In early June 1886, on a cloudy day, Elena Vladimirovna Ivanova set out from Moscow on a mail train operated by the Moscow-Kursk Railway for a long journey to southern Russia, accompanied by her brother and two female companions. The travelers’ route took them, among other places, through Kharkiv.
Our beloved city left a deep impression on Elena Vladimirovna. We can read about her delight at her stay in Kharkiv in her book, *Travel Memoirs of the Crimea*, published in 1889.
So today, we invite you to take a brief trip back in time and join us and our guests on a stroll through summertime Kharkiv in 1886.
As we get closer to Kharkiv, which stretches out across the hills, we see more and more greenery, and we begin to come across pyramid-shaped poplars and neat Little Russian villages with windmills; there are few forests, but mostly fields. There’s a noticeable change in the air: it’s easier to breathe, and the air seems cleaner and gentler.
The Kharkiv train station struck me with its grandeur; from the station, the train travels through the city; in the distance, you can see houses and the narrow Kharkivka River. The next day, at 8 p.m., we arrived in Kharkiv. A horse-drawn carriage road maintained by the 2nd Society runs from the station, and there is a park for pedestrians. These amenities make a pleasant impression. There are two-horse and single-horse carriages, and a fixed fare is set for cab drivers; pyramidal poplars grow along the street near the sidewalks, which surprised me somewhat. We stayed at the Astrakhan Hotel on Nikolaevskaya Square; they charged us 1 ruble 75 kopecks per night for a neat room on the second floor. Using the horse-drawn tram—or, as the locals call it, the “tram”—the next morning we visited Ekaterinoslavskaya, Sumskaya, and Moskovskaya Streets and stopped by the Assumption Cathedral.
We visited the fairgrounds, the gardens of Tivoli and the Commercial Club, and the University Garden, from the hill of which—known as the “Red Hill”—we admired the views of the city that opened up before us.
In terms of the layout of its shops and its appearance, the passage resembles Moscow’s Lubyanka Passage. Among the buildings, the Technological Institute is particularly beautiful; it’s situated on a hill, offering a view of the city and the river flowing below. We stayed here for two days and then continued on our way.
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