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Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine. Kharkiv "never had eastern-western conflicts" , Euronews (23 October 2014) Located in the northeast of the country, it is the largest city of the historic region of Sloboda Ukraine. Kharkiv is the administrative center of Kharkiv Oblast and Kharkiv Raion. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, it had an estimated population of 1,421,125.
Founded in 1654 as a Cossacks fortress, by late 19th century Kharkiv had developed within the Russian Empire as a major commercial and industrial center. From December 1919 to January 1934, Kharkiv was the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. During this period migration from the distressed countryside and a relaxation of restrictions on Ukrainian cultural expression changed the city's ethnic complexion: Ukrainians replaced Russians as the largest recorded nationality. It was the sixth largest city in the Soviet Union during its existence.
Kharkiv has been a major cultural, scientific, educational, transport, and industrial center in independent Ukraine. Among its principal landmarks are the Annunciation and Dormition cathedrals, the Derzhprom building in Freedom Square, the Kharkiv Railway Station, the National University of Kharkiv, and the Kharkiv Tractor Factory (HTZ). Machine industry, electronics and military hardware have been the leading industries.
In March and April 2014, the city saw both pro-Russia and pro-Ukrainian demonstrations, and an aborted attempt by Russian-backed separatists to seize control of the city and regional administration. Kharkiv was a major target for Russian forces in the eastern Ukraine campaign during the Russo-Ukrainian War before they were pushed back to the international border. The city remains under intermittent Russian fire, with reports that by April 2024 almost a quarter of the city had been damaged or destroyed. (12 April 2024)
The city's name can be originated from its namesake river, Kharkiv. There is a folk etymology that connects the name of both the settlement and the river to a legendary Zakhary ChepihaIvan Katchanovski et al. (eds.), Historical Dictionary of Ukraine (2013), p. 253 (a diminutive form of the Greek name Chariton, , or Zechariah, ). But the river's name is attested earlier than the foundation of the fortress.Slavs in Canada, vol. 2, Inter-university Committee on Canadian Slavs (1968), p. 255.
Kharkov, the transliteration of the name from Russian, was the traditional standard English spelling of the city's name favored prior to Ukraine's independence in 1991 (similar to the spelling of Kiev versus Kyiv).
Like all other cities across the country, Kharkiv became the internationally standardized Latin-alphabet transliteration of the Ukrainian name according to the Ukrainian National romanization system, which was adopted for official use by Ukraine's cabinet in 2010, approved by the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names in 2012, and adopted by the BGN/PCGN in 2019. This spelling appears in Encyclopædia Britannica and in dictionaries as the spelling for the Ukrainian city. The spelling Kharkiv has also been adopted as the Library of Congress Name Authority Heading. As noted by the Christian Science Monitor, many in the English-language media outlets historically spelled the city Kharkov, even after changing the spelling of Kiev to Kyiv, but since the beginning of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine more outlets and style guides have been shifting away from Russian transliterations.
By the early 17th century the area was a contested frontier region with renegade populations that had begun to organize in Cossacks formations and communities defined by a common determination to resist both Tatars slavery and Szlachta, Lithuanian and Russian serfdom. Mid-century, the Khmelnytsky uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth saw the brief establishment of an independent Cossack Hetmanate.
The settlement reluctantly accepted the protection and authority of a Russian voivode from Chuhuiv to the east. The first appointed voivode from Moscow was Voyin Selifontov in 1656, who began to build a local ostrog (fort). In 1658, a new voivode, Ivan Ofrosimov, commanded the locals to kiss the cross in a demonstration of loyalty to Tsar Alexis. Led by their otaman Ivan Kryvoshlyk, they refused. However, with the election of a new otaman, Tymish Lavrynov, relations appear to have been repaired, the Tsar in Moscow granting the community's request (signed by the deans of the new Dormition Cathedral and parish churches of Annunciation and Trinity) to establish a local market.
At that time the population of Kharkiv was just over 1000, half of whom were local Cossacks. Selifontov had brought with him a Moscow garrison of only 70 soldiers. Defense rested with a local Sloboda Cossack regiment under the jurisdiction of the Razriad Prikaz, a military agency commanded from Belgorod.
The original walls of Kharkiv enclosed today's streets: Kvitky-Osnovianenko Street, Constitution Square, Pavlivskyi Square, Serhiivskyi Square, and Sobornyi Descent. There were 10 towers of which the tallest, Vestovska, was some high. In 1689 the fortress was expanded to include the Intercession Cathedral and Monastery, which became a seat of a local church hierarch, the Protopope.
Kharkiv University was established in 1805 in the Palace of Governorate-General. Alexander Mickiewicz, brother of the Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz, was a professor of law in the university, while another celebrity, Goethe, searched for instructors for the school. One of its later graduates was the Ukrainian poet and writer Ivan Franko, to whom it awarded a doctorate in Russian linguistics in 1906.
