Kharkiv Gymnasium No. 88 traces its origins to the former seven-year elementary school No. 88, which opened in 1932 in the barracks of the Yuzhny settlement (Kharkiv Tractor Plant).

In 1936, a full-fledged secondary school was established on the site of the seven-year school, and a new building was constructed for it.

Unlike the neighboring School No. 119, built in the Constructivist style, School No. 88 already showed signs of the classical elements characteristic of the transitional period from Constructivist to Socialist classicism style.

Mikhail Antonovich Novitsky became the school’s first principal.

From 1938 to 1941, A. G. Zubarev worked as a geography teacher at the school. During the German occupation, he became the leader of an underground resistance cell, which managed to carry out several acts of sabotage and distribute about 6,000 leaflets. Zubarev and other members of the underground were captured in January 1942 and were soon executed.

In 1963, the school was named after Alexander Zubarev, and in 1964, the A. G. Zubarev Museum was opened at the school. In 1965, Zubarev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1966, a monument (by sculptor V.A. Agibalov) was erected in front of the school entrance. The monument was dismantled in 2026.

The school’s current address is Generala Momota Street, 8. From 1936, the street where the school is located was named after the Third International; in 2015, it was renamed in honor of General Momot.

Ihor Fedorovych Momot, a major general in the Ukrainian Border Guard Service, was killed near Zelenopillia in the Luhansk region on July 11, 2014, as a result of rocket fire (the first direct, large-scale deployment of Russian regular forces against the Armed Forces of Ukraine). A memorial plaque to General Momot was unveiled in 2016. In 2019, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.

The high school was damaged by Russian airstrikes on September 19, 2024.