Along Volodymyrska street with Igor Gyrych

Transcription

1 Along Volodymyrska street with Igor Gyrych Author: Yury - 26 june 2017 year Igor Gyrych is a well-known historian and journalist, Dr. habil., local historian, expert in the field of Kyivan history, chief editor of the magazine «Monuments of Ukraine». We are not going to list all of his achievements, but we are sure that one cannot find a better companion and guide who will introduce the monuments of Ukrainian Kyev of the second half of the XIX - the beginning of the XX century, show the places connected with the people who created the Tsentralna Rada (the Central Rada or The Central Council of Ukraine), the first Ukrainian newspapers and publishing houses established, those who defended the independence of Ukraine. All of them created the unique aura of our city, protecting the originality of Kyiv from the cultural expansion of the great power. Together with Igor Gyrych, we will go along Volodymyrska street, the street, which played an important role in the formation of Ukrainian Kyiv. Our route starts at the Zoloti Vorota (the Golden Gates of Kyiv) and ends near the Sophia Cathedral...

2 Image not found or type unknown A. Ukrainian club 42 Vladimirskaya str GPS: , The building located on the corner of the modern Golden Gate square and Velyka Volodymyrska street currently known as Volodymyrska street, 42. It was once a 2-storey building, and now it is a 4-storey building. An interesting fact about this building is that it used to accommodate a famous Ukrainian club. This club was a public association of Ukrainians the place where various presentations, meetings, celebrations of

3 holidays, performances, concerts and public events were held. This is also the place where Mykhailo Hrushevsky delivered his public lectures. The Ukrainian club was founded soon after the first revolution. In 1910, after the issuance of Stolypin s decree on fighting 'non-russians' the club was forced to shut down at the same time as the Kyiv branch of 'Prosvita' society. Soon afterwards, the club recommenced operations under the name of 'Rodyna'. Why 'Rodyna'? this is because 'Rodyna' is the Russian equivalent of the word 'Motherland' if the stress is put on the first syllable. The club existed under the name of 'Rodyna' up until its closure soon after the outbreak of the First World War. It is also interesting to note that there is a connection between this building and the revolt of the Ukrainian Central Rada. This building is the place where Ukrainian parties conducted their meetings and proclaimed the founding of the Central Rada. Later on, Central Rada moved to the premises of Pedagogical Museum and commenced work in this building. However, it was the house on Volodymyrska street where the first ever meeting of the Central Rada took place. It was here that the first members of the Central Rada were elected, including the election of Mykhailo Hrushevsky as the head of the Central Rada in absentia (he lived in exile at that time) and the election of deputy heads (Serhiy Yefremov and Volodymyr Naumenko). In fact, it was here that the first Ukrainian parties delegated the first group of people s deputies to the Central Rada. Among these were the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party, Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party and the Ukrainian Party of Socialists-Federalists. Some of these parties represented the interests of working class, others the interests of peasantry, and still others the interests of intellectual class ( intelligentsia ). Rodyna club was located in the basement of the building which is currently known as a fast-food restaurant 'Drova'. Mykola Lysenko was the head of this club before the revolution. It is certain that the club was visited by famous people such as Lesya Ukrainka, Olena Pchilka and others. The public life of Ukrainians was fairly active in this place. The club had several hundred members. Recently, a memorial plate was set up in commemoration of this club. In the Soviet era, this building was occupied by 'Dnipro' publishing house, which means that, in some sense, the publishing house was the successor to 'Rodyna' club. The 'Dnipro' publishing house basically doesn t exist anymore. B. Stelmashenko s gymnasium 8 Zolotovoritska str GPS: , Now, let s have a look at the next building (as we cross Zolotovoritska street) which was erected in such a way as to create a certain architectural ensemble around the Golden Gate. It is very similar to the building which stands on the opposite si restaurant 'Leipzig'. They were both built at roughly the same time: in the 1890s early 20th century. This building was erected in the so-called historical architecture style. The architecture of this building includes some features of the French renaissance which was fashionable in Kyiv of that time. This building was once occupied by a private Stelmashenko s gymnasium. At that time, there were many private gymnasiums in Kyiv apart from state-owned gymnasiums. While the majority of boys gymnasiums were run by the state and funded through the budget, female education was for the most part privately funded. There were only two state-owned girls gymnasiums in Kyiv, while the rest of girls gymnasiums, numbering approximately 20, were privately owned and provided high-quality education. In particular, Stelmashenko s gymnasium was ranked highly in Kyiv. It was owned by a priest. Apparently, the priest intended to make money in such a manner, since this gymnasium was a business project to a certain extent. Gymnasiums provided education on a paid basis, and successful owners of gymnasiums had the opportunity to spend their earnings on hiring highly qualified teachers. In some cases, pupils at private gymnasiums were taught by professors of Kyiv University and Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In particular, the teaching personnel of Stelmashenko s gymnasium included Ivan Ogiyenko commonly known as Metropolitan Hilarion our famous lexicographer, one of our best philologists, the outstanding figure of the Ukrainian revolution and liberation struggle, Minister of Education in the times of Directory of the Ukrainian

