“Kharkiv, as many other cities in the western part of the USSR, was occupied by the Nazi army in the WWII. It was a big industrial city in the Soviet Ukraine, and so it was very important for the German army to take it as soon as possible. Nazi troops entered Kharkiv, once the capital of Ukraine, on 25 October, 1941. It was at last liberated in February 1943, though not for long. Kharkiv was soon retaken by enemy troops and the Soviet army only finally set it free on August 23, 1943.”
Stunning images which, sad though they are, really do take us back in time…
Favourites have to be the Hotel Krasnaya and the last one.
A town I’ve never heard of, in a part of th world I’m not familiar with… and I’d love to walk those streets…
I’ve seen colour footage of German troops directing traffic in Kharkov. Startling stuff; you find it hard to believe that “normal” life carried on to some degree after the front had moved onwards.
The clarity and colour of these images is remarkable - they look like they were taken yesterday. What was the stock - Agfa colour?
Hehe)) But Kharkiv is not Russia! It’s Ukraine!
Amazing pics Chris as always.
Kharkiv was of course part of the former Soviet Union, the industrial manufacturing city for the USSR - transportation, the space programme, aircraft, trains and so on. This mainly because of three very large universities and a lot of engineering talent coming out of them. It is now in eastern Ukraine and the main spoken language is Russian, Ukrainian is mainly spoken in the west of the country. I’m in Kharkiv coincidentally as I write and have visited 4 times before. It would be glib to say ‘not much has changed’. The last picture of Dzerzhinsky Square frankly looks more modern than the City does now. But actually Kharkiv is a fascinating place… Thirty year old Lada’s mingling with brand new Lexus’s, crumbling roads and buildings alongside modern supermakets. There’s a very entrepreneurial culture, harking back to hundreds of years as a major trading post. People set up stalls everywhere, outside appartment buildings for example, to sell food to residents. The Euro championships are coming to Ukraine in 2024 and a lot of money is being sunk into the airport at the moment, the owner of the airport also happens to be the owner of the local Metalist football team - where some of the games will be played. I saw the new terminal on the way in, which is nearly complete. It will be sad to no longer arrive at the old ‘World War II’ terminal (as i call it) which has to be experienced to be believed. The whole place is literally like stepping back in time. All very Retronauty…
I’d recommend a visit to anyone with an interest in time travel or history. You can get here a bit more easily now.. Austrian Airlines fly in direct from Vienna and are the only western airline to make it a stop. I’ve noticed the planes getting bigger and bigger too. It used to be a 30 seater Bombardier jet just two years ago. Now it’s a 100 seater.
It will probably be all quite different in a few years…
Thanks Alx, how extrordinary that you are there right now. Thank you for such a fascinating comment.
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Great pics!
But actually Kharkiv it is in Ukraine, and during the Soviet era it was in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
>to Proof and Aleksei
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