The Kyiv Television and Radio Center, known more commonly since the dissolution of the USSR as the House of Ukrainian Radio (), was built on the site of Khreshchatyk 26, which had been largely destroyed by deliberately placed Soviet secret service bombs targeting Germans in the 1941 bombings of Khreshchatyk Street during World War II. Construction of the TV and Radio center which replaced the former complex at Khreshchatyk 26 began in 1949, at the insistence of Nikita Khrushchev, who at that time was the economic leader of Ukraine.
Joseph Stalin authorized 43 million rubles to complete the structure – but since all contact with American TV companies had ceased shortly after the beginning of the Cold War (including the company that had won the contract to construct the Moscow TV Center), a Russian immigrant and electronics engineer named Vladimir Zvorykin had to design everything in the building himself. The building was designed by the famous Soviet architect . Today, the Radio and TV building at Khreshchatyk 26 is no longer visible from the main thoroughfare of Khreshchatyk, and is only accessible through the archway of Khreshchatyk 24.
History
The fires of Kyiv, and the destruction of the former Khreshchatyk 26 During the Battle of Kiev, as Soviet forces prepared to retreat from Kyiv in 1941, Soviet security services, acting under orders from Moscow, undertook a systematic demolition plan targeting key structures in the city center. Explosives were covertly planted in prominent buildings along Khreshchatyk. The intent was to destroy strategic locations that German troops might occupy. Basements were filled with explosives, while attics were stocked with bottles of flammable liquid—an improvised incendiary often referred to as Molotov cocktails. When German forces entered Kyiv, the city center was already rigged with explosives.
Upon regaining control of the city after the Second Battle of Kiev, Soviet authorities conducted a structural assessment of the war-damaged buildings. Soviet authorities assessed more than 300 destroyed buildings in Kyiv's city center. Experts concluded that approximately 200 of those could be salvaged and restored. Reconstruction efforts began almost immediately, with Khreshchatyk identified as a priority, using captured German POWs as labor.
After the debris was cleared from Khreshchatyk, it was discovered that parts of a central building’s structure had survived. These remnants belonged to the former telegraph and telephone station located at 26 Khreshchatyk. As a result, the site was selected for the construction of the Kyiv Television and Radio Center, which would later become home to Ukrainian Radio.
Construction of the new premises at Khreshchatyk 26
The construction of the Kyiv Television and Radio Center officially began in 1949, following a directive from the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, dated December 15, 1948. This was formalized by Resolution No. 695 of the Kyiv City Executive Committee on April 18, 1949, which authorized the creation of a facility designed to support both studio and non-studio television programming. The center marked a major step in the development of Ukraine's broadcasting infrastructure in the postwar period.
The selection of the site for the center was made under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, who at the time was the party and economic head of Ukraine. He played a decisive role in securing the project’s approval and funding. In response to the growing presence of television in Moscow and Leningrad, Khrushchev reportedly questioned why Ukraine should lag behind, prompting Joseph Stalin to authorize a significant allocation of 43 million rubles for the project—a substantial sum at the time.
Construction of the Kyiv Television Center began in 1949 and progressed at an accelerated pace. The first brick was laid by German prisoners of war, who were later replaced by workers from the Khreshchatykbud trust. During the construction, daily progress reports were delivered by the site managers to both the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers.
The selected construction site proved challenging. Located in the center of Kyiv, it stood on a steep slope amid the ruins of pre-revolutionary buildings. Establishing stable foundations required excavation to depths of up to twenty meters, much of it carried out manually, due to the limited availability of modern construction equipment at the time.
The reconstruction was overseen by architect , who played a major role in shaping postwar Kyiv's urban image. In addition to this project, Elizarov directed the redevelopment of several prominent city landmarks, including Bohdan Khmelnytsky Square and . Elizarov was also responsible for other major Soviet-era infrastructure, such as Mother Ukraine, Khreshchatyk metro station, and Zhulyany Airport. The architectural tendency of this era had relied heavily on reinforced concrete, a material that was often left exposed and viewed as lacking aesthetic appeal. The broader vision for the postwar reconstruction of Khreshchatyk was designed to offset this with the use of stone cladding, a more monumental and decorative appearance. The architectural style here uses Venetian design motifs, as opposed to the more austere Soviet architecture of its era.
In designing the Television and Radio Center, Elizarov sought to harmonize it with the surrounding architectural ensemble. The building’s limestone decoration was inspired by what he had observed abroad, influenced by Venetian architecture with its imperial overtones. Venice, while a republic, historically projected its power through grand architectural statements across the Mediterranean. The historian Roman Malenkov said:"They built so much beautiful things all over the Mediterranean that, perhaps, Elizarov wanted, without going into any special fantasies, to take everything ready-made and beautiful - and do something similar. Our Ukrainian baroque is incredible. Ukrainian modern. If they presented it to us the way it should be, it would look "no worse than buildings by Antonio Gaudi."
