Kyiv's Unbuilt Government Center: The 1934 Plan

The Government Center was a project to build an administrative hub in Kyiv that would house all the main buildings of the government of Soviet Ukraine after the republic's capital moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv in 1934. The project was grandiose, led to the destruction of valuable architectural landmarks, and was never fully carried out.

Creating a Government Center for the capital of Soviet Ukraine was the main urban planning challenge of the mid- and late 1930s. The brief for choosing a site for the central square set strict requirements: the square had to sit near the city's main thoroughfares without carrying through traffic; it needed good connections to the railway station and the river port; it had to dominate the city, with the ensemble opening toward the Dnipro and showing off the city's unique topography; it should not require large-scale demolition, especially of housing; it had to be located in the most well-ordered part of the city; and the site had to offer the best compositional possibilities for an impressive architectural ensemble.

Architects drew up six proposals for a central Government Square in different parts of the city along the edge of the Dnipro hills. Five of them opened the ensemble toward the river at various points on the upland, from Zvirynets (where the National Botanical Garden now stands) to Mykhailivska Hill.

The Zvirynets option (architects V. Nesterenko and A. Zinchenko) placed the center on the grounds of the former Zvirynets Fortress, at the highest point of the hills above the Dnipro. Many were put off by the fact that the government center would then lie outside the built-up city.

The Pechersk option (architects M. Hrechyna, M. Kholostenko and V. Onyshchenko) proposed the site of the former racecourse. It was rejected because it would have required removing the railway spur to the Arsenal plant.

The Lypky option (architect P. Aloshyn and team) envisioned Government Square at the edge of the hills between today's Lypska and Shovkovychna Streets. This option attracted the attention of the republic's leadership.

The Proletarian Garden option (the former Merchants' Garden, or Khreshchatyk Garden; architect V. Zabolotnyi and team) proposed opening Khreshchatyk up to the Dnipro, with Government Square on the site of today's European Square. However, it called for demolishing the Philharmonic building (the former Merchants' Assembly) and cutting away part of the hill, so the idea was dismissed immediately.

Architects P. Yurchenko, I. Karakis and others proposed placing the Government Center on the site of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery and the Church of the Three Saints (first phase), followed by the Prysutstvenni Mistsia (Government Offices) building, St. Sophia Cathedral and the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi monument (second phase).

Yurchenko argued in theory that this site was ideal: it lay in the historic heart of the city at the edge of the Dnipro hills, sheltered from traffic yet well connected to the main thoroughfares and railway stations. The only thing holding the authors back was the difficult geology.

The four-round competition (1934–1936) for a Government Center on the site of St. Michael's Cathedral drew the most prominent architects of the country: the Vesnin brothers, I. Fomin, K. Alabian, H. Holts, V. Zabolotnyi, A. Tatsii, P. Aloshyn and Ya. Shteinberg. In nearly all the proposals the square ran perpendicular to the Dnipro, opening the ensemble to the river with a system of stairways and ramps down the slope. The exceptions were the Vesnin brothers' designs: one variant screened the square off from the Dnipro with a colonnade, while another framed the view of the river with a huge arch. Most architects treated the square as a kind of propylaea ending at the edge of the hill with tower-like volumes (Fomin, Aloshyn, Shteinberg) and a gigantic monument to Lenin between them.

Professor Krychevskyi proposed lining government buildings along Korolenka Street (today's Volodymyrska Street), across the grounds of St. Michael's Monastery, with access to the Proletarian Garden and Pechersk.

Karakis's design was the only one of the four competition entries for reconstructing this square that preserved St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral. The wings of his colonnade were shifted to the right, away from the cathedral (shown as a rectangle on the plan). Yet P. H. Yurchenko, author of the article "Government Square in Capital Kyiv," made an odd comment on Karakis's design: "This interesting architectural solution fell away because it involved extensive demolition of buildings and green spaces." In fact, as the master plan shows, Karakis proposed demolishing only the two-story building of former School No. 6 (later the Variety and Circus College) and reconstructing the Prysutstvenni Mistsia. Instead, Yurchenko's own design was recommended for construction, and it left no room for St. Michael's Cathedral, the Prysutstvenni Mistsia, the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi monument or School No. 6.

The competition, which drew architects from cities across the country, produced results that failed to satisfy the jury made up of members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. For all their grandeur, none of the designs became the basis for construction. On October 11, 1934, the competition chairman announced that no first prize would be awarded; second prize went to Professor Shteinberg, who proposed a government square formed by two enormous buildings for the Party Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, with a huge Lenin monument between them. On November 19 of the same year a new competition was announced. Its brief allowed the use of the grounds of St. Sophia Cathedral, Heroes of Perekop Square (today's Sofiivska Square, with the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi monument), the Prysutstvenni Mistsia, Mykhailivska Square, and the grounds of the Church of the Three Saints and St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral. This competition, too, did not fully satisfy the clients. The next round ended with preference given to Leningrad architect Iosif Langbard. He proposed two symmetrical buildings: the Party Central Committee (on the site of the Church of the Three Saints) and the Council of People's Commissars (on the grounds of St. Michael's Monastery). Between them would stand a 100-meter monument to Lenin, with a broad staircase leading down from it to the Dnipro (where the funicular runs). In place of the Prysutstvenni Mistsia and the Khmelnytskyi monument (which was to be moved elsewhere), he designed a vast square for parades and demonstrations, inlaid with a giant star of red granite that would be clearly visible from gliders and airplanes.

The only part of Langbard's ensemble ever built was the Central Committee building, which now houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.