 The Building of Verkhovna Rada. History of the sitting place of Ukrainian Parliament By Svitlana MEFFORD |
The building of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (built in1936-39) is situated on Hrushevskoho Str. in Kyiv, Ukraine. This building is of particular interest since it is a sitting place of the Ukrainian Parliament, which was built originally as a place for sittings of the former Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. However, over time the importance of this building for Ukraine increased. Its address is 5 Hrushevskoho Str., its location is on the corner of Hrushevskoho Str. and a square in front of the Parliament in the neighborhood of Mariinskiy Palace. Before there were no buildings on the current place of Parliament. There was a park there.
The necessity to construct a building for the central executive governmental institution of Soviet Ukraine appeared after the capital of Soviet Ukraine was transferred from Kharkiv to Kyiv.
On January 1936 a closed contest for the best project for the building was announced. The then leading architects submitted the designs for this project: Zabolotnyi, Hrihoriyev, Rykov, and Shteinberg. The project of architect Zabolotnyi was recognized to be the best. Young architects were also invited to participate in the design during the building process.
In August 1936 the erection of the building started and in May 1939 the sitting of the just elected Rada of Soviet Ukraine commenced. In 1945-47 and in 1985 reconstruction work took place.
The difficulty of creating of the design was due to the uniqueness of the building and the proximity of the neighborhood of the building of the Rada of Ministers of Soviet Ukraine and the neighborhood of the former Czar's palace.
The three-storied, rectangle-shaped building is characterized by the wide area it occupies. The building is made in a conventionalized Corinthian style, which is based on the short stylobate. On the upper part of the building made in Corinth style there is an entablature with a short stylobate, which surrounds a flat roof, which was a new idea at the time of the erection of the building.
There is a glass dome above the sitting hall (overhead cover made of iron and ferro-concrete, natural and artificial materials) with the state Ukrainian flag at the top. At first, when Ukraine proclaimed Independence, the Ukrainian flag was put up on the roof of the mayor's office and only later the flag was put on the roof of the Parliament. That was a very proud moment for Ukraine.
There are 6 columns with risalites on both sides of the facade. Initially Zabolotnyi put just the foundation for the statues. The statues were put later by the architect Zoba (originally this was Zabolotnyi's idea) during the last years of Soviet rule, during the reconstruction in 1985 that was directed by architect Khmutina.
Granite steps lead to the three doors of the main entrance.
Initially it was just a square building and later an additional half-circle building was attached to the main building.
The 8-angled sitting hall is located in the center of the building (the hall has 1,300 seats and occupies an area of 650 cubic meters). It's on the second floor. There are lights with lampshades and there is a glass dome, which provides the hall with natural light.
It was a good idea to have the big chandelier in the sitting hall in the shape of sunflower because it characterizes the traditional folk Ukrainian arts.
The building was built just for the purposes of a sitting hall but later its meaning grew and Parliament occupied more area.
In 1945-1947 according to the project of the reconstruction to the building a semi-circle building was constructed and attached to the main building. At the same time the dome was moved up by one meter.
At the beginning of 1960s the whole building was covered by special plaster done by Ukrainian specialists from Transcarpathian area.
Initially an underpass was built between the Parliament building itself and the building across Hrushevskoho Street where all official receptions take place. Just after WWII there was a museum of Partisans there. Later the building belonged to the Parliament.
There are some articles in the mass media now that tell about a project to reconstruct Mariinskiy Palace by 2004 and to turn it into the residence of the President of Ukraine like the White House in Washington, DC.
Presently construction of a winter garden in the semi-circle building is being planned. Supposedly this was planned originally during the construction of the semi-circle building.
Now in the building of the Parliament in the hall there are panels with the images of deputies of the first convocation of the parliament of Independent Ukraine: Leonid Kravchuk, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Laryssa Skorik....
During the years of Independent Ukraine a Soviet coat of arms was replaced with the Ukrainian coat of arms, which was made by specialists from Western Ukraine. Thus, now it's a small coat of arms and the Parliament is supposed to adopt a big one. So, supposedly a coat of arms will be moved one more time.
Still the issue of who designed the underpass is questionable.
In 1940 Zabolotniy was awarded the State Award of Ukraine for the design of the Verkhovna Rada Building.
The Soviet coat of arms hasn't been moved yet from the gates so it is still there.
In 1940-41 Zabolotniy was a chief architect of Kyiv. He designed over 40 projects of buildings. Under his management the following buildings were built: on 23, Chervonoarmiiskaya Str., 15, Kostiolnaya Str., 24, Voloshskaya Str., 36 Urkovskaya Str. Zabolotniy also built the building of Ministry of Cooperation (7, Khreshchatik Str.). Unfortunately all decorations from that building were removed so we can't see them nowadays.
Zabolotniy's creations are not only in Kyiv, but also are all around Ukraine.
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A heat wave in Ukraine
"The Spirit of Hollybush" Comes to Donetsk
The new wave of Labor Migration
Home Discoveries
Asserting dignity
New Public Health for the New Ukraine
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