History of everyday life. Kyiv. Early 20th century

This book covers a little more than a decade and a half at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This was a time of extraordinary changes in Kyiv — territorial, infrastructural, economic, and social. At that time, Kyiv was an imperial city, but it still retained symbolic significance as a historical center for both Ukrainians, who were just beginning to realize themselves as a nation, and for the empire, which was trying on the clothes of the successor of Rus.

The invisible processes described in the book show how the visible Kyiv reality changed — from the topography to the appearance of the streets. How the city grew and its new districts were formed. How the city’s iconic enterprises, such as the Greter and Kryvanek machine-building plant on Shulyavka (the former Bolshevik plant), the Valentin Yefimov confectionery factory (now a factory of the Roshen concern) were founded and operated, and new branches of the city’s economy were created. How people came to Kyiv and why — to work, to have fun, or to visit churches. Who and how governed the city and built it with commercial buildings, and whether this development was predatory, whether the government was effective.

This book shows the city and the people against its backdrop, who enjoyed its charms and benefits and at the same time created them with their work, talent, and their very presence. Finally, Kyiv is shown on the eve not so much of the First World War as of the revolution of 1917–1921, of the national liberation struggle for Ukrainian statehood.