Kharkiv: Architectural Guide

Today, Kharkiv’s unfortunate geographical position on the eastern edge of Europe makes it a frequent target for the Russian army’s relentless shelling and airstrikes. Yet, not long ago, Ukraine’s second-largest city was a vibrant centre of student life, progressive art, intellectual thought, and techno-logical innovation, all spiced by the tough post-industrial identity of its citizens. Born from waves of migration, modernisation, industrialisation, and revolution, Kharkiv trod a stormy path from its origins as a Cossack military fortress to a period (1919–1934) when it was the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. This decade and a half was a golden age, marked by a dramatic construction boom that turned Kharkiv into a legendary Modernist city.

In this publication, author Ievgeniia Gubkina takes the reader on a journey through the city’s history and architecture, from its Old Centre to its New Centre, home to Derzhprom, a Constructivist gem which was also the embodiment of a new model of social and economic relations. This architectural guide is a tribute to the indomitable spirit of freedom of Kharkiv’s citizens. But it is also an important act of remembering and resistance: in documenting the city’s buildings in words and photographs, even as many of them are, day after day, being destroyed by Russian bombs, it keeps them intact and alive in our minds as a model for the city’s future.

This title is part of the Histories of Ukrainian Architecture programme initiated by DOM publishers in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty on 24 February 2022.

About the Author:

Ievgeniia Gubkina, born 1985, architect, researcher and curator. Organised and held numerous conferences. Co-founder of the NGO Urban Forms Center. In 2013 she started the women’s avant-garde movement Modernistky. Her research interests include modernist architecture, urban planning and planned cities as well as the heritage of Socialist cities. Currently working on a PhD project on Soviet workers’ settlements in Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s. Lives and works in Kharkiv.