Destruction, Preservation, and Rethinking of Ukraine’s Urban Cultural Heritage during the Russo-Ukrainian War. The Case of the Building of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration

Abstract

This article examines the processes of destruction, preservation, and rethinking of urban cultural heritage in Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War, using the case of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration building. The building was partially destroyed in the missile strike on Kharkiv’s city center on March 1, 2022. It had already held an important place in urban space, but its significance had undergone a complex transformation: from a symbol of Soviet power to a representation of the struggle for democracy and Ukraine’s independence. Today, the building is one of the symbols of resistance to Russian military aggression and a recognizable symbol of the war. Special attention is devoted to the lively discussion surrounding its future, considering various aspects such as its significance as an object of urban heritage. Overall, participants in this discussion represent several conceptual orientations, which can be preliminarily identified as decolonial, renovative, and revalorizing. It remains an important task to develop new approaches to dealing with dissonant heritage and possible strategies for the post-war reconstruction of the urban historical environment in Ukraine. The building may become an example of social dialogue and the search for a domestic political consensus or, conversely, attest to the intensification of the “memory wars”.