Novel approaches to technology
In the early postwar period, only three television studios existed in the Soviet Union: Moscow, Leningrad, and the newly established center in Kyiv. At the time of their formation, Soviet television centers operated as independent, self-contained units—isolated "islands" in the vast expanse of the television landscape. Each center managed its own programming and broadcasts within its respective region. There were no cable or relay networks to connect them, nor were there satellite links or systems for sharing content across distances. Even basic methods of interstudio exchange were lacking, as video recording technology had not yet been introduced.
Initially, television infrastructure in Moscow and Leningrad relied heavily on American-made equipment. But as Cold War tensions escalated, the U.S. government imposed restrictions on the export of precision instruments and broadcasting technology to the USSR. Unlike Moscow’s Shabolovka Telecenter, which had been outfitted using American equipment from RCA as part of wartime agreements, Kyiv’s facility relied entirely on domestically produced Soviet equipment.
Soviet authorities turned to experts in postwar East Germany for technical expertise. The former German model became the foundation for the construction and outfitting of the Kyiv Television Center. Germany had developed robust television capabilities prior to World War II; for instance, during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, German broadcasters transmitted coverage using a mobile television station, which was an innovation that was unmatched at the time. As a result, German technologies were adapted for Soviet use, often with the participation of German specialists working under contract. Some of these contributions were officially recognized through Soviet state prizes, although awarded discreetly through classified decrees.
Ukrainian engineers had to devise indigenous solutions. This led the center to become a pioneer in television engineering not only within the Soviet Union but also across Europe. Among its innovations was the implementation of a 625-line image resolution system, a standard originally developed in the USSR during World War II and later adopted by numerous European and international broadcasters. The TV Center was equipped with two primary studios:
Studio B, a smaller studio measuring 150 square meters, completed in 1951 Studio A, a larger pavilion of 270 square meters, completed in mid-1952
Behind the Television Center, on what was then Malopidvalna Street, a television transmission tower was erected, reaching a height of 192 meters. At the time, the structure was considered a classified strategic object, which is why it is rarely visible in contemporary panoramic photographs of Khreshchatyk. It provided a reliable signal within 60–70 km, although determined viewers constructed their own high antennas and were reportedly able to receive Kyiv broadcasts as far away as Zhytomyr (about 130 km).
Every step of the creation of the Kyiv television studio required innovation, experimentation, and training. Among the earliest figures to shape Ukrainian television were Mykhailo Kaznevsky, the first chief director of the Kyiv studio; Mykola Pashchyn, the studio’s founding director; and Yurii Fedorov, one of Ukraine’s first television lighting designers.
The original Kiev TV Center
Birth of Ukrainian television
The official revival of postwar television broadcasting in Kyiv is generally dated to November 6, 1951. On that day, the first feature-length program was aired in Ukraine: the Soviet film The Great Dawn, directed by Mikhail Chiaureli in 1938. The film was selected to align with celebrations for the 34th anniversary of the October Revolution. The film that focused on Lenin and Stalin was a deliberate choice based in the political climate of the time and the ideological tone expected in pre-revolution anniversary programming. The launch marked Kyiv as the third city in the USSR, after Moscow and Leningrad, to begin regular television broadcasts, and the first television studio in a Soviet Union republic outside the Russian SFSR.
Despite the lack of fully equipped studios or formally approved staff, a significant live broadcast took place on November 7, 1951. This broadcast featured coverage of a military parade and a workers’ demonstration in honor of the Revolution anniversary. The event was transmitted using improvised methods, as no mobile television station (PTS) yet existed in Kyiv (the first PTS would only arrive in May 1954). The temporary solution involved rolling two television cameras directly out of the studio onto Khreshchatyk Street, just outside the Kyiv TV center at Khreshchatyk 26, which then had an unobstructed view of the main thoroughfare.
The Kyiv TV center at the time operated from a four-story building clad in white limestone, located at Khreshchatyk 26. Because this building sat back from the street and had no structures blocking its view (such as the future Ministry of Agriculture or the “Mystetstvo” art store), technicians were able to stage an extra-studio outdoor broadcast. The broadcast itself lacked full production support — no director operated the control panel, and no commentators or technical staff actively operated the equipment during the event — making it more of a technical demonstration than a formal production. However, it remains recognized as Kyiv’s first remote television broadcast.