You're reading: Then & Now: Shevchenko Boulevard before Vladimir Lenin came to power

One of the most famous and controversial features of Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko Boulevard is, undoubtedly, the dominating monument that stands at the beginning of this street: that of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the bloody Soviet Revolution that took place in 1917.

Oddly, the red granite statue of a man that suppressed Ukraine has for 65 years out of its 170-year history presided over the boulevard named after a bard who called for freedom and Ukrainian independence.

The black-and-white photo of Bibikov Boulevard in Kyiv was taken by Dmitriy Markov in the early 1900s. It is courtesy of Central State CinePhotoPhono Archive of Hordiy Pshenychniy.

A present-day photo of the boulevard, now named after national hero Taras Shevchenko, photographed by Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna.

Despite this strange mix, the avenue remains one of Kyiv’s major thoroughfares. With its two trademark lines of poplar trees, the road was laid in 1842. At that time, Ukraine was still a part of the Russian Empire. Soon the street was named after Dmitriy Bibikov, the Kyiv governor appointed by the Russian czar.

An old photo taken by Dmitriy Markov, a famous Kyiv photographer and publisher, gives us a snapshot of bustling city life at the base of the boulevard in the early 1900s. On this picture, Kyivans are passing by wooden stalls and kiosks selling tobacco, fruits and drinks on a sunny day.

A sign on the left kiosk advertises Joseph Egiz’s tobacco firm. A cabin with lacy-carved wooden elements next to it is a guard’s shack. The stalls are overlooking Bessarabka market, which is located behind the photographer’s back.

The two-story building peeking from behind the guard’s cabin used to belong to brick producer Jacob Berner. It was built by architect Vladimir Nikolayev in 1886. The four-story building up the road from it was built 12 years later, at the commission of Kyiv merchant Shlema Fayer. The sign on it says Hotel Marseille.

Several years after Marseille was built, two other buildings – identified as 5 and 7 – appeared up the road. They replaced older developments on that location. But this photo was taken before construction even started.

Building number 7 on Bibikov Boulevard, along with a few other smaller buildings, was the site of the biggest hotel in Kyiv at the time. Owned by a rich family of merchants, the Gertsovich-Mirkins, it was opened in 1912 and called Palast Hotel.

Now buildings 5 and 7 are occupied by the Premier Palace hotel, clearly visible on the modern photo.

After the 1917 October Revolution, the boulevard was renamed in honor of Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s national poet, writer and artist. But Soviet leadership decided that the bard’s statue was not to crown the street. In 1946, to mark the 10th anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s constitution, the authorities opened a monument to Vladimir Lenin there.

At 3.45 meters high, statue was then considered a little too modest for the capital of Soviet Ukraine. Other statues, bigger ones, were later erected in the capital, only to be torn down when Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union. Perhaps it was because of its modest size that the Lenin statue on Shevchenko Boulevard survives to this day, believes Mykhaylo Kalnytskiy, a Kyiv historian who devoted a post in his blog to this famous street.

Safe and almost sacred in Soviet times, Lenin’s statue survived an attack of vandals in recent history. On June 30, 2009, several nationalist and anti-Communist activists used a sledgehammer to break off Lenin’s nose and a part of his left hand. The damaged monument was removed from its pedestal in central Kyiv to undergo reconstruction.

The restored statue is now guarded by a few modern followers of the once-great leader, who, by the way, never actually visited Kyiv. A red stall with a tent and a red flag flapping in the wind has replaced tobacco kiosks from the vintage photo – a relic of the Soviet part of history witnessed by this great Kyiv street.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected]