For a long time, two monuments to poets, erected in the 1900s, stood at opposite ends of Theater Square in Kharkiv. Both busts were created by the Odessa sculptor Boris Vasilyevich Eduards.

The first monument to Alexander Pushkin was unveiled on May 26, 1904, on the side facing Pushkinskaya Street (renamed to Hrohoriia Skovorody Street in 2024). Until 1899, this street was called Nemetskaya Street (German Street).

Theater Square itself was laid out in 1876 on the site of the old earthen fortifications of the Kharkiv fortress.

In the background, there are no monuments yet, and the trees are still very small. The theater itself was built back in 1814. The current theater building was constructed in 1841 based on a design by Andrei Ton and was renovated by Bolesław Michalski in 1883.

One of the most famous episodes in the history of the Pushkin monument was its bombing on the night of November 1, 1904, by members of the underground organization “Defense of Ukraine,” which was founded on the initiative of Nikolai Mikhnovsky, a lawyer, political figure, and member of the Kharkiv City Duma. The bust of Pushkin was not damaged, but pieces of stone chipped off the pedestal, and the windows facing the square were shattered.

The bust of Pushkin was removed from its pedestal by city authorities on November 9, 2022, and taken into storage. According to city officials, the fate of the bust will be decided by the people of Kharkiv after the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war (there are proposals to place it in the Kharkiv Historical Museum or in a possible future museum dedicated to N. Mikhnovsky).

In 1909, a monument to Gogol was erected at the other end of the park, on Sumska Street. The sculpture was also created by Boris Eduards.

The Gogol monument is known for the bullet mark left in the sculpture’s shoulder during World War II.