The streets were first cobbled in the city center in 1830. In 1844 the tall Alexander Bell Tower, commemorating the victory over Napoleon in 1812, was built next to the first Dormition Cathedral (later to be transformed by the Soviet authorities into a radio tower). A system of running water was established in 1870. the course of the 19th century, although predominantly Russian speaking, Kharkiv became a center of Ukrainian culture. The first Ukrainian newspaper was published in the city in 1812. Soon after the Crimean War, in 1860–61, a hromada was established in the city, one of a network of secret societies that laid the groundwork for the appearance of a Ukrainian national movement. Its most prominent member was the philosopher, linguist and pan-slavist activist Oleksandr Potebnia. Members of a student hromada in the city included the future national leaders Borys Martos and Dmytro Antonovych, and reputedly were the first to employ the slogan "Glory to Ukraine!" and its response "Glory on all of earth!".
In 1900, the student hromada founded the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP), which sought to unite all Ukrainian national elements, including the growing number of socialists. Following the revolutionary events 1905 in which Kharkiv distinguished itself by avoiding a reactionary pogrom against its Jewish population, the RUP in Kharkiv, Poltava, Kyiv, Nizhyn, Lubny, and Krasnodar repudiated the more extreme elements of Ukrainian nationalism. Adopting the Erfurt Program of German Social Democracy, they restyled themselves the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party (USDLP). This was to remain independent of, and opposed by, the Bolsheviks faction of the Russian SDLP.
After the February Revolution of 1917, the USDLP was the main party in the first Ukrainian government, the General Secretariat of Ukraine. The Tsentralna Rada (central council) of Ukrainian parties in Kyiv authorized the Secretariat to negotiate national autonomy with the Russian Provisional Government. In the succeeding months, as wartime conditions deteriorated, the USDLP lost support in Kharkiv and elsewhere to the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR) which organized both in peasant communities and in disaffected military units.
When in Saint Petersburg Lenin's Council of People's Commissars disbanded the Constituent Assembly after its first sitting, the Tsentralna Rada in Kyiv proclaimed the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). Bolsheviks withdrew from Tsentralna Rada and formed their own Rada (national council) in Kharkiv. Historical Dictionary of Ukraine (Historical Dictionaries of Europe) by Ivan Katchanovski, Scarecrow Press (Publication date: 11 July 2013), (page 713) Literary Politics in Soviet Ukraine, 1917–1934 . Durham and London: Duke University Press. (page 7) By February 1918 their forces had captured much of Ukraine. World War I: A Student Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO. p. 1195.
The Bolsheviks made Kharkiv the capital of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic. Ukraine: The Phony War? , The New York Review of Books (27 April 2014) Six weeks later, under the treaty terms agreed with the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk, they abandoned the city and ceded the territory to the German-occupied Ukrainian State. Borderlands into Bordered Lands: Geopolitics of Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine (Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, Vol. 98) (Volume 98) , Ibidem Verlag, 2010, (page 24)
After the German withdrawal, the Red Army returned but, in June 1919, withdrew again before the advancing forces of Anton Denikin's White movement Volunteer Army. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression , Harvard University Press, 858 pages, , page 97 By December 1919, Soviet authority was restored. The A to Z of the Russo-Japanese War . Scarecrow Press Inc. (page 101) The Bolsheviks established Kharkiv as the capital of the Ukrainian SSR and, in 1922, this was formally incorporated as a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. the 1920s and 30s, a number of prestige construction projects in new officially-approved Constructivist style were completed. Among these were the Derzhprom (Palace of Industry) then the tallest building in the Soviet Union (and the second tallest in Europe), the Red Army Building, the Ukrainian Polytechnic Institute of Distance Learning (UZPI), the Kharkiv City Council building, with its massive asymmetric tower, and the central department store that was opened on the 15th Anniversary of the October Revolution. As new buildings were going up, many of city's historic architectural monuments were being torn down. These included most of the baroque churches: Saint Nicholas's Cathedral of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church, the Church of the Myrrhophores, Saint Demetrius's Church, and the Cossack fortified Church of the Nativity.
Under Joseph Stalin's First Five Year Plan, the city underwent intensified industrialization, led by a number of national projects. Chief among these were the Kharkiv Tractor Factory (HTZ), described by Stalin as "a steel bastion of the collectivisation of agriculture in the Ukraine", and the Malyshev Factory, an enlargement of the old Kharkiv Locomotive Factory, which at its height employed 60,000 workers in the production of heavy equipment. Tank factory workers decry war that pits Ukrainian against Ukrainian , Al Jazeera America (27 February 2015) By 1937, the output of Kharkiv's industries was reported as being 35 times greater than in 1913.