4 People s Republic. Ivan Ogiyenko taught Russian literature at Stelmashenko s gymnasium, but you won t see a memorial plaque dedicated to him. In the times of Ukrainian state-building ( ), this house served as an editorial office of 'Knygar' magazine. It is interesting to note that Mykola Zerov was the chief editor of this magazine. Mykola Zerov was a famous neo-classical poet who later became a professor at Kyiv University (in the 1920s it was known as the Institute of Public Education) and an expert in Latin language. This person was an 'icon' of our national culture in the era of Executed Renaissance and a symbolic figure in the era of Ukrainization. Zerov was repressed in the 1930s. In a very popular memoir book 'Bolotyana Lukroza' written by V.Domontovich (Viktor Petrov), who was a famous writer, outstanding scientist and Soviet intelligence officer, Zerov was presented in many different hypostases. His prose is comparable to French prose of the 1920s, biographical novels of Irwin Stone, scientific works of French historical school known as the 'Annales' school. C. 'Rada' 6 Velyka Pidvalna str GPS: , The building located on Velyka Pidvalna street, 6. The second floor of this building served as an editorial office of the first daily newspaper of Ukrainian Naddnipryanschyna region the 'Rada' newspaper which was published in the timeframe. Basically, all the famous Ukrainian writers, literary critics, poets and publicists worked at 'Rada' newspaper. People who are fond of poetry might be interested to know that nearly 5,000 poets wrote for this newspaper at the times of its existence. In view of the total number of published stories and feuilletons, it is safe to say that the collection of 'Rada' newspaper issues can be regarded as an encyclopedia of Ukrainian life starting from the early 20th century onwards. Dozens of different newspapers were published in Kyiv of that time, but none of them were Ukrainian newspapers. Our current vision of the history of Kyiv probably proceeds from the premise that Ukrainian press has always existed in Kyiv since it is the capital of Ukraine. As a matter of fact, our outstanding literary critic Serhiy Yefremov was the only person who worked on a salary basis. He is universally known as the author of 'The History of Ukrainian Literature' this was the first ever academic history of Ukrainian literature (the first edition was published in 1911, in 2 volumes). He developed the canons of history of Ukrainian literature. He worked in the building which stands right behind us, on Velyka Pidvalna street, 6, and wrote 2-3 articles per day. In other words, he was an extremely productive writer. As of today, it is still unknown how many publications did he have. Some experts estimate that Yefremov had 6,000 publications, while others reckon that he had as many as 10,000 publications. This person was a diligent worker, but his collected papers have still not been found. He was the founder of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the 'Conscience of Ukrainian Nation' up until 1929 (the trial of the Society for Liberation of Ukraine), but we still don t know what articles did he write and how many articles did he write... His bibliography remains incomplete until now. By the way, Yefremov became an academician without having a candidate s or doctoral dissertation. In fact, he became an academician in reward for his previous works. He was the leading publicist of 'Rada' newspaper, while the board of chief editors of this newspaper included a trio of famous Ukrainian figures. The first chief editor s name was Fedir Matushevsky. He studied with Yefremov at Kyiv Theological Seminary, which means that they were basically friends since adolescence. Matushevsky was born in Cherkasy region which formed part of

