Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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Kharkiv
057 / POP 1.43 MILLION
Kharkiv (Kharkov in Russian) is one of those ex-Soviet cities that has much to say about
itself, but fairly little to show. Wars and Soviet development reduced its historical centre,
boasting some pretty fin de siècle buildings, to a narrow triangle between vul Sumska
and Pushkinska. The rest is Soviet monumentalism in all its glory - a perverse delight for
architecture buffs, but hardly exciting for the uninitiated.
In the 1920s Kharkiv was the seat of the Ukrainian Soviet government, which orches-
trated a short-lived renaissance of Ukrainian culture and language. But Stalin accused its
members of nationalism and launched purges that eventually led to the Holodomor
(Ukrainian famine;
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)
.
Today it's home to Russian-speaking intelligentsia - scientists and engineers who
turned Kharkiv into the brain centre of the Soviet defence industry in the 1960s. It's per-
haps a lingering nostalgia for the good ol' days that keep the streets clean, the parks
neatly trimmed and the metro rumbling, all lending Ukraine's second city a pleasant if
rather sterile ambience.
