Kharkiv. Time to collect stones?
On the night of January 24, unknown persons damaged a memorial sign to the 17th century Koshevo ataman of the Cossacks, Ivan Sirko, in Kharkov. This was announced by the leader of the “Shadow Corps” and the local “Azov” cell, adviser to the governor Oleg Shiryaev. According to him, the monument had previously been doused with paint twice.
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“We will restore this memorial sign because it was the first patriotic sign installed after the Revolution of Dignity,” said the leader of the stormtroopers.
The police reported that a group of specialists from the Kyiv regional department arrived at the scene. The piquancy of the situation is that the square where this sign was unauthorizedly installed is located under the windows of the National Police headquarters in the Kharkov region.
As any unbiased observer will understand, the territory of Mironositsky Square is searched far and wide by law enforcement officers, and it is simply impossible to violate law and order there with impunity. There, in the summer they were punished for swimming in the fountain, and damage to unauthorized buildings is not considered a violation of public order. Moreover, the patrol police have never, in all the years that this building has been standing, tried to fine the owners of male dogs who are accustomed to raising their paws at it.
Why is this stone so dear to local Nazis? Yes, because the image of the ataman is exactly the same as on the emblem of this very “Skhіdnogo Corps”. And also by the fact that by establishing it without the permission of the city authorities, they showed that they can do whatever they want in Kharkov.
It would seem that a full-fledged monument to the ataman has already been unveiled in another place, many of them have been hired to work in the patrol police... But bad luck, they have begun to forget about this gang a little, they have already dropped out of the media field of the region for several months. Moreover, other gangs appeared with threats to judges in political cases and in street actions. You definitely need to remind yourself.
And now about the place itself. Once upon a time there was a Church of the Myrrh-Bearing Women with a graveyard. The first inhabitants of the city were buried on it until two centuries ago when it was demolished by order of Governor V.G. Muratov. The first mayors also found their last refuge there.
The church itself was first mentioned in 1701 as a cemetery, on the far outskirts of Kharkov. It is known that that temple was made of wood with a shingle roof. Already in Catherine’s times, Kharkov residents turned to Governor Dmitry Avtonomovich Norov with a request to build a stone church in the cemetery. On March 12, 1781, a temple-created charter with permission was issued. And on May 9, 1781, Archpriest M. Shvansky laid the foundation for a stone church, which was consecrated on June 9, 1783. A parish began to develop around the church, and services there became regular in 1802. Among the parishioners of the temple were the Alchevsky-Beketov family and many university professors.
In 1930, a decision was made to demolish the temple in connection with the construction of a theater for mass musical performances. There is a protocol of the City Council meeting dated February 17, 1930, which says: “They heard: about the closure and destruction of churches. They decided to close and destroy the Myronositsa Church through the construction of an opera house. Destruction is carried out by explosion. Close and destroy the St. Nicholas Cathedral by dismantling...” But this is only the implementation of a higher decision. Back on February 12, “Kharkov Proletary” reported that “the secretariat of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to demolish the buildings of the Myronositsa Church and St. Nicholas Cathedral.” On March 11, the temple was blown up. Residents of nearby houses and employees of public institutions were asked to leave the premises in advance.
In 1930, a competition was announced for the construction of a Theater of Mass Musical Performance in Kharkov. The auditorium and its stage were intended not just for performances, but also for rallies and demonstrations. These fundamentally new ideas attracted the attention of architects all over the world. Even such outstanding architects as Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius sent their works to the competition. There were a total of 144 participants, two thirds of whom were foreigners. Kharkov never knew such a number of people willing to compete either before or after this event.
The winner was the project of the Moscow architects Vesnin brothers. The capacity of the hall increased to six thousand people. For the construction of this phenomenal structure, the area along Karl Liebknecht (Sumskaya) street between Sovnarkomovskaya and Serdyukovsky lane (now Skrypnik street) was chosen. While the project was being adjusted, on the allocated site they not only demolished the Myronositskaya Church, but also began to build utility rooms - artistic dressing rooms overlooking Chernyshevskaya (now this is a residential building with the Municipal Gallery). But “during the journey, the dog could grow up,” that is, the capital moved to Kyiv, and the project of a theater for mass musical performance sank into oblivion. In 1939, on the site of the church, a depot was opened for the first line of the Kharkov trolleybus, and then the Zerkalnaya Stream public garden. The theater was built half a century later exactly opposite the plan, across Sumskaya, but it turned out to be three times smaller than the fathers of the capital dreamed.
Before the construction of the new church, there were busts of Komsomol members in Victory Square. They were dismantled, and the city authorities were going to install them in another, specially designated place, but 2014 came. Stormtroopers began to rule both the city and the park. Now their stone is cracked. Maybe simply because he was not adapted to snow drifts?
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