In Kharkiv which in late 1917 became the capital of Ukraine there were no buildings that meet its capital status. So on 21st of March 1925 at a meeting of Ukrainian Economic Council was presented a memorandum which prove the economic benefits from the construction of a building for organizations of industry of Ukraine.

Update! Kharkiv Derzhprom Observation Deck was opened on 24.08.2021 | 63 meters

Gosprom was originally marketed as an expression of the achievements of Soviet Ukraine. An organization devoted to building Gosprom called private limited partnership on the construction and operation "House of State Industry".

Project idea aroused great interest among the most well-known architects. The projects submitted for the contest were of Alexey Shchusev (creator of Lenin's Mausoleum), the architects Alexey Beketov and the architects Ivan Fomin. Three months later at the disposal of the competition committee presented 17 projects. Won the the project "Uninvited Guest" of Leningrad architects Sergei Serafimov, Samuel Kravets and Mark Felger.

In June 1925 the project "Uninvited Guest" was approved as a construction project of Gosprom. On working drawings employed dozens of young architects mostly - students and graduates of the Kharkiv Institute of Technology.

On 21st of November 1926 was a ceremony of laying the foundation of the main building of Gosprom. With sound of "The Internationale" (one of the legends associated with Gosprom is that if you look at the building with a bird's-eye view - you can see the silhouette of his first notes of "The Internationale") was laid first stone in the foundation of Gosprom.

Despite the fact that Gosprom was built by shareholders in the beginning of 1926 began financial difficulties. Head of Construction of Gosprom Pavel Rottert traveled to Moscow where found the support of Felix Dzerzhinsky, Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR. In May 1926 Felix Dzerzhinsky came to building of Gosprom and already in August Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU made the decision of the extraordinary financing of Gosprom.

The project construction estimate cost was 950 000 Soviet rubles but in the end this amount was exceeded by more than 5 million Soviet rubles.

The construction of Gosprom took 1 315 wagons of cement, 3 700 wagons of granite, 9 000 tons of steel, more than 40 000 square meters of glass. But what is most striking almost all construction was carried out by hand. More than 5 000 workers who worked in three shifts using shovels, wheelbarrows and stretchers, built the largest building in Europe in just 2,5 construction seasons. The only mechanisms that helps people were horses.

Actually short terms of building of Gosprom does not affected the quality of the work. Gosprom was built very solidly. Later developed technology of pouring concrete used in the construction of hydroelectric power plants as well as the underground.

Finished building of Gosprom has volume of 347 000 cubic meters and a floor area of 67 000 square meters. Leningrad architects managed successfully buildings of nine towers of different heights (6 to 13 floors) and grouped them into three large blocks. Nine lobbies, sweeping staircases and elevators provide easy connections between the various organizations located in Gosprom. The central building of Gosprom is connected with two side ones at the third, fifth and sixth floors.

Modern time in Gosprom there are Executive Committee, various design institutes, Kharkov television center and TV studio.

Mammoth Legend

The first builders of Gosprom shocked by event that was happened near №6 entrance. Builders refused to dig into the ground when they saw a huge bones. It was bones of mammoth... which scared the workers.

You could visit Ukraine Kharkiv Sights | Gosprom (Derzhprom) with Ukraine Tour East Ring