Ukraine's Second City and Constructivist Showpiece — the largest purely Ukrainian-speaking city before the Soviet era, home to the largest public square in Europe, a powerhouse of science and engineering that produced five Nobel laureates, and a city rebuilding its cultural identity after decades at the frontline
Kharkiv is Ukraine's second-largest city — a city of 1.4 million in eastern Ukraine, 40km from the Russian border, that served as the first capital of Soviet Ukraine (1919–1934). Freedom Square (Maidan Svobody) at the city's heart is the largest public square in Europe by area (12 hectares) — a vast Soviet-era plaza flanked by the Derzhprom (State Industry Building, 1928), a constructivist masterpiece and one of the first reinforced-concrete skyscrapers in the USSR. Kharkiv has 14 universities and is one of the most scientifically productive cities in the former Soviet Union — five Nobel Priz…
Kharkiv was founded as a Cossack fortress in 1654 at the confluence of the Kharkiv and Lopan rivers, as part of the Sloboda Ukraine defensive line against Tatar raids. The city grew rapidly in the 19th century as a centre of commerce and education — Kharkiv University (founded 1804) became one of the leading universities in the Russian Empire. The city was the first capital of Soviet Ukraine from 1919 to 1934, when the capital was moved to Kyiv for political reasons. Kharkiv's Jewish community — one of the largest in Ukraine before WWII — was largely destroyed in the Holocaust; the Drobitsky…