Since the turn of the century, the influx of new workers from the countryside changed the ethnic composition of Kharkiv. According to census returns, by 1939, the Russian share of the population had fallen from almost two-thirds to one third, while the Ukrainian share rose from a quarter to almost half. The Jewish population rose from under 6 percent of the total, to over 15 percent (sustaining a Hebrew language secondary school, a popular Jewish university and extensive publication in Yiddish and Hebrew). 1933.|left]] In the 1920s, the Ukrainian SSR promoted the use of the Ukrainian language, mandating it for all schools. In practice the share of secondary schools teaching in the Ukrainian language remained lower than the ethnic Ukrainians share of the Kharkiv Oblast's population. Games from the Past: The continuity and change of the identity dynamic in Donbas from a historical perspective , Södertörn University (19 May 2014) The Ukrainization policy was reversed, with the prosecution in Kharkiv in 1930 of the Union for the Freedom of Ukraine. Hundreds of Ukrainian intellectuals were arrested and deported. Language Policy in the Soviet Union by Lenore Grenoble, Springer Science+Business Media, 2003, (page 84) |270x270px]]
In 1932 and 1933, the combination of grain seizures and the forced collectivization of peasant holdings created famine conditions, the Holodomor, driving people off the land and into Kharkiv, and other cities, in search of food. Eye-witness accounts by westerners — among them those of American Communist Fred Beal employed in the Kharkiv Tractor Factory — were cited in the international press but, until the era of Glasnost were consistently Holodomor denial.Boriak, Hennadii (Fall 2001). "The publication of sources on the history of the 1932–1933 famine-genocide: history, current state, and prospects". Harvard Ukrainian Studies 25 (3–4): 167–186.
In 1934, hundreds of Ukrainian writers, intellectuals and cultural workers were arrested and executed in the attempt to eradicate all vestiges of Ukrainian nationalism. The purges continued into 1938. Blind Ukrainian street musicians Kobzars were also rounded up in Kharkiv and murdered by the NKVD. Ukrainian minstrels: and the blind shall sing by Natalie Kononenko, M.E. Sharp, /, page 116 Confident in his control over Ukraine, in January 1934 Stalin had the capital of the Ukrainian SSR moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv.
During April and May 1940, about 3,900 Polish prisoners of Starobilsk camp were executed in the Kharkiv NKVD building, later secretly buried on the grounds of an NKVD pansionat in Piatykhatky forest (part of the Katyn massacre) on the outskirts of Kharkiv.Fischer, Benjamin B., " The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field", Studies in Intelligence, Winter 1999–2000, last accessed on 10 December 2005 The site also contains the numerous bodies of Ukrainian cultural workers who were arrested and shot in the Great Purge.
On the eve of the occupation, Kharkiv's pre-war population of 700,000 had been doubled by the influx of refugees. What remained of the pre-war Jewish population of 130,000 were slated by the Germans for "special treatment". Between December 1941 and January 1942, they massacred and buried an estimated 15,000 Jews in a ravine outside of town named Drobytsky Yar. Over their 22 months occupation the Germans executed a further 30,000 residents, among them suspected Soviet partisans and, after a brief period of toleration, Ukrainian nationalists. 80,000 people died of hunger, cold and disease. 60,000 were forcibly transported to Germany as slave workers ( Ostarbeiter).
By the time of Kharkiv's liberation in August 1943, the surviving population had been reduced to under 200,000. Seventy percent of the city had been destroyed. According to a New York Time's piece, "The city was more battered than perhaps any other in the Soviet Union save Stalingrad."
In the Brezhnev era, Kharkiv was promoted as a "model Soviet city". Propaganda made much of its "youthfulness", a designation broadly used to suggest the relative absence in the city of "material and spiritual relics" from the pre-revolutionary era, and its commitment to the new frontiers of Soviet industry and science. The city's machine-and-weapons building prowess was attributed to a forward-looking collaboration between its large-scale industrial enterprises and new research institutes and laboratories.
The last Communist Party chief of Ukraine, Vladimir Ivashko, appointed in 1989, trained as a mining engineer and served as a party functionary in Kharkiv. He led the Communists to victory in Kharkiv and across the country in the parliamentary election held in the Ukrainian SSR in March 1990. The election was relatively free, but occurred well before organized political parties had time to form, and did not arrest the decline in the CPSU's legitimacy.Michael McFaul (1993). 9780892062089, Washington, D.C. : Center for Strategic and International Studies. . ISBN 9780892062089 This was accelerated by the intra-party coup attempt against President Mikhail Gorbachev and his reforms on 18 August 1991, during which Ivashko temporarily replaced Gorbachev as CPSU General Secretary.
The National University of Kharkiv was at the forefront of democratic agitation. In October 1991, a call from Kyiv for an all-Ukrainian university strike to protest Gorbachev's new Union Treaty and to call for new multi-party elections was met with a rally at the entrance to the university attended not only by students and university teachers, but also by a range of public and cultural figures. The protests — the so-called Revolution on Granite The lesson of the Revolution on Granite , Den (4 October 2016) — ended on 17 October with a resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR promising further democratic reform. In the event, the only demand fulfilled was the removal of the Communist Prime Minister.
