Kharkiv. Crosses. Skyscrapers

The proposed publication is a collection of essays by the historian, popularizer of science, brilliant publicist, tour guide and Defender of Ukraine Eduard Zub. Under the cover are 45 texts written in 2018–2022 and published in the online publication Mediaport. These are microstories of Kharkiv residents who witnessed stunning changes in the first three decades of the 20th century. The collection consists of three sections.

“Kharkiv” is an essay about everyday life, where the author unabashedly shows the realities of the hungry years of 1932–1933, tells about the unsavory side of the capital's life. The section “Crosses” talks about the looting and destruction of Kharkiv churches by the Bolsheviks. The final section “Skyscrapers” is dedicated to the author’s favorite topic — the activities of repressive bodies. He himself ironically defined this area of ​​his research as “popular catechism”.

Flipping through the collection, the reader seems to be immersed in the Kharkiv of those times: sometimes they find themselves in noisy squares and in the midst of major events, sometimes they enter private homes and become witnesses to quiet conversations. There are no fictional worlds in this book - here is reality, which sounds in the author's voice.