5 Kyiv Governorate at that time. He came from a priestly family. The second chief editor s name was Methodius Pavlovsky, and he was also a seminarian. The third chief editor s name was Andriy Nykovsky. He was born in Odesa, and he was the son of a quarryman. He became a well-known literary critic and a writer of literary works and noteworthy socio-political essays. During the Ukrainian Revolution, he held office as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the times of Directory of the Ukrainian People s Republic. Such were the chief editors of this periodical at that time. Their editorial office was also visited by Mykhailo Hrushevsky. Dmytro Doroshenko was the secretary of the editorial board of Rada newspaper. Symon Petliura also worked here as a secretary of the editorial board for a short period of time. All these famous people used to enter this house in the past. If we take a walk along the street, we will see that there is no memorial plate on this building. In principle, anyone can learn about these facts nowadays, but certainly not with the help of visual information placed on the building facades. D. The Castle of Steingel GPS: , The so-called Castle of Steingel stands on the right side of Yaroslaviv Val street, 3. In fact, Steingel didn t own this castle. It belonged to Pidhurskiy a Polish nobleman. This is one of the most noteworthy monuments of Art Nouveau architecture in Kyiv. This building could have served as a good museum of Art Nouveau style in Kyiv, just like Horodetsky House on Bankova street. The connection between this castle and Steingel resides in the fact that the building next to it belonged to Magnus Steingel. The Kyiv branch of Steingel family is worthy of our attention. This family is of German and Polish descent. The Steingels owned the town of Horodok near Rivne. They made a fortune from managing the railway construction process in the North Caucasus. After that, they relocated to Kyiv. The building of modern Institute of Orthopedics (an old 2-storey building on Boulvarno-Kudryavska street). It is one of the oldest buildings on this street, and it is also the former palace of Rudolf Steingel who brought up two sons. We have already mentioned one of his sons. His second son s name was Fedir Steingel. He is a noteworthy person in the context of Ukrainian culture, since he organized the first private museum of Ukrainian art in the territory of his Horodok barony. The great significance of this museum is evidenced by the fact that the interior design of the museum was carried out by our outstanding museum-maker and creator of Kyiv city museum Mykola Bilyashivsky. He was invited by Steingel for the express purpose of performing this work in Horodok. The museum haven t survived to the present day, while its collections and exhibits are scattered across different museums, many exhibits were lost or destroyed. At the beginning of the 20th century Fedir Steingel became an outstanding figure of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Cadets) and was elected as a deputy to the State Duma of Russia. He was one of those Cadets who had a very positive view of the Ukrainian liberation movement and represented the interests of Ukrainians in the leadership of the Cadet Party, which was composed of P. Milyukov, P. Struve, V. Vernadsky and others. As a matter of fact, he was the one who conducted negotiations with the Russians and persuaded them to take a stand in favor of Ukrainian social and cultural interests in the State Duma. It is also interesting to note that Fedir Steingel was a high-ranking Freemason and one of the leaders of Masonic lodge in Kyiv. By the way, he lived on Instytutska street, but his house hasn t survived to the present day. His house was a meeting place for Freemasons. Ukrainian Freemasons, including Petliura and Yefremov, also attended these meetings. Hrushevsky also was a member of Masonic lodge for a while. They all used to come to Fedir Steingel s house on Instytutska street. After the outbreak of the revolution, F. Steingel held the post of ambassador of Ukraine to Germany during the reign of hetman Skoropadsky.