During the 1990s post-Soviet aliyah, many Jews from Kharkiv emigrated to Israel or to Western countries. The city's Jewish population, 62,800 in 1970, dropped to 50,000 by the end of the century.
in Kharkiv in 2018]]The collapse of the Soviet Union disrupted, but did not sever, the ties that bound Kharkiv's heavy industries to the integrated Soviet market and supply chains, and did not diminish dependency on Russian oil, minerals, and gas. In Kharkiv and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, the limited prospects for securing new economic partners in the West, and concern for the rights of Russian-speakers in the new national state, combined to promote the interests of political parties and candidates emphasizing understanding and cooperation with the Russian Federation. In the new century, these were represented by the Party of Regions and by the presidential ambitions of Victor Yanukovych, which in Kharkiv triumphed in the city council elections of 2006, in the parliamentary elections of 2007 and in the presidential elections of 2010.
Although never attaining the level of protest witnessed in Kyiv and in communities further west, following the disputed 2012 Parliamentary elections public opposition to President Yanukovych and his party surfaced in Kharkiv amid accusations of systematic corruption and of sabotaging prospects for new ties to the European Union. Ukraine opposition protests election results , Kyiv Post (1 November 2012)
The journalist Katya Soldak, who was born in Kharkiv, documents the city's post-Soviet development in her award-winning documentary film "The Long Breakup", tracing its path from the collapse of the Soviet Union toward independence and democratic governance.
In the wake of Yanukovych's ouster in February, there were attempts in Kharkiv to follow the example of separatists in neighboring Donbas. On 2 March 2014, a Russian "tourist" from Moscow replaced the Ukrainian flag with a Russian flag on the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Building.
On 6 April 2014 pro-Russian protesters occupied the building and unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine as the "Kharkiv People's Republic". Ukraine Authorities Clear Kharkiv Building, Arrest Scores Of 'Separatists' , Radio Free Europe (8 April 2014)
How Eastern Ukraine Is Adapting and Surviving: The Case of Kharkiv, Carnegie Europe (12 September 2018) Doubts arose about their local origin as they had initially targeted the city's Opera and Ballet Theatre before recognizing their mistake.
Kharkiv's mayor, Hennadiy Kernes, elected in 2010 as the nominee of the Party of Regions, was placed under house arrest. Claiming to have been "prisoner of Yanukovych's system", "Kharkiv's Kernes justifies his 180-degree political turn by saying he was 'prisoner' of Yanukovych system" , MY-MEDIA, 6 March 2014; accessed 28 August 2014. he now declared his loyalty to acting President Oleksandr Turchynov. In a televised address on 7 April, Turchynov had announced that "a second wave of the Russian Federation's special operation against Ukraine has started" with the "goal of destabilising the situation in the country, toppling Ukrainian authorities, disrupting the elections, and tearing our country apart". Kernes persuaded the police to storm the regional administration building and push out the separatists. He was allowed to return to his mayoral duties.
Police action against the separatists was reinforced by a special forces unit from Vinnytsia directed by Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Stepan Poltorak the acting commander of the Ukrainian Internal Forces. On 13 April, some pro-Russian protesters again made it inside the Kharkiv regional state administration building, but were quickly evicted. Violent clashes resulted in the severe beating of at least 50 pro-Ukrainian protesters in attacks by pro-Russian protesters.
On 28 April, Hennadiy Kernes was shot by a sniper, Ukraine mayor in critical condition after he was shot in the back , Los Angeles Times (28 April 2014) a victim, commentators suggested, of his former pro-Russian allies. Following recovery from his wounds, he was twice been re-elected, but in December 2020 died of COVID-19 related complications. Kharkiv mayor Kernes dies , Ukrinform (17 December 2020)
Помер Геннадій Кернес: мер Харкова, який виграв вибори з реанімації , BBC Ukrainian (17 December 2020) Keys to cities. What is the secret of longevity of mayors , The Ukrainian Week (10 August 2020) Kernes was succeeded as mayor by Ihor Terekhov of the "Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv".
Relatively peaceful demonstrations continued to be held, with "pro-Russian" rallies gradually diminishing and "pro-Ukrainian unity" demonstrations growing in numbers. Two liberty square rally , Status quo (17 August 2014) On 28 September 2014, activists dismantled Ukraine's largest monument to Lenin at a pro-Ukrainian rally in the central square. Ukrainian Crowds Topple Lenin Statue (Again) . Retrieved 29 September 2014. Polls conducted from September to December 2014 found little support in Kharkiv for joining Russia.
From early November until mid-December, Kharkiv was struck by seven non-lethal bomb blasts. Targets of these attacks included a rock pub known for raising money for Ukrainian forces, a hospital for Ukrainian forces, a military recruiting center, and a National Guard base. Seven recent blasts in Ukraine city stir fear of new Russian menace , Los Angeles Times (11 December 2014)
Mysterious spate of bombings hit Ukraine military hub , Agence France-Presse (10 December 2014) According to SBU investigator Vasyliy Vovk, Russian covert forces were behind the attacks, and had intended to destabilize the otherwise calm city of Kharkiv. SBU: Russian special services target Kharkiv, Odesa, situation difficult to control , Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (10 December 2014) Attacks continued into 2015, including a bombing that killed four people during a march commemorating the Euromaidan victims.
