Viktor Nekrasov

Viktor Nekrasov was born in Kyiv on 17 June 1911, at 4 Volodymyrska Street, the son of the doctor Zinaida Nekrasova. He spent his early childhood in Switzerland and France, and from 1915 the family lived in Kyiv again, on Kuznechna Street (later Horkoho, now Antonovycha St). He trained as an architect at the Kyiv Construction Institute (1936) and also completed a drama studio at the Russian Drama Theatre.

In the Second World War he served as a sapper officer at Stalingrad, and his novel In the Trenches of Stalingrad (1946) won him a Stalin Prize. After the war he lived at 38 Horkoho Street (1944–1950) and from 1950 to 1974 in the Passage at 15 Khreshchatyk, Kyiv's main street, where a memorial plaque by Valentyn Seliber was unveiled in 1990.

Nekrasov wrote lovingly about old Kyiv. He “discovered” Andriyivskyy Descent for his fellow Kyivans, and in his essay “The House of the Turbins” described tracking down No. 13, the house from Bulgakov's novel. He is also credited with nicknaming the Gothic mansion on the Descent “Richard's Castle”.

On 10 October 1959 the Literaturnaya Gazeta published his article “Why Has This Not Been Done?” — the first public call by a Soviet writer for a memorial to the victims of Babyn Yar, at a time when there were plans to build over the ravine. On 29 September 1966, the 25th anniversary of the massacre, he spoke at a spontaneous rally there. For this and for opposing Stalin's rehabilitation he was persecuted, expelled from the Communist Party and in 1974 forced to emigrate. He lived in Paris, worked for Radio Liberty and died in 1987. Since 2022 a street in Kyiv's Podilskyi district has borne his name.