Maxim Gorky Central Park for Culture and Recreation ( uk, Парк культури і відпочинку «Максим Горький», russian: Центральный парк культуры и отдыха имени Максима Горького) is a

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Sumska Street Sumska Street ( uk, Сумська, ) is the main street of Kharkiv, Ukraine. It stretches through the centre of the city from the Constitution Square to Bilhorodske shose (Bilhorod highway). The street also serves as an administrative line betw ...

to the north - the so-called elite private settlement construction, and in the west - Dynamo street corner and Novgorod.

History

The origin of the park was from the City governing council who "put forth a proposition to plant trees on 20-40,000 square metres on both sides of the Sumskoy road" The idea was that the area would be used for horse riding in a similar manner to the

Boulogne Forest The Bois de Boulogne (, "Boulogne woodland") is a large public park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by t ...

. Teachers, university students, and school students all assisted voluntarily with the tree planting. Each tree had a plaque planted next to it showing who had planted it. In 1899 in honour of the 100th birthday of

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

the size of the park was doubled. In 1932 the park was increased again in size to its ultimate size of 130 hectares. It was in 1938 that the park was given its name of ''Maxim Gorky Central Park for Culture and Recreation'', two years after the death of influential Russian and Soviet writer

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

. In 1940 the first

Children's railway A children's railway or pioneer railway is an extracurricular educational institution, where children interested in rail transport can learn railway professions. This phenomenon originated in the USSR and was greatly developed in Soviet times. T ...

, 3.6 km long, was opened in the park. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

all the facilities in the park were ruined and thousands of trees were felled, including the city's only cedar grove. On the cessation of hostilities the Kharkiv community immediately set about rebuilding the park. In the 1950s and 1960s 1.2 million people per year would visit the park. A statue of Maxim Gorky was located near the entrance of the park from 1980 until 1999. It was restorated in 2006, but replaced by a glass

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...

sculpture in 2011.Five carry a refrigerator: six lost monuments of Kharkov
my kharkov.info (26 December 2019) In 2006 the city restored the colonnade at the entrance to the park and in 2007 the park's fountain was restored. The park features tennis courts, a movie theatre, a children's railway, and an aerial cableway. In 2005 the City authorities considered the possibility of building a tunnel under the park to relieve traffic congestion. This proposal did not proceed however the authorities did proceed with a plan to build a road though the park. To this end, in February 2008, 9.9 hectares of the park from Sumskaya Street to Novgorodskaya Street were transferred to the Department of Construction, Maintenance and Reconstruction for the building of a road, a hotel complex and some private dwellings. At the same time another 12.8 hectares of park land was granted a change of status to enable the construction of residential and public buildings. These grants effectively reduced the park's size to 107 hectares. In May 2009, the

Ukrainian Parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

pronounced a moratorium on construction works in parks and forest parks but nevertheless on 19 May 2010 the Executive Committee of the Kharkiv City Council made a decision to cut 500 trees and continue with building a road across the park. This decision by the Council led to considerable public protest from May to July 2010 leading to many arrests and imprisonments. The park was severely damaged in the 2022 Battle of Kharkiv.One person wounded in Russian shelling of a park in central Kharkiv

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukraini ...

(2 April 2022)

Gallery

File:Харьковский парк открытка.jpg, The park in the 1920's File:Центральная аллея Парка.JPG File:Харків, парк ім. Горького8.JPG File:Харківський ЦПКіВ. Білка.JPG File:Gorky Park. Kharkiv.jpg File:(58) GORKY PARK IN CITY OF KHARKIV STATE OF UKRAINE PHOTOGRAPH BY VIKTOR O LEDENYOV 20160621.jpg File:Swan House - Kharkiv Gorky Park.jpg File:Spring in Kharkiv.Park.jpg File:Логово Билли Кида.jpg File:Сказочный закат.JPG File:Branta canadensis - Canada goose - Kharkiv Gorky Park - 04.jpg File:Kharkiv city park france.jpg File:Kharkiv city park retro.jpg File:Kharkiv city park tulips.jpg File:Харків, парк ім. Горького33.JPG File:Kharkov Gorky Park Night.jpg

References

External links

* {{Coord, 50, 00, 58, N, 36, 14, 49, E, region:RU_source:kolossus-ruwiki, display=title Shevchenkivskyi District (Kharkiv) Parks in Ukraine Tourist attractions in Kharkiv Oblast