After the Euromaidan events and Russian actions in the Crimea and Donbas ruptured relations with Moscow, the Kharkiv region experienced a sharp fall in output and employment. Once a hub of cross border trade, Kharkiv was turned into a border fortress. A reorientation to new international markets, increased defense contracts (after Kyiv, the region contains the second-largest number of military-related enterprises) and export growth in the economy's services sector helped fuel a recovery, but people's incomes did not return to pre-2014 levels.
By 2018 Kharkiv officially has the lowest unemployment rate in Ukraine, 6 percent. But in part this reflected labor shortages caused by the steady outflow of young and skilled workers to Poland and other European countries.
Until 18 July 2020, Kharkiv was incorporated as a city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Kharkiv Raion though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Kharkiv Oblast to seven, the city of Kharkiv was merged into Kharkiv Raion.
According to a 28 February 2022, report from Agroportal 24h, the Kharkiv Tractor Plant (KhTZ), in the south east of the city, was destroyed and "engulfed in fire" by "massive shelling" from Russian forces. Video purported to record explosions and fire at the plant on 25 and 27 February 2022. UNESCO has confirmed that in the first three weeks of bombardment the city experienced the loss or damage of at least 27 major historical buildings.
On 4 March 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that on the fourth day of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, 28 February 2022, Federation forces used cluster munitions in the KhTZ, the Saltivskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts of the city. The rights group — which noted the "inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions and their foreseeable effects on civilians" — based its assessment on interviews and an analysis of 40 videos and photographs. In March 2022, during the Battle of Kharkiv, the city was designated as a Hero City of Ukraine.
In May 2022, Ukrainian forces began a counter-offensive to drive Russian forces away from the city and towards the international border. By 12 May, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence reported that Russia had withdrawn units from the Kharkiv area. Russian artillery and rockets remain within range of the city, and it continues to suffer shelling and missile strikes.
In May 2024, after two weeks intensive fighting, and the loss of a number of border villages, Ukrainian forces halted a renewed Russian advance toward Kharkiv. The Ukrainian defense was assisted by American-supplied HIMARS missiles, and by US permission to fire these across the border at military targets within Russian territory. The Russians retaliated with missile strikes, including a Glide bomb attack that hit and destroyed an Epicentr K hypermarket killing 18 civilians.
Historically, Kharkiv lies in the Sloboda Ukraine region ( Slobozhanshchyna also known as Slobidshchyna) in Ukraine, in which it is considered to be the main city.
The approximate dimensions of city of Kharkiv are: from the North to the South — 24.3 km; from the West to the East — 25.2 km.
Based on Kharkiv's topography, the city can be conditionally divided into four lower districts and four higher districts.
The highest point above sea level, in Piatykhatky, is 202m, and the lowest is Novoselivka in Kharkiv is 94m.
Kharkiv lies in the large valley of rivers of Kharkiv River, Lopan, Udy, and Nemyshlia. This valley lies from the North West to the South East between the Mid Russian highland and Donets lowland. All the rivers interconnect in Kharkiv and flow into the river of Seversky Donets. A special system of concrete and metal dams was designed and built by engineers to regulate the water level in the rivers in Kharkiv.
Kharkiv has a large number of green city parks with a long history of more than 100 years with very old oak trees and many flowers. Central Park is Kharkiv's largest public garden. The park has nine areas: children, extreme sports, family entertainment, a medieval area, entertainment center, French park, cable car, sports grounds, retro park. This park was previously named after Maxim Gorky until June 2023 when it was renamed Central Park for Culture and Recreation.
The average rainfall totals per year, with the most in June and July.
The mayor of Kharkiv has the executive powers; the city council has the administrative powers as far as the government issues are concerned.
The mayor of Kharkiv is elected by direct public election in Kharkiv every four years.
The city council is composed of elected representatives, who approve or reject the initiatives on the budget allocation, tasks priorities and other issues in Kharkiv. The representatives to the city council are elected every four years.
The mayor and city council hold their regular meetings in the City Hall in Kharkiv.
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The raions are named: In Kharkiv, five metro stations and fifty streets have been communicated , Korrespondent.net, (18 May 2016)
Kharkiv has a sizable Vietnamese community who dominate the local (one of the largest markets in Europe). At the market most of these (Vietnamese) traders use a Ukrainization version of their names.
According to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in April–May 2023, 16% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 78% spoke Russian.
There are many old and new religious buildings, associated with various denominations in Kharkiv. Dormition Orthodox Cathedral was built in Kharkiv in the 1680s and rebuilt in the 1820s and 1830s. Holy Trinity Orthodox Church was built in Kharkiv in 1758–1764 and rebuilt in 1857–1861. Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral, one of the tallest Orthodox churches in the world, was completed in Kharkiv on 2 October 1888.
