Kharkiv

Encyclopedia : K : KH : KHA : Kharkiv

For other uses, see Kharkiv (disambiguation)}}}.

The current estimated population is 1.4 million (as of 2005).

Kharkiv Gosprom Building

Kharkiv is one of the main industrial, cultural and educational centres of Ukraine. Its industry and research specialize on arms production and machinery. There are hundreds of industrial companies in the city. Among them are world famous giants Morozov Design Bureau and Malyshev Tank Factory (Zavod Malysheva, a leader in tank production since the 1930s), Hartron (aerospace and nuclear electronics) and Turboatom (turbines producer).

There is an underground rapid-transit system with 35 km of track and 28 stations.

Kharkiv's Freedom Square (Ploshcha Svobody) is the largest city center square in Europe, and second only to China's Tiananmen Square.

History

Vintage view of Kharkiv in the 1890s.

Founded in the middle of 17th century, the city has had a university since 1805. During the early years of the Soviet Union, Kharkiv was the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (from 1917–1934). In the early 1930s, the Ukrainian famine (Holodomor) drove many people off the land into the cities, to Kharkiv in particular, in search of food. Some of them died and were secretly buried in one of the city's cemeteries. During April and May 1940 about 3800 Polish prisoners of Starobelsk camp were killed in the Kharkiv NKVD building, later buried in Pyatikhatky forest (part of the Katyn massacre). ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

St. Demetrius Cathedral in Kharkiv.

During World War II Kharkiv was the site of several military engagements. The city was captured by Nazi Germany and its military allies, recaptured by the Red Army, captured again twice by the Nazis and then finally liberated on August 23, 1943. Seventy percent of the city was destroyed and tens of thousands of the inhabitants were killed. It is mentioned that Kharkiv was the most populated city in the Soviet Union occupied by Nazis, since in the years preceding World War II Kiev was the smaller of the two by population.

• First Battle of Kharkov
• Second Battle of Kharkov
• Third Battle of Kharkov
• Fourth Battle of Kharkov

Kharkiv's residents are primarily Russophone.

Transportation

Public Transportation

Various public transportation methods in the city are:

• Buses (12 million passengers annually)
• Kharkiv Metro
• Trolleybus
• Tram

• Marshrutkas (private minibuses)

Railways

Kharkiv's old railway station (1916)

The first railway connection of Kharkiv was opened in 1869. The first train to arrive in Kharkiv came from the north on May 22nd, 1869, and on June 6th, 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 railway station was built in 1952.

Various railway transportation methods available in the city are the:

• Railway trains
• Regional electric trains (Elektrichka)

Airports

Gallery

Attractions

• Gosprom building
• Memorial Complex
• Svobody Square
• Taras Shevchenko Monument
• Mirror Stream
• Uspensky Cathedral
• Militia Museum
• Pokriv Cathedral
• T. Shevchenko Gardens
• Kharkiv's Cable Road
• Childrens'Narrow-Gauge Railroad

Kharkiv's Administrative Raions

• Dzerzhinsky
• Kyivsky
• Kominternovsky
• Leninsky
• Moskovsky
• Oktyabrsky
• Ordzhonikidzevsky
• Frunzensky
• Chervonozavodsky

External links

• [Soviet topographic map 1:100,000 - northern part]
• [Soviet topographic map 1:100,000 - southern part]
• [Interactive Map (over90 000 houses, about 2500 streets)]

	Ukraine
	Subdivisions of Ukraine: Cherkasy Oblast | Chernihiv Oblast | Chernivtsi Oblast | Autonomous Republic of Crimea | Dnipropetrovsk Oblast | Donetsk Oblast | Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast | Kharkiv Oblast | Kherson Oblast | Khmelnytskyi Oblast | Kiev City | Kiev Oblast | Kirovohrad Oblast | Luhansk Oblast | Lviv Oblast | Mykolaiv Oblast | Odessa Oblast | Poltava Oblast | Rivne Oblast | Sevastopol City | Sumy Oblast | Ternopil Oblast | Vinnytsia Oblast | Volyn Oblast | Zakarpattia Oblast | Zaporizhia Oblast | Zhytomyr Oblast
	Administrative centers of subdivision units: Cherkasy | Chernihiv | Chernivtsi | Dnipropetrovsk | Donetsk | Ivano-Frankivsk | Kharkiv | Kherson | Khmelnytskyi | Kiev | Kirovohrad | Luhansk | Lutsk | Lviv | Mykolaiv | Odessa | Poltava | Rivne | Sevastopol | Simferopol | Sumy | Ternopil | Uzhhorod | Vinnytsia | Zaporizhia | Zhytomyr

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