Did you know how big was the housing stock of the State Historical and Cultural Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” after the Second World War?

As of January 1, 1949, it consisted of 401 apartments with total area of 7,595.6 square meters (where the area of kitchens composed 979.4 square meters). The tenants, including employees of the Preserve, lived in a number of Lavra’s buildings (№ 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 48, 49, 51, 51a, 52, 54, 55, 56, 58, 60, 63b, 63, 64, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72) as well as in the Church of St. Theodosius of Pechersk and adjacent monastery buildings. Their total number of people living there was 1,200. Apartments and rooms were dilapidated and mostly unrepaired for living. Ivan Kornienko, the then director of the Preserve, emphasized in his reports to the authorities that the housing facilities were significantly overcrowded and sewerage and drainage systems had to be repairedas their damaged state led to the accumulation of sewage and threatened the spread of diseases. In 1949, it was planned to allocate significant funds from the state budget for capital and day-to-day housing activities. There were plans to repair residential premises, implement fire-fighting measures, regulate the supply and drainage of water, form the fund of building materials etc.

Captions to the illustrations:

1. Southern facade of the building № 52 of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra during the fire of 1947 (inv. № KPL-N-8098)

2. Building № 56 (Hotel for wealthy pilgrims, 1851) of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. 1963? (inv. № KPL-N-1130)

3. The window of the Selivachev’s family apartment in building № 68 of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo by G. Milke. 1970s (from the Selivachev’s family photo archive)

Anna Yanenko