Recently built churches include St. Valentine's Orthodox Church and St. Tamara's Orthodox Church.
Kharkiv's Jewish population is estimated to be around 8,000 people. It is served by the old Kharkiv Choral Synagogue, which was fully renovated in Kharkiv in 1991–2016.
There are two mosques including the Kharkiv Cathedral Mosque and one Islamic center in Kharkiv.
State-owned industrial giants, such as Turboatom and Elektrovazhmash occupy 17% of the heavy power equipment construction (e.g., turbines) market worldwide. Multipurpose aircraft are produced by the Antonov aircraft manufacturing plant. The Malyshev factory produces not only armoured fighting vehicles, but also harvesters. Khartron is the leading designer of space and commercial control systems in Ukraine and the former CIS.
Also, the number of active IT companies in the region to be 445, five of them employing more than 601 people. Besides, there are 22 large companies with the workers' number ranging from 201 to 600. More than half of IT-companies located in the Kharkiv region fall into "extra small" category with less than 20 persons engaged. The list is compiled with 43 medium (81–200 employers) and 105 small companies (21–80).
Due to the comparably narrow market for IT services in Ukraine, the majority of Kharkiv companies are export-oriented with more than 95% of total sales generated overseas in 2017. Overall, the estimated revenue of Kharkiv IT companies will more than double from $800 million in 2018 to $1.85 billion by 2025. The major markets are North America (65%) and Europe (25%).
There is a large number of markets:
The Roentgen Institute opened in 1931. It was a specialist cancer treatment facility with 87 research workers, 20 professors, and specialist medical staff. The facilities included chemical, physiology, and bacteriology experimental treatment laboratories. It produced x-ray apparatus for the whole country.
The city has 13 national universities and numerous professional, technical and private higher education institutions, offering its students a wide range of disciplines. These universities include Kharkiv National University (12,000 students), National Technical University "KhPI" (20,000 students), Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics (12,000 students), Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv National Aerospace University "KhAI", Kharkiv National University of Economics, Kharkiv National University of Pharmacy, and Kharkiv National Medical University.
More than 17,000 faculty and research staff are employed in the institutions of higher education in Kharkiv.
A number of world-renowned scientific schools appeared in Kharkiv, such as the theoretical physics school and the mathematical school.
There is the Kharkiv Scientists House in the city, which was built by A. N. Beketov, architect in Kharkiv in 1900. All the scientists like to meet and discuss various scientific topics at the Kharkiv Scientists House in Kharkiv.
In 2017 the Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre named after T. G. Shevchenko was especially popular among theater audiences more prone to speak Ukrainian in daily life. Since the Russian invasion, the theatre has operated underground.
The Kharkiv Academic Drama Theatre was recently renovated, and it is quite popular among locals. Until October 2023 this theater was named after Russian poet Alexander Pushkin; the derussification of Ukraine campaign of that area led to its renaming that also meant the removal of (the word) "Russian" from the name.
The Kharkiv Theatre of the Young Spectator (now the Theatre for Children and Youth) is one of the oldest theatres for children.
The Kharkiv Puppet Theatre (The Kharkiv State Academic Puppet Theatre named after VA Afanasyev) is the first puppet theatre in the territory of Kharkiv. It was created in 1935.
The Kharkiv Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy is a theatre founded on 1 November 1929 in Kharkiv.
Today, Kharkiv is often referred to as the "capital city" of Ukrainian science fiction and fantasy. It is home to a number of popular writers, such as H. L. Oldie, Alexander Zorich, Andrey Dashkov, Yuri Nikitin and Andrey Valentinov; most of them write in Russian and are popular in both Russia and Ukraine. The annual science fiction convention "Star Bridge" (Звёздный мост) has been held in Kharkiv since 1999.
There is the Organ Music Hall in the city. The Organ Music Hall is situated at the Dormition Cathedral presently. The Rieger–Kloss organ was installed in the building of the Organ Music Hall back in 1986. The new Organ Music Hall will be opened at the extensively renovated building of Kharkiv Philharmonic Society in Kharkiv in November 2016.
The Kharkiv Conservatory and the Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I.P. Kotlyarevsky has been the major music schools.
Kharkiv hosted the prestigious, tri-annual Hnat Khotkevych International Music Competition of Performers of Ukrainian Folk Instruments, and the "Kharkiv – City of Kind Hopes" festival.
The black metal band Drudkh came from Kharkiv. In 2024, its former drummer Mykola Sostin, was killed fighting for Ukraine in the war.
The annual festival is usually conducted in May.
There is a special alley with metal hand prints by popular movies actors at Shevchenko park in Kharkiv.
Other attractions include: Taras Shevchenko Monument, Mirror Stream, Historical Museum, T. Shevchenko Gardens, Kharkiv Zoo], Children's narrow-gauge railroad, World War I Tank Mk V, Memorial Complex, and many more.
