I adopted my darling daughter Natasha from Kharkiv (Kharkov is the Russian spelling.

is the second largest city in Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kharkiv Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Kharkivsky Raion (district) within the oblast. The city is located in the northeast of the country at around 49°54′60″N, 36°18′60″E.

The current estimated population is 1.4 million (as of 2005).

From: Wikipedia: Kharkiv

The first record of Kharkov was in 1627. And it is easy to see why the site was selected. There are 3 rivers for transportation and as barriers; Kharkov, Udi and Lopan.

Many of the public buildings are amazing in Kharkiv. And the building above is (in the Square of the Independence) is no exception.

Actually the Square of Independence is incredible. It is the second largest public square in the world. Tiananmen Square in China is the largest.

Here are some of my other favorite things to see in Kharkiv.

• Square of Independence and a Military University on the square


• Park of Victory. I am pretty sure that this is a World War II monument. About 10,000,000 Ukrainians were killed in World War II.


• Kharkov Synagogue. Another picture is here. It it was a Jewish church. Then the communists took it away and used it for sports. Then in the 1990s it became a Jewish church again. And now it is state property again.


• The Taras Shevchenko statue. He was the greatest Ukrainian poet.


• Gosprom building is one of the most famous in the world. It was the first poured concrete building in the Soviet Union. I think it was built in the 1930s. It is huge.


• The Kharkiv Railroad station is a work of art. Slighty dirty and dark (when I saw it in 2000), but it is art. The prior station was destroyed during World War II. Stalin came to the opening of this train station shortly before his death.

Here is a 1916 Kharkiv train station that was destroyed in WWII.

I really need to mention the churches... There are some amazing churches in Kharkiv that I visited during Sunday service. But that is for another day. I need to get some sleep