On 17 April 2022, according to information published by People’s Ukrainian Academy, a Russian shell damaged building at Maika Yohansena Street, 23. The shell pierced the roof and the ceiling of the top floor of the Art Nouveau-style building, causing a fire.

We can find the year of construction in the list of architectural landmarks – 1910. Researchers claim that this was the apartment block of the brick magnate Tolkachov, who owned a great deal of property and factories in this area (it was named Tolkachovka in his honour). Around the 1970s, the street was blocked by the 8-storey building of the Design Institute, which ‘cut into’ the historic building, so now we can only see parts of it.

Interestingly, the passageway under the institute’s building along the street has been preserved.

From the 1990s, part of the Tolkachov building housed the second block of People’s Ukrainian Academy (the Faculty of Interpreters and Translators).