Khreshchatyk

For a long time, Khreshchatyk remained an undeveloped ravine between several neighborhoods of Kyiv: Podil – the commercial neighbourhood, the Upper City – the administrative neighbourhood, and Pechersk neighbourhood built around the Pechersk Lavra ("Monastery of the Caves").

The development of the area only started in the 19th century. The ravine was filled and accelerating construction quickly followed. By the middle 19th century, Khreshchatyk was developed as Kyiv's main thoroughfare in the climate of rapid growth of the city during the Industrial Revolution in Imperial Russia. The street soon became the center of Kyiv's commercial life, as the city itself developed into the main commercial center in the Empire's south-west.

In 1892, the first electric tram line in the Russian Empire ran in Kyiv and by 1894, the line was extended to Khreshchatyk. The street was served by the tram for about 40 years.

During the period of chaos after the Russian Revolution of 1917, many buildings on Khreshchatyk were heavily damaged as the city changed hands many times between Ukrainian, German, Polish, and Bolshevik forces. On 9 May 1920, the Polish army under General Rydz-Smigly celebrated their capture of Kyiv by a ceremonial parade on Khreshchatyk. They were driven out by the Bolshevik counter-offensive within weeks.

The City Duma building was heavily damaged during the World War II bombings of Kyiv.

Between the wars, Khreshchatyk underwent major development and reconstruction. Between 1923 and 1937, the street was named after V.V. Vorovsky, an early Bolshevik diplomat assassinated in Switzerland. In the mid-1930s, the tram lines were deconstructed, and the trams replaced by trolleybuses.

During World War II, almost every building on the street was mined with explosives by the retreating Red Army troops. In September 1941, after German troops occupied the city, explosions were set off by radio-controlled fuses from over 400 kilometres away. The demolition of over three hundred buildings on Khreshchatyk became the first operation in history where the long-distance radio-controlled explosions were used for military purposes. Much of the surviving historic center of Kyiv was demolished. This unprecedented method of warfare caused panic and brought heavy casualties among both the occupiers and city's remaining civilian population.

Under German occupation, the street was renamed Eichhornstrasse, after the German World War I Field Marshal Hermann von Eichhorn supreme commander of Army Group Kyiv (Heeresgruppe Kiew) and simultaneously military governor of Ukraine during the previous German occupation, who had been assassinated in Kyiv in 1918.[2]

Khreshchatyk and its Stalinist architecture seen in the early 1980s.

Following the war, Khreshchatyk was rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s. The street was widened to 75–100 meters and new buildings were erected in the Neoclassical Stalinist architectural style. Important buildings of the new ensemble include the City Council House (Kyivrada), the Central Post Office (Poshtamt) and Trade-Union House (Budynok Profspilok).

It was used for demonstrations and parades in honor of 1 May (until 1969), Victory Day (9 May) and the October Revolution.

The street was one of Kyiv's first landmarks that was serviced by the Kyiv Metro in 1960, (see Khreshchatyk (Kyiv Metro)) and was the system's first transfer station when the second line opened in 1976.

On 1 May 1986, a few days after the Chernobyl nuclear accident, Soviet authorities held a traditional May Day parade on Khreshchatyk, to "calm people" and "prevent panic" caused by the disaster. Thousands of Kyivans, including many children, were exposed to dangerous doses of radiation.

In the late 1980s, the porch of the Central Post Office building partially collapsed during heavy rain, killing a dozen people and injuring some. The porch was rebuilt in the following years according to its original design.

On 24 July 1990, the first ceremonial raising of the Ukrainian national flag took place on Khreshchatyk, on the large flagstaff of the Kyiv City Council. Due to its central location, the street became the traditional place for political rallies.

Imperial, Stalinist and modern buildings on the Khreshchatyk

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukraine becoming independent, the avenue gained a wider context as the central street of the country. During the late 1990s, a complex reconstruction took place, and most of the buildings were cosmetically cleaned up from elements, structurally upgraded and enhanced with colourful illumination. Modern electronic billboards and screens were also installed.

In 2000–01, Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti, became the centre of the mass protest campaign known as Ukraine without Kuchma. Allegedly to keep the protesters out, the city Mayor (Oleksandr Omelchenko at that time) ordered a major reconstruction of the street, which led to significant rebuilding of Maidan Nezalezhnosti, and construction of two large underground shopping malls.

In the winter of 2004, Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti became the centre of the main public protests of the Orange Revolution. The protesters' main tent encampment was situated in the street, and many Khreshchatyk buildings served as makeshift feeding and warming sites for the protesters, including the City Council House. In its peak, over a million people from all around Ukraine attended the rally. Late 2013 Khreshchatyk also became one of the centres of the Euromaidan protests.[3]