The large building at Nezalezhnosti Avenue, 1 was constructed between 1927 and 1931 to a design by Oleksandr Kogan for the ‘Soviet Bookseller’ Housing and Construction Cooperative. The building is better known as the ‘Tabachnik’ or ‘Tabachnik-Bookseller’.

It formed part of the Constructivist development complex in Zaderzhprom’ya neighborhood.

Architect Kogan was repressed in the 1930s.

In the second half of the 1940s, actors from the Shevchenko Theatre lived in the building, which is why, according to a local resident, it was then known as the ‘Actor’s House’.

During the Soviet era, the “Tabachnik” housed the “Hot Milk” café, where milk could be poured from decorative barrels fitted with taps. Currently, the building is home to the Honorary Consulate of Armenia in Kharkiv and the “Pakufuda” board games café-club.

In 2015, a scandal arose over the construction of an unauthorised balcony expansion on the building, which caused cracks to appear in the wall. The balcony was subsequently dismantled.

As a result of a Russian missile strike on 2 January 2024, the building lost a significant portion of its glazing, the roof was damaged, and additional cracks formed on the south-western façade. Several dozen people were injured.