Slovo Building

As Kharkiv was the capital of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 19 December 1919 to 24 June 1934,[1] the town became the center of the Ukrainian economy, causing population growth. The population increased 285,000 in 1920 to 423,000 in 1927, thus making housing shortages one of its main problems.[2] This also affected the literary community, who had come to Kharkiv from Kyiv because of the Ukrainization policy.[3] Writers who couldn't afford the higher housing prices lived in their offices or improvised homes, with some poorly-housed writers storing their manuscripts in a pot to keep mice from nibbling at the paper.[1] One writer who lived in his office was Pavlo Tychyna when he became the chief executive of the Chervony Shliakh magazine in 1923.[4]

So, in the mid-1920s, Ostap Vyshnya, at that time part of a writers' organization called плуг, meaning plow, asked the Soviet government to build an apartment complex that could accommodate the most important Ukrainian intellectuals. The idea was almost immediately approved by the Soviets, who saw it as a means to keep tabs on the Ukrainian intellectuals, who would all be within the same building.[4] The new complex was designed in September 1927 by architect Mytrophan Dashkevych, who designed the building in the shape of the letter C in the Cyrillic alphabet to stand for the first letter of слово, meaning word, and the building was named Слово (Slovo).[5] As the building still lacked funds to complete its construction, Vyshnya went to Moscow in February 1929 and asked Joseph Stalin to fund the construction.[6] Stalin agreed and gave the money the same day (on the condition that the residents paid it back within 15 years).[4] Slovo was completed on 25 December 1929.[7]

The building was built in what was considered a lavish fashion, each apartment having 3 or 5 rooms, quite a luxury in the interwar Soviet Union. The Slovo Building is five stories high, with 66 apartments, made with the best materials available at the time. A solarium and a shower were built on the roof,[2] with a preschool in the basement. At the end of 1929, the residents moved in, though central heating was not installed until after New Year's Day 1930. The residents were called Slovyans.[5] Each apartment was equipped with a bathroom, central heating, and telephones. The artists were also given their own studios.[8] After World War II, an elevator was installed, although it only provided access to the ground and fifth floors.[6]

Klym Polishchuk with his wife Halyna Mnevska and daughter Lesia

Through the use of tapping telephone, occupant was spied and being reported to be arrested by their neighbor in the age of Executed Renaissance. Actress Halyna Mnevska was the first to be arrested on 20 January 1931 cause she doesn't want to denounce her husband, Klym Polishchuk who was executed by gunfire in Karelia. She was arrested and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and would never be allowed to return to Ukraine.[1] The second person who was arrested is Pavlo Khrystiuk on 2 March 1931 and Ivan Bahrianyi on 16 March 1932 cause of his counter-revolutionary movement.[6]

As the years progressed, more and more arrests were made, 1933 having the largest number of arrests. Ukrainian writer, Mykhailo Yalovy was arrested on 12 May 1933 for the accusation of espionage and assassination of Pavel Postyshev and later to be executed on 11 March 1937.[6] The next day after Yalovy's arrest, Mykola Khvylovy, Mykola Kulish and Oles' Dosvitniy came together to discuss how they could resolve the situation.[4] At the time of the conversation, Khvylovy returned to his room and shot himself on 13 May 1933,[9] highlighting the despair the occupants of Slovo house felt. Not only were the occupants living under constant threat of arrest or death, they were also living through Holodomor.[4] Holodomor is a Stalin made famine which killed four million Ukrainians, mostly peasants.[10] Serhiy Pylypenko was executed without trial on 23 February 1934. Other than them, there were Les Kurbas, Vyshnya, Kulish and Hryhorii Epik who was arrested and executed in Sandarmorkh. Vyshnya was saved cause he was ill[6] All in all, 40 out of 66 apartments in Slovo house were effected. The number executed was 33, with 5 sentenced to long term imprisonment, one committing suicide and another killed under unclear circumstances. Many were sentenced as spies, terrorists and conspirators against the regime.[4]

In 1934, the capital city of Ukraine were moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv, partly due to Holodomor and repression. Subsequently, the surviving writers were moved to RoLit house based in the new capital. During World War II when the Germans started to bomb Kyiv in 1941, the people said with bitter irony that "One bomb on RoLit is enough, and Ukrainian literature will cease to exist."[11]

memorial plaque consist of writer and artist who resides in the building

The building was registered in State Register of Immovable Landmarks of Ukraine on 21 August 2019.[12] A memorial plaque which consist the name of famous people who lived in the building was placed on 24 August 2003. The plaque was replacing the old plaque which was already destroyed.[13]

In March 2017, the ProSlovo Project was launched across Ukraine. The research project is dedicated to Slovo House and its past residents. All results, memoirs and images are being published on a web page in interactive form. In English or Ukrainian the audience can observe the timeline of the building, 3D visualization of each apartment, photographs of each resident, maps, and memoirs.[1] During 2017, a documentary film about this building was also released. It was written by Liubov Yakymchuk and Taras Tomenko; it was directed by Tomenko. The film "Slovo House" included a walkthrough of each apartment accompanied by memoirs and eyewitness accounts.[4]

• http://proslovo.com/kulish-slovoproslovo
• https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Ukraine/Ukraine-Slovo-from-house-of-the-word-to-nightmare-201601
• https://warsawinstitute.org/slovo-house/
• http://euromaidanpress.com/2020/03/12/slovo-house-how-a-special-soviet-apartment-block-for-writers-became-their-prison/

• Pro Slovo.
• Salimonovych, L. Unread "Slovo" (Непрочитане «Слово»). Ukrayina Moloda. 12 August 2005