command, removed the sensors from his body and wiped the attachment points with a cotton swab soaked in alcohol. He threw the swab into the urn…”
1961 · советский Харьков
THAT’S NOT WHAT WE AGREED!
A restaurant in Munich. At one table — a young man in glasses who had drunk plenty of beer. Spotting a girl at the far end of the hall, he gets up and, swaying, heads toward her. He begins to pester…”
1963–1989 · советский Харьков
THERMOS FROM THE BALCONY
In 1963 the famous poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko was driving his Moskvich from Sukhumi home to Moscow. In Kharkiv his carburetor failed. At the bus station a Kharkiv resident recognized him and offered…”
1965 · советский Харьков
EVERYONE LIES
“All politicians lie, but it does not matter, because nobody believes them anyway” — this famous aphorism belongs to Kharkiv professor-economist E. Liberman. Yet our fellow townsman became famous for…
1965 · советский Харьков
MEMORY AND FORGETFULNESS
In 1965, after an absence of nearly half a century, artist Zinaida Serebryakova came from Paris to Moscow for the opening of her personal exhibition. She came from the Lanceray–Benois family, with names…”
1968 · советский Харьков
HOT OFF THE PRESS
The books of Oles Honchar, an academician recognized in his lifetime as a classic of Ukrainian literature, were published often and in huge print runs. The new novel Cathedral also got the green light — in the series “Romani 1 pov!st1…”
1968 · советский Харьков
WHERE IS IT?
Imagine an architect with his eyes bound being led into a building he had designed. There his eyes were uncovered. He saw a spacious auditorium, a large two-tier foyer… Of course, he recogni…”
1969 · советский Харьков
THE PEOPLE DON’T UNDERSTAND IT
Gesturing at the paintings, a worker in a grease-stained cap declared that this was an insult to the Soviet mother, since she was shown as a fat body on heavy legs with stump-like arms.…”
1972 · советский Харьков
OPERATION “APPENDICITIS”
In 1972 the Kharkiv journal Prapor (now Berezen) published a novella by the then young Kyiv satirical writer O. Chernohuz, “Blue Appendicitis.” In fact it was the first in Ukrainian…”
1978 · советский Харьков
V.V. IS PERFORMING
In May 1978 word swept through Kharkiv: Vladimir Vysotsky was coming. There were no posters, as far as I remember, yet news of his arrival spread instantly. Tickets sold under heavy demand, but for fans — and there were many…”
1979 · советский Харьков
HE QUARRELED WITH HIS WIFE
Tragedies happen in our lives — train collisions, for example: for some reason they end up on the same track and have nowhere to go. But for airplanes to collide in what seemed an…”
1983 · советский Харьков
ON A STICK ACROSS THE OCEAN
Still in his youth he became a laureate of the Herbert von Karajan International Conductors’ Competition, headed the Kharkiv Philharmonic symphony orchestra, and received the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine. The maestro…”
1988 · советский Харьков
KOROTICH, GIVE THEM HELL!
Such a banner greeted Vitaly Korotich — editor-in-chief of Ogoniok magazine — at the Southern Station in March 1988 when he arrived in our city. At the time it was the sharpest, perhaps the only periodical…”
1991 · советский Харьков
HEIST OF THE CENTURY
One morning staff arrived at the new opera house and discovered that the ancient massive bell weighing... one and a half tons was gone. It had been moved here in 1991 from the former building, where it…”
1995 · новейшее время
KHARKIV-LATRINE
Such a curious sign hangs at one of the railroad entrances to our city. Those words fully matched reality in 1995, when a grand…”
1997 · новейшее время
“INTERGIRL” FROM KHOLodNA HORA
This film once broke every box-office record. Small wonder — it was the first to touch the subject of prostitution, and foreign-currency prostitution at that. Officially it was believed not to exist in the Soviet Union, so mentions…”
1999 · новейшее время
FAREWELL, BELOVED CITY
“My performances were announced at the Kharkiv Philharmonic… The hall was packed. People sat on extra chairs and stood… The Philharmonic’s management rubbed their hands — the plan was fulfilled a quarter ahead.…”
1999 · новейшее время
CATAPULT
A promising young athlete was offered housing: some — an apartment in Moscow, others — in Kharkiv, and the capital’s offer was very insistent. Yet he chose to stay in his hometown. And not…”
2000 · новейшее время
OPERATION "TRAP"
Having placed their headquarters in the building of the former Kharkiv Military District staff on Rudnev Square, the Hitlerites began looking for quarters for the commander of the 68th Infantry Division, General Georg von Braun. They settled on…
2000 · новейшее время
SLOBOZHANSKY NATIVE LAND
The author-compiler of this book, Savely Tsypin, over 35 years of creative work took part in many merry festivals, including in Odesa, Riga, Sochi, Kleve, Moscow, Zaporizhzhia, Sorochyntsi, Bulgaria…”