Nestled along Saksahanskoho Street in central Kyiv, between a busy five-lane road and a residential skyscraper, lies a small plot of land. Abandoned by the city, the plot at 73 Saksahanskoho Street is now used as a garbage dump and a camp for the few homeless people who live there.
But the land has a much bigger history than that. Some of Ukraine’s greatest cultural figures have staged plays in Ukrainian in this area, according to activist Alex Zhivago.
“It was a way for patriots to preserve the Ukrainian language in light of the Soviet government’s enforcement of Russian language in almost all areas of life,” he told the Kyiv Post as he stepped over heaps of trash on the abandoned lot.
Zhivago is not merely a concerned citizen. He’s also a member of Kyiv For Life, an activist group focused on improving living conditions for residents of the city by lobbying for better infrastructure and more green spaces.
He has spent years campaigning with other like-minded people for the local authorities to turn the plot into a little park dedicated to playwright Panas Saksahansky, for whom the street was named. And he says educational institutions and environmental campaigners concerned about pollution back the idea.
However, since 2007, the plot has been leased out to Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ukrainian state railway monopoly. The lease obligated Ukrzaliznytsia to use the land to construct an office building for itself. Thirteen years later, the site remains an unofficial garbage dump.
The saga of the vacant lot on Saksahanskoho Street demonstrates how ineffective and unresponsive the local leadership is to the public, Zhivago and other activists say.
Saksahansky’s legacy
Panas Saksahansky was a Ukrainian-Soviet actor, theater director and acting teacher. He is considered one of the most famous representatives of “critical realism” in the Ukrainian theater. He also mentored many future famous actors and directors such as Borys Romanytsky and Varvara Lyubart.
He died in September 1940, the author and director of more than 260 plays and the recipient of many awards.
“How is it that, just a few blocks away from here, (medieval Georgian poet) Shota Rustaveli gets a park dedicated to him, but Saksahansky gets a polluted street which is becoming full of office buildings and uninhabitable for residents?”
The abandoned lot at 73 Saksahanskoho Steet in Kyiv, shown on Aug. 13, 2020, is prime real estate. Local activists want it to be turned into a park, but the city government has leased it to state railroad operator Ukrzaliznytsia. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Dumb deal?
Despite Ukrzaliznytsia’s clear neglect of the land, activists have not been able to get the plot turned into a park. They have been trying to do it since 2010. They believe something nefarious is going on behind the scenes.
“Papers were signed, some local politicians even backed us; it all looked good for the time being,” says Peter Zalmayev, a journalist and local resident with two young children. “And all of the sudden — rejection.”
Soon after rejecting the park proposal, the city decided to renew the lease with Ukrzaliznytsia, even though it hasn’t developed the site since first leasing it in 2007. The state company does not turn a profit and is at risk of bankruptcy.
The Kyiv Post reached out to Ukrzaliznytsia for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
“The problem in Kyiv is that they try to build up every free piece of land and use it to build another skyscraper, especially if the land is located in an attractive area of the city, such as Saksahanskoho 73,” says Olga Balytska, a Kyiv City Council member who has fought for the plot to be turned into a park from the beginning.
Panas Saksahansky (1859-1940)
She believes the solution to this problem is to simply give these lands the status of park. But some members of the Kyiv City Council lobby for decisions favorable for certain developers, she says.
“The lack of political will of the majority of deputies to create a park at 73 Saksahanskoho Street led to a situation where draft decisions of the Kyiv City Council on creating the park simply did not pass the Kyiv City Council commission, but the lease renewal was approved very quickly,” she said.
Balytska says the Saksahanskoho land plot is not the only place where big development companies plan to build. Another one is a land plot known as the Square of Arts located on Vozdvyzhenska Street, in the historic neighborhood of Podil. A developer leased the land from the city and wants to build on it, while locals fight to preserve it as a little park.
“I oppose this chaotic construction mania in the city,” Balytska said. “The only right way to proceed is to terminate lease agreements and preserve these territories.”
For now, however, that future is a long way off. And the fate of these plots — another skyscraper or a park for use by local residents — depends on the decisions of Kyiv city officials. Activists say they will keep fighting for the park.
“It is not enough that the mayor opens up parks on the outskirts of the city to fit the quotas,” Zhivago said. “Kyiv’s city center also has to remain green, for the sake of the residents and the guests who come to see a city that gets advertised as a ‘green haven.'”
