Photos

I am keeping showing my favorite places of Kharkiv city.
This is Kharkiv’s most famous building, Derzhprom (Gosprom in Russian). These abbreviations mean “the State Industry (Building)”. Initially it was intended housing 22 state organizations connected with industry of Ukraine, whose capital Kharkiv was in 1917 - 1934. After 2 years’ construction works Derzhprom was opened in 1928-11-07. Today we celebrate its 80-th anniversary.

Some data:
Derzhprom is located in Freedom Square which was believed to be Europe’s largest, but a square in Paris is bigger… Two streets go thru the building under systems of overhead walkways. One of such street passages is seen in the image at its right-hand part. The use of concrete in Derzhprom’s construction and the systems of overhead walkways and individual interlinked towers made it extremely innovative. It was rated as one of the world’s major architectural achievements of the 1920s. Now it is considered by UNESCO as a World’s architectural monument made in constructivism style.
The Derzhprom complex was the largest modern building in the Soviet Union until the 1960s. Actual space of its rooms is 60 000 sq. m. The height is 63 m, but with TV-antenna (built in 1955 for Kharkiv’s TV-center) it is 108 m.

Some historical facts:
After construction in 1928 and until 1934 the Government of Ukraine was accommodated in the building. The head of the Government, Mikola Skripnik committed suicide (shot himself) in his private office there on 1933-07-07.
Under Nazi occupation there was a stable at the first floor, but on the other floors rhesus-monkeys having escaped from nearby zoo lived. Three of them survived till the city’s liberation in 1943-08-23 (in August 23 2008 a memorial was opened in the zoo territory in memory of those monkeys). Before the liberation Nazis had prepared to mine the building, but an unknown hero prevented explosion at the cost of his life. The concrete constructions had endured the fire the Nazis made to destroy the building by any means. Derzhprom was restored in 1944 - 1947. Now it is a symbol of the city and its pride.

GPS coordinates: 50.00600 Lat, 36.22860 Long