Kharkiv

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Kharkiv_Oblast :: Kharkiv

Ru-Kharkov.ogg, Russian translit. Kharkov) is the second largest city in Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kharkiv Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Kharkivsky Raion (district) within the oblast. The city is located in the northeast of the country at around .

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

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

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).

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.

Before the occupation, Kharkiv's tank industries were evacuated to the Urals with all their equipment, and became the heart of Red Army's tank programs (particularly, producing the legendary T-34 tank earlier designed in Kharkiv). These enterprises were returned after the war, and still continue to produce some of the world's best tanks.

Kharkiv's residents are primarily Russophone.

Transportation

The city of Kharkiv is one of the largest transportation centers in Ukraine, which is connected to numerous cities of the world by air, rail and road traffic. The city has many transportation methods, including: public transport, taxis, railways, and air traffic.

Public Transportation

Being a transportation center in Ukraine, Kharkiv itself contains many different transportation methods. Kharkiv's Metro is the city's rapid transit system, which includes three different lines with 28 stations in total. The Kharkiv buses carry about 12 million passengers annually.

Various public transportation methods in the city are:

Buses (12 million passengers annually)
Kharkiv Metro
Trolleybus
Tram

Marshrutkas (private minibuses)

Railways

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

Today Kharkiv is served by an international airport which used to have about 200 flights a day, almost all of them being passenger flights. The Kharkiv (Osnova) International Airport was only recently granted international status. The airport itself is not big and is situated near the south of the city. Flights to Kiev are available on a daily basis, flights to Vienna are available four times a week, flights to Istanbul are available only two times a week, and flights to other cities are available as well, but are not as common. The air carrier that operates and offers flights to seven countries of the world from the Kharkiv Airport is the Kharkiv Airlines.

Gallery

Image:Kharkiv_square.jpg| The Freedom square, second largest square in the world. Image:Kharkiv_park.jpg|Alexandr Nevsky - The Cathedral and the monument right across the central mental ward. Image:Kharkiv_cathedral.jpg|Saint Sergiy Cathedral. Image:Kharkiv_muni.jpg|Municipality building. Image:Kharkiv_vokzal.jpg|Railway Station building.

Attractions

Of the many attractions of the Kharkiv city are the:

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

Kharkiv is divided into nine administrative raions:

Dzerzhinsky
Kyivsky
Kominternovsky
Leninsky
Moskovsky
Oktyabrsky
Ordzhonikidzevsky
Frunzensky
Chervonozavodsky

External links

Cities in Ukraine

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