6 E. Restaurant 'Leipzig' 39 Volodymyrska str GPS: , The building located on Volodymyrska street, 39. This building with a corner tower was erected in It is one of the most noteworthy buildings on Volodymyrska street. In Soviet times, there used to be a restaurant 'Leipzig' inside this building. It will be remembered that Mykhailo Bulgakov also mentioned this building in his novel 'The White Guard' as a place where café chantan 'Marquis' was located. This building is well-known among the residents of Kyiv, therefore we will omit the architectural and historical analysis. This house is noteworthy for its former owner Petro Barsky who was a well-known businessman and landlord. He was also a relative of the famous Hryhorovych-Barsky family. This family gave birth to an outstanding Ukrainian traveler who wrote memoirs about holy places this book had been published countless times and went on to achieve bestseller status in the 18th century. His brother was an outstanding architect who basically built the entire historic Podil district as we know it. Hryhorovych-Barsky family didn t become extinct in the XIX century and continued to live in Kyiv. Petro Barsky is one of the members of this family. He was a very big and famous landlord. He owned up to 10 houses in Kyiv, including the house we are looking at. Petro Barsky built this house, but later on he was forced to sell it due to problems with repayment of loan debts. In addition, Barsky was the owner of one of Kyiv s largest printing houses which was located on Khreschatyk street. It is interesting to note that this printing house is the place where the first Ukrainian publications were printed in the early 20th century. When M. Hrushevsky relocated his 'Literaturnonaukovyi vistnyk' ('Literary-Scientific Herald', or LNV) from Lviv to Kyiv, he chose Barsky s printing house as a place for printing 'LNV' and the next volumes of the History of Ukraine-Rus. However, none of the typesetters (hand compositors) at Barsky s printing house had a command of the modern Ukrainian literary language. When Hrushevsky showed them the text intended for typesetting, they rated this job as foreign language typesetting and demanded extra payment for their services. 'But you speak this language. You are Ukrainians' 'Speaking is one thing, correct typesetting is another.' In those days typesetting was performed by hand, whereas nowadays printing houses use digital typesetting systems. At that time, typesetters were supposed to compose texts on the basis of manuscripts. Therefore, the list of requirements for typesetters included the ability to recognize and understand complex texts from the manuscripts as well as the knowledge of language grammar. Hrushevsky invited 'setzers' (typesetters) from Lviv to come to Kyiv and give a helping hand to local typesetters of Barsky s printing house. This is how the first Ukrainian books, magazines and volumes of the History of Ukraine-Rus were published in Kyiv. Publishers experienced problems, because they didn t complete work orders in a timely manner typesetters found it difficult to compose the whole text by hand, which led to delays in publication of magazines. On several occasions, Hrushevsky resorted to services of other printing houses, but all the same, he never refused to cooperate with Barsky s printing house. After the outbreak of the revolution in 1917 (by that time, Barsky had already died) Ukrainian citizens acquired title to Barsky s printing house for the purpose of publishing the first Ukrainian newspapers 'Nova Rada' and others. Therefore, it is safe to say that there is a certain connection between this printing house and the development of Ukrainian culture in the times of Ukrainian Revolution. The printing house was located on Khreschatyk street, while the building we are looking at served as a tenement building.

7 F. The department of history and philology of the AllUkrainian Academy of Sciences 37 Volodymyrska str GPS: , House No.37 stands on the left side of Volodymyrska street. It used to be rented by the department of history of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. This house accommodated a sub-department of musicology which operated under the leadership of our famous musical ethnographer Klyment Kvitka who was the husband of Lesya Ukrainka. He worked here for a long period of time until the liquidation of this organization. This house was visited by Krymsky and Yefremov, and it was also the work place of a well-known public figure Petro Stebnytsky. This building didn t serve only as a work place. Some of its premises were rented out to scientific employees who could live here on a permanent basis. There are 2 original floors in this house, while the 3rd and 4th floors were added later on. The 1st floor was built in Gothic-Moorish style, since Gothic style was very popular in the 1880s. The top floor was added to the existing house in Soviet times. G. Hotel 'Praha' GPS: , The building of hotel 'Praha' is located on Volodymyrska street, 36. It used to be the center of social life of the Czechoslovak community. At that time, there were a lot of Czechs in Kyiv, and all of them held quite important positions, primarily, in the educational department. Strangely enough, Czechs were hired by local government as Latin, Greek and German tutors. They gave lessons at Kyiv University and numerous gymnasiums. V. Petr s boys gymnasium was one of