After the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea the monument to Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny in Sevastopol was removed and handed over to Kharkiv.
The Ecopark is situated at circle highway around Kharkiv. It attracts kids, parents, students, professors, locals and foreigners to undertake recreation activities. Sarzhyn Yar is a natural ravine three minutes walk from "Botanichniy Sad" station. It is an old girder that now – is a modern park zone more than 12 km in length. There is also a mineral water source with cupel and a sporting court.
Kharkiv Metro is the city's rapid transit system operating since 1975. It includes three different lines with 30 stations in total. Poroshenko opens new subway station in Kharkiv , Interfax-Ukraine (19 August 2016) Trolleybuses, trams (which celebrated its 100-year anniversary of service in 2006), and (private minibuses) are also important means of transportation in the city.
The first railway connection of Kharkiv was opened in 1869. The first train to arrive in Kharkiv came from the north on 22 May 1869, and on 6 June 1869, traffic was opened on the Kursk–Kharkiv–Azov line. Kharkiv's passenger railway station was reconstructed and expanded in 1901, to be later destroyed in the Second World War. A new Kharkiv railway station was built in 1952.
Kharkiv is connected with all main cities in Ukraine and abroad by regular railway services. Regional trains known as elektrichka connect Kharkiv with nearby towns and villages.
]]Until the closure of Ukrainian airspace to civilian flights due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,"[38] ." Reuters. Retrieved on February 24, 2022. "Ukraine closes airspace to civilian flights amid Russian military action." Kharkiv was served by Kharkiv International Airport. Charter flights are also available. The Kharkiv North Airport was an industrial airfield serving the Antonov.
There is also a female football club WFC Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv, which represented Ukraine in the European competitions, and like other clubs briefly suspended activity in the wake of the Russian invasion.
Metalist Stadium hosted three group matches at UEFA Euro 2012.
Avangard Budy is a bandy club from Kharkiv, which won the Ukrainian championship in 2013.
There are a men's volleyball teams, Lokomotyv Kharkiv and Yurydychna Akademiya Kharkiv, which performed in Ukraine and in European competitions.
RC Olymp is the city's rugby union club. They provide many players for the national team.
Tennis has also been a popular sport in Kharkiv. There are many professional tennis courts in the city. Elina Svitolina is a tennis player from Kharkiv.
There is a golf club in Kharkiv.
Horseriding as a sport was also popular among locals. There were large stables and horse riding facilities at Feldman Ecopark in Kharkiv, which in 2022 were largely destroyed by Russian shelling. Ukrainian zoo workers found shot to death and dumped in barricaded room, say owners
There was growing interest in cycling among locals. Within the city, there was a large century-old bicycle manufacturer, Kharkiv Bicycle Plant, which has since converted to military production.
Demographics
According to the 1989 Soviet Union Census, the population of the city was 1,593,970. In 1991, it decreased to 1,510,200, including 1,494,200 permanent residents. The population in 2023 was 1,430,885. Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine after the capital, Kyiv. The first independent all-Ukrainian population census was conducted in December 2001, and the next all-Ukrainian population census is decreed to be conducted after the end of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. As of 2001, the population of Kharkiv Oblast is as follows: 78.5% living in urban areas, and 21.5% living in rural areas.
Ethnicity
62.8% 33.2% 0.7%
Notes
Language
Distribution of the population of the city of Kharkiv by native language according to the 2001 census:
Ukrainian 31.77% Russian 65.86% Other or undecided 2.37% Total 100.00%
Religion
Kharkiv is an important religious center in Eastern Ukraine.
Economy
The 2016–2020 economic development strategy: "Kharkiv Success Strategy", is created in Kharkiv. Kharkiv has a diversified service economy, with employment spread across a wide range of professional services, including financial services, manufacturing, tourism, and high technology.
Industrial corporations
During the Soviet era, Kharkiv was the capital of industrial production in Ukraine and a large center of industry and commerce in the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the largely defense-systems-oriented industrial production of the city decreased significantly. In the early 2000s, the industry started to recover and adapt to market economy needs. The enterprises comprise machine-building, electro-technology, instrument-making, and energy conglomerates.
IT industry
As of April 2018, there were 25,000 specialists in IT industry of the Kharkiv region, 76% of them were related to computer programming. Thus, Kharkiv accounts for 14% of all IT specialists in Ukraine and makes the second largest IT location in the country, right after the capital Kyiv.
Finance industry
Kharkiv is also the headquarters of one of the largest Ukrainian banks, UkrSibbank, which has been part of the BNP Paribas group since December 2005.
Trade industry
There are many large modern shopping malls in Kharkiv.
Science and education
Higher education
The Vasyl N. Karazin Kharkiv National University is the most prestigious reputable classic university, which was founded due to the efforts by Vasily Karazin in Kharkiv in 1804–1805. On , the Decree on the Opening of the Imperial University in Kharkiv came into force.
