SSince the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, the monuments of modernist Soviet architecture have been targets of Russian bombing. On the first day of the invasion, Russian troops reached the outskirts of Kharkiv, which is only thirty-eight kilometers from the Russian border. They failed to storm the second largest city in Ukraine, but Kharkiv paid a heavy price. The constant aerial bombardment and shelling of the city center and densely populated areas like Satykovka with cluster munitions claimed the lives of five hundred civilians and destroyed or damaged numerous buildings.
By 1919, Kharkiv had become the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, supported by the Bolshevik government in Petrograd. By 1921 Ukraine had two alternative capitals – Kiev, the seat of the government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic fighting for Ukraine’s independence, and Kharkiv, the center of communist forces. From the very beginning, Kharkiv was destined to become the anti-Kiev. If the former was the city of ancient monuments and nationalistic feelings, the latter had to become the city of the future. After the defeat of the pro-Ukrainian forces and the victory of the Bolsheviks, Kharkiv turned into a showcase of Soviet modernism. It became not only the capital of Ukraine, the second largest republic in the Soviet Union, but also the most important construction site of modernist architecture.
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