8 those privately owned educational institutions which provided high-quality education. It was located at the beginning of Volodymyrska street in the house No.16. Famous archaeologist and discoverer of Cucuteni-Trypillian culture Vikentiy Khvoyka initially came to Kyiv to work as a teacher. Furthermore, there were a lot of Czech businessmen (at that time, they were Austro-Hungarian citizens) who invested very large amounts of money in Kyiv. Everybody knows the famous Greter & Krivanek factory (the former 'Bilshovyk' plant). The Czechs published their own newspaper 'Czechoslovak' in Kyiv, and its editorial office was also located at this address. The building of the hotel was owned by the leader of Czech community and an outstanding public figure Vaclav Vondrak. Hotel 'Praha' served as a place of accommodation and a meeting place for the representatives of Czech community in Kyiv. All the famous Czech guests who came to Kyiv preferred to stay at hotel 'Praha'. Kyiv was visited by professor Tomaš Masaryk the famous founder of the Czechoslovak state. Masaryk lived in Kyiv during the period from 1917 to Jaroslav Hašek was another famous guest of Kyiv who stopped at hotel 'Praha' where he finished writing his famous novel 'The Good Soldier Švejk'. Hašek was taken prisoner by Russian army, but later on he was released from captivity after the Czechs reached an agreement with the Entente Powers on the creation of Czech military formations for participation in the war against the Central Powers. He stayed at this hotel for a while and wrote his famous novels. Wilhelm Kotarbinsky also lived in this building during the First World War as well as in the time of the revolution and liberation struggle. This famous artist of Polish descent is known for painting St. Volodymyr s Cathedral. He was one of the greatest modernists of the early 20th century. His artwork was very popular and he was rated on a par with the likes of Vrubel. Kotarbinsky was capable of poetizing death like nobody else. He was on very good terms with the Prakhov family, especially with the children of Adrian Prakhov. He died in the house of Prakhov family and left behind a lot of paintings at their place. At the time of the revolution the artist s studio was located in hotel 'Praha'. It is interesting to note that Bolsheviks-chekists lived next door to his studio and it was a bad neighborhood. He underwent state security agency checks on a regular basis. In the end, he was forced to flee his studio and move to Prakhov family s place, because otherwise he would have ended up in a bad way. H. Institute of history of Ukraine 35 Volodymyrska str GPS: , The building located on the corner of Malopidvalna and Volodymyrska street. House No.35 is one of the oldest buildings on this street. Back in the late XIX century, the majority of buildings on Volodymyrska street looked just like this one. The building was erected in classical style during the times of construction of Kyiv University. It was built by Oleksandr Beretti (the son of Vikentiy Beretti) and served as his private residence. After the change in ownership of the house its interior design had also changed. In the 1870s, artist Alliaudi repainted the interior of the house. It is interesting to note that Alliaudi s wall painting was preserved until the 1920s, but it hasn t survived to the present day. Alliaudi decorated the Mariinsky Palace which was restored during the reign of Oleksandr II. In 1926, after the revolution and the Ukrainian War of Independence, this building was handed over to the department of history of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In fact, this building is the place where the Institute of History of Ukraine

9 commenced work under the guidance of Mykhailo Hrushevsky. In 1924, he returned to Kyiv and took over the leadership of the department of history at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Sub-departments and commissions of the department of history operated in this building under the leadership of academician M. Hrushevsky during the period from 1926 to the early 1930s. The ownership of this building was transferred to Mykhailo Hrushevsky by the state government which was under the control of national communists Shumsky and Lyubchenko. At that time, Ukrainian politicians (former Borotbists) weren t completely removed from power. Shumsky and Lyubchenko based themselves on Hrushevsky s historical works and his national concept of history in their behind-the-scenes struggle against imperialism of communist Moscow. This was also the place where Mykhailo Hrushevsky initiated the work of several historical institutions: 'Ukraine' magazine (nearly forty volumes), 'The notes of the Department of History and Philology of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences' and 'Za sto lit' magazine were published here. This building was a meeting place for members of scientific research department composed of Hrushevsky s mentees. M. Hrushevsky approached his friend and outstanding artist Vasyl Krychevsky about decorating the interior of this building, and soon afterwards V.Krychevsky decorated it in the Ukrainian constructivism style of the 1920s. The interior included several noteworthy intarsia works (rye straw incrustations). Artist Sayenko, who was Krychevsky s mentee, created furniture on the basis of Krychevsky s drawings. There were also portraits of our outstanding historians M. Hrushevsky, Mykola Vasylenko, Volodymyr Scherbyna. Hrushevsky formed district commissions for research of historical regions of Ukraine and directed the course of large-scale study of local lore, history and economy throughout the territory of Soviet Ukraine. This was the place for holding conferences of historians and defending the diploma thesis in historical studies. Nearly 100 full-time employees worked at the Institute of History of Ukraine and there was almost the same number of non-payroll employees. This was also the place of operation of a large school of historians, art historians, literary critics, social scientists, ethnographers and folklorists which was founded by Hrushevsky. It was here where Hrushevsky s daughter Kateryna published the 'Primitive Society' magazine a periodical about prehistoric period (pre-state period) of Ukraine. This magazine was published in the times of French sociologist Emile Durkheim, and we don t have anything like it nowadays. UnexploredCity All rights reserved.