Editor’s Note: The Kyiv Post feature “Then & Now” takes a look at how places in the city have changed over time. To be an advertising partner of this special coverage, contact an advertising representative at [email protected] or call 591-7788.
Old snow all over the city streets is a painful subject for Kyivans every winter. And, if you look at old photos, it seems that it has been the case for centuries.
This black-and-white image of Mykhaylivska and Sophiyivska squares that dates back to before the 1917 revolution, would tell optimists that snow used to be even worse around here during czarist Russia times.
Women navigated snowdrifts in their floor-length warm winter skirts rather than modern-day jeans, which could not have been nice for them. Also, the few electric trams and horse-driven sleds used to be the few types of transport back then, in contrast to the heavy traffic of cars and minibuses that clog up the same crossroads these days.
Pessimists also have plenty of fodder in this picture. A hundred years has passed, yet city authorities are doing the same lousy job cleaning the snow from the streets. Snow remains almost the only constant in this ever-changing city.
Sophiyivska Square derives its name from the Saint Sophia Cathedral, the oldest building in town that has witnessed all the changes.
A view of the bell tower and Sophiyivska Square in the early 20th century shows plenty of snow and little transport. (Central State CinePhotoPhono Archive of Hordiy Pshenychniy)
It remembers Kyiv princes and princesses which walked by it in the times of Kyivan Rus, a medieval state that incorporated parts of modern Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
Yaroslav the Wise, one of the most powerful Kyiv princes, invited the best Byzantine and local artists to build the biggest cathedral in the country, St. Sophia, in 1018. Initially the facade of the building was brick, true to the Byzantine style, but on the edge of the 17th and 18th centuries, it was reconstructed in Ukrainian baroque style.
The exterior walls were white-washed, and the domes became golden as we know them now.
Sophia’s brick bell tower was built at that time, and it still remains the highlight of this panoramic shot. The bell tower had three stories at first, but the fourth floor was added in the 19th century, making it 76 meters tall. At the same time, its walls were painted white and turquoise instead of plain white they had been till then.
Sophiyivska square saw the Ukrainian Cossacks who fought for Ukraine’s freedom and supported Ukrainian culture and church. It is now home to the monument to Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a legendary Cossack leader who led Ukraine’s war against Poland in the 17th century.
It is he who signed an agreement with the Moscow Kingdom in 1654 which gradually turned a part of Ukraine into a part of the Russian Empire. Another, western, part of the country became part of Poland and soon of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The square silently observed czarist governors and officials coming to work to the four-storey red and white building, where all central governing bodies used to be housed after the building was erected in 1856.
Now it houses a part of Kyiv’s militia, and its road patrol officer is always on the watch outside the building for car drivers who fail to observe the Stop sign to fine them or ask for a little bribe.
Sophiyivska square also witnessed a brief moment of triumph here on Jan. 22, 1919, when thousands of people gathered and proclaimed unity between Western Ukrainian and Ukrainian Peoples’ Republics. The republic existed for a few months, and is now remembered by political rallies on Unity Day.
When the Soviets took over Kyiv, they planned to connect Sophiyivska and Mykhaylivska squares and turn it into a huge Government square. They intended to destroy old buildings there, including churches, in order to build the new center of the Soviet city. World War II stopped those plans.
The modern-day Sophiyivska square greets tourists living in the luxury five-star Hyatt Regency hotel. This glass building appeared in 2007, raising a huge public debate on whether the hi-tech building should coexist with a cathedral protected by UNESCO.
Yet Saint Sophia Cathedral, Ukraine’s medieval gem, rightfully remains the highlight here. That, and the snow.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].
