Many of us remember the legend associated with what is now Feuerbach Square and the church standing nearby (rebuilt in 1931, now a building of the Technical University of Agriculture). To put it very briefly, in the summer of 1800, a lampoon targeting Emperor Paul I appeared on the bell tower of the Church of the Ascension, which could have led to the city being destroyed and its residents exiled to Siberia…
However, in S. Gorsky’s book (based on materials by Professor Shiman and Professor Brinker), *The Death of Paul I*, published in 1912, we find the following very intriguing information…
Fearing assassination attempts, Pavel surrounded the Mikhailovsky Palace with reinforced patrols, not allowing anyone near the palace. On one occasion, a patrol fired a shot to disperse loiterers. When Paul learned of the incident, he punished the soldier who had fired the shot—he was made to march through the ranks. The patrols were equipped only with bladed weapons… But rumors of the incident reached other cities in a highly distorted form. In Kharkiv, people claimed that the soldier who fired the shot was a native of Kharkiv and that he had fired specifically at the emperor; therefore, Paul ordered the city to be destroyed and a stone inscribed “Here stood the city of Kharkiv” to be erected in its place. A mass exodus from Kharkiv began, and the city might have been completely deserted had it not been for the news of Paul’s death and Alexander I’s accession to the throne.
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