Kharkiv, 2016

Elena Bandurka  

Once upon a time, on a peaceful cloudy morning in the rain, we created beauty, drawing inspiration from a retro photo. in memory, associations, an umbrella, playful smooth lines, and a city in the background surfaced somewhere.

Gosprom is in the background decorating this photo. And making this photo historical in some way.

Built-in the 20s of the twentieth century, it still remains one of the symbols of not only that era and the constructivist style inherent in it, but also the modern city.

On March 21, 1925, the Supreme Council of the National Economy announced an all-Union competition for the development of a project for a new type of building, corresponding to the new tasks of social construction. The project interested many well-known architects, but the work of Leningraders Sergei Serafimov, Samuil Kravets and Mark Felger "The Uninvited Guest" won in it.

Gosprom was built under the guidance of engineer Pavel Rottert, known for such projects as the building of the Southern Railways Administration on the Station Square in Kharkiv, the DneproGES in Zaporizhzhia and the Moscow Metro. Surprisingly, a multi-storey building made of monolithic reinforced concrete, even grandiose even by modern standards, was erected with shovels, crowbars, and picks. The foundation pit was dug by hand. (By the way, mammoth bones were found at the same time - now they are stored in the Museum of Nature on Trinkler Street). Like many other monumental objects of Soviet architecture, the building was built in a short time - just 3 years. For a city in which even in the centre there were clay huts with thatched roofs, this was a huge achievement. Many figures of culture and art expressed their impressions of what they saw in their work, including Vladimir Mayakovsky, Maxim Gorky, Henri Barbusse, and Theodore Dreiser.

In 1934, the capital of Ukraine was moved to Kyiv, and the regional executive committee and its departments moved to the premises of Gosprom. During the war, they tried to blow up the building several times, but not a crack appeared in the monolithic structure. After the war, the building received a new life, on May 7, 1951, the first television station in the USSR began working here. For several years, TV programs were made on equipment created by enthusiasts - employees of Kharkiv enterprises, until industrial equipment was installed. Delegations from all over the Union came for experience - the creation of a television centre by amateurs was so amazing.

As already mentioned, the Gosprom building is one of the most striking examples of constructivism in architecture. For example, in the World Architectural Encyclopedia, the article "Constructivism" is illustrated with an image of this particular building. Work was also underway to include it in the list of UNESCO monuments, but at the moment Gosprom is only on the preliminary list of the organization.

Gosprom has its own legends. For example, they say that the towers here are of different heights because they correspond to the notes of the first measures of the International. Another myth is Gosprom basements and ghosts. However, no ghosts were seen here, although there were suicides of officials in the building, and the first construction managers were shot as enemies of the people.

At the moment, Gasprom, the building behind the model is intact. Our architectural heritage.