Scientific research
The city has a high concentration of research institutions, which are independent or loosely connected with the universities. Among them are three national science centers: Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, Institute of Meteorology, Institute for Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine and 20 national research institutions of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, such as the B Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering, Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine, State Scientific Institution "Institute for Single Crystals", Usikov Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics (IRE), Institute of Radio Astronomy (IRA), and others. A total number of 26,000 scientists are working in research and development.
Public libraries
In addition to the libraries affiliated with the various universities and research institutions, the Kharkiv State Scientific V. Korolenko-library is a major research library.
Secondary schools
Kharkiv has 212 (secondary education) schools, including 10 and 20 gymnasiums. In May 2024 the first of a scatter of underground schools in Kharkiv was opened in Industrialnyi District, so children could continue their education amidst the missile strikes in Kharkiv by the Russian Armed Forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Education centers
There is the educational "Landau Center", which is named after L.D. Landau, Nobel laureate in Kharkiv.
Culture
Kharkiv is one of the main cultural centers in Ukraine. It is home to 20 museums, over 10 theatres and a number of art galleries. Until 2022, large music and cinema festivals were hosted in Kharkiv almost every year.
Theatres
The Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after N. V. Lysenko is the biggest theatre in Kharkiv.
Literature
In the 1930s Kharkiv was referred to as a Literary Klondike. It was the center for the work of literary figures such as: Les Kurbas, Mykola Kulish, Mykola Khvylovy, Mykola Zerov, Valerian Pidmohylny, Pavlo Filipovych, Marko Voronny, Oleksa Slisarenko. Over 100 of these writers were repressed during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. This tragic event in Ukrainian history is called the "Executed Renaissance" (Rozstrilene vidrodzhennia). Today, a literary museum located on Frunze Street marks their work and achievements.
Music
There is the Kharkiv Philharmonic Society in the city. The leading group active in the Philharmonic has been the Academic Symphony Orchestra. It had 100 musicians of a high professional level, many of whom are prize-winners in international and national competitions.
Films
From 1907 to 2008, at least 86 feature films were shot in the city's territory and its region. The most famous is Fragment of an Empire (1929). Arriving in Leningrad, the main character, in addition to the usual pre-revolutionary buildings, sees the Derzhprom – a symbol of a new era.
Film festivals
The Kharkiv Lilacs international film festival is very popular among movie stars, makers and producers in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America.
Visual arts
Kharkiv has been a home for many famous painters, including Ilya Repin, Zinaida Serebryakova, Henryk Siemiradzki, and Vasyl Yermilov. There are many modern arts galleries in the city: the Yermilov Centre, Lilacs Gallery, the Kharkiv Art Museum, the Kharkiv Municipal Gallery, the AC Gallery, Palladium Gallery, the Semiradsky Gallery, AVEK Gallery, and Arts of Slobozhanshyna Gallery among others.
Museums
There are around 147 museums in the Kharkiv's region. Museums in the city include:
Landmarks
The city is famous for its churches as well as Art Nouveau and constructivist architecture:
Parks
Kharkiv contains numerous parks and gardens such as the Central Park, Shevchenko park, Hydro park, Strelka park, Sarzhyn Yar and Feldman ecopark. The Central Park is a common place for recreation activities among visitors and local people. The Shevchenko park is situated in close proximity to the V.N. Karazin National University. It is also a common place for recreation activities among the students, professors, locals and foreigners.
Language
The majority spoken language in Kharkiv is Russian. Even after Ukraine gained its independence, Russian was still used predominantly by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians alike, although after the onset of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, many of the city's residents attempted to transition to Ukrainian.
Media
There are a large number of broadcast and internet TV channels, AM/FM/PM/internet radio-stations, and paper/internet newspapers in Kharkiv. Some are listed below.
Newspapers
Magazines
TV stations
Radio stations
Online news in English
Transport
The city of Kharkiv has been one of the largest transportation centers in Ukraine, connected to numerous other cities of the world by air, rail and road traffic. Kharkiv is one out of four Ukrainian cities with a subway system.
Sport
Kharkiv International Marathon
Prior to the Russian invasion, Kharkiv International Marathon was considered as a prime international sportive event, attracting many thousands of professional sportsmen, young people, students, professors, locals and tourists to travel to Kharkiv and to participate in the international event.
Football (soccer)
The most popular sport was football. The city had several football clubs playing in the Ukrainian national competitions. The most successful is FC Dynamo Kharkiv that won eight national titles back in the 1920s–1930s.
Other sports
Kharkiv also had some ice hockey clubs, MHC Dynamo Kharkiv, Vityaz Kharkiv, Yunost Kharkiv, HC Kharkiv, who competed in the Ukrainian Hockey Championship.
Notable people
Sport
Nobel and Fields prize winners
Twin towns – sister cities
Kharkiv is Sister city with:
See also
Notes
Sources
External links
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