How did post-revolutionary Kiev look like? Photo of the city through the century

WeLoveUA offers you to plunge into the history and view photos of our capital, dated 1918.

Those photos were taken by German soldiers in late March and early April 1918.

While military forces of Triple Alliance released the capital of UPR (Ukrainian People’s Republic) and drove the Bolsheviks out of Kiev according to Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Detailed historical view of these events is available to the public and we will continue review on. The last thing we would like to notice is that these photos were found by Vadim Lyashenko at one of the German auction and he published them on his page in LiveJournal. Because of this, everyone can appreciate the view of wonderful sightseeing of our capital for the almost hundred years ago.  We also didn’t find the reasons to dismiss ourselves in such pleasure. So we offer you to plunge into the atmosphere of post-revolutionary Kiev.

On this photo you can enjoy the view of the right bank of Kiev.

River-mouth harbor is situated along with enterprises and petty housing estate. Houses and domes of the cathedrals are visible beyond on the hills.

On the next photo we offer to view directly river-mouth harbor of the capital. The arrival of the centenary steamship pictured on the photo.

One more photo of the river-mouth harbor shows us the steamship of the Ukrainian government, returning to the Kiev after releasing the capital by German military forces.

And this is the almost centaury view of St. Sophia’s Cathedral – one of the main cathedral in Kiev.

And on the next photo we can get to know about the look of the Nikola’s military cathedral. This Cathedral had unique and atypical architecture according to Ukrainian baroque.  Unfortunately this building has not been preserved till nowadays. The Cathedral was demolished by Soviet authorities in 1934. By the way, the first church service in Ukrainian language was served at the Nikola’s Cathedral. Nowadays on this place Kiev Palace of Children and Youth is located.

On this photo you can see St. Michaele’s Monastery. This is the view through the century.

We could not leave out of our attention the main sightseeing of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. This is Uspenskiy Cathedral.

Because of this photo we have an opportunity to view the panorama of Kiev from the St. Andrew’s Church altitude. As we can see this part of the city even over the century almost didn’t change.

Finally we offer you to appreciate the monument to Ivan Iskra and Vasiliy Kochubey.

According to the history these persons reported to Petr I about the hetman Mazepa’s betrayal. This photo is unique, because it represents the last days of existence of the monument.   Within a month Ukrainian government resolved to dismantle this monument. And in 1923 details of this monument were used as base for Monument to Workers of “Arsenal” Plant. Monument to Workers of “Arsenal” Plant exists till nowadays.

It was post-revolutionary Kiev. As we can see, Second Great War and Soviet regime caused damage to the capital and destroyed few important monuments and cathedrals. However overview and unique atmosphere of the city were not lost.