View source for Kharkiv

{{Short description|City in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine}}
{{redirect|Kharkov|the river|Kharkiv River|the oblast|Kharkiv Oblast||Kharkiv (disambiguation)|and|Kharkov (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name               = Kharkiv
| native_name        = {{lang|uk|Харків}}
| official_name      = 
| other_name         = Kharkov
| translit_lang1     = [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
| translit_lang1_type1 = [[Romanization of Ukrainian|National]], [[ALA-LC romanization|ALA-LC]], [[BGN/PCGN romanization|BGN/PCGN]]
| translit_lang1_info1 = Kharkiv
| translit_lang1_type2 = [[Scientific transliteration of Cyrillic|Scholarly]]
| translit_lang1_info2 = Charkiv
| image_skyline      = {{multiple image
|perrow = 1/2/1
|border = infobox
|total_width = 275
|image1 = Успенський собор взимку, аерофото.jpg 
|caption1 = [[Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv|Assumption Cathedral]]
|image2 = Україна, Харків, пл. Конституції, 7 фото 1.JPG
|caption2 = [[Kharkiv City Council]]
|image3 =
|caption3 = [[Kharkiv railway station|Kharkiv Railway Station]]
|image4 = Kharkiv University (cropped).jpg
|caption4 = [[House of Projects|Main building]] of [[National University of Kharkiv]]
}}
| settlement_type    = [[List of cities in Ukraine|City]]
| image_flag         = Kharkiv-town-flag.svg
| image_shield       = Coat of arms of Kharkiv.svg
| shield_size        = 90px
| image_blank_emblem = KharkivSmartCity.png
| blank_emblem_type  = [[Logo]]
| image_map          = {{Maplink|frame=yes|plain=y|frame-width=280|frame-height=280|frame-align=center|stroke-width=2|zoom=10|type=shape-inverse|stroke-color=#808080|fill=#808080|title=Kharkiv|id=Q42308|fill-opacity=0.4|frame-coordinates={{Coord|49.985|36.28}}}}
| nickname           = Smart City
| map_caption        = Interactive map of Kharkiv
| pushpin_map        = Ukraine#Ukraine Kharkiv Oblast#Europe
| pushpin_label      = Kharkiv
| pushpin_relief     = 1
| pushpin_label_position = 
| pushpin_map_alt    = 
| pushpin_map_caption = 
| subdivision_type   = Country
| subdivision_name   = {{Flag|Ukraine}}
| subdivision_type1  = [[Oblasts of Ukraine|Oblast]]
| subdivision_name1  = [[Kharkiv Oblast]]
| subdivision_type2  = [[Raions of Ukraine|Raion]]
| subdivision_name2  = [[Kharkiv Raion]]
| leader_title       = [[List of mayors of Kharkiv|Mayor]]
| leader_name        = [[Ihor Terekhov]]<ref name="7313698KharkivSnap">{{Cite web |title=Терехов офіційно став мером Харкова |trans-title=Terekhov officially became the mayor of Kharkiv |url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2021/11/11/7313698/ |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=[[Ukrainska Pravda]] |language=uk |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125113857/https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2021/11/11/7313698/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
| leader_party       = [[Kernes Bloc – Successful Kharkiv]]<ref name="Kharkiv7308397Terekhov">{{Cite web |title=Блок Кернеса висунув Терехова кандидатом у мери |trans-title=Kernes' bloc nominated Terekhov as a candidate for mayor |url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2021/09/25/7308397/ |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=[[Ukrainska Pravda]] |language=uk |archive-date=11 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111205542/https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2021/09/25/7308397/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
| leader_title2      = [[People's Deputy of Ukraine|MPs]]:
| leader_name2       = 
| established_title  = Founded
| established_date   = 1654<ref name=KUW231114>[http://ukrainianweek.com/History/123906 What Makes Kharkiv Ukrainian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141208235345/http://ukrainianweek.com/History/123906 |date=8 December 2014 }}, ''[[The Ukrainian Week]]'' (23 November 2014)</ref>
| established_title2 = 
| established_date2  = 
| parts_type         = [[#Government and administrative divisions|Districts]]
| parts_style        = <!-- Use "list" (for list), "coll" (for collapsed list), "para" (for paragraph format). Default is "list" if up to 5 items, then-->
| parts              = List of 9<ref name=nmcrinK/>
| p1                 = Shevchenkivskyi District
| p2                 = Novobavarskyi District
| p3                 = Kyivskyi District
| p4                 = Slobidskyi District
| p5                 = Kholodnohirskyi District
| p6                 = Saltivskyi District
| p7                 = Nemyshlianskyi District
| p8                 = Industrialnyi District
| p9                 = Osnovianskyi District
| area_total_km2     = 350
| area_metro_km2     = 3223
| population_as_of   = 2022
| population_total   = 1421125
| population_rank    = [[List of cities in Ukraine|2nd]] in Ukraine
| population_metro   = 1729049<ref>{{citation|title=The number of the available population of Ukraine as of January 1, 2022|url=https://ukrstat.gov.ua/druk/publicat/kat_u/2022/zb/05/zb_%D0%A1huselnist.pdf|access-date=26 March 2023|archive-date=10 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810155123/https://ukrstat.gov.ua/druk/publicat/kat_u/2022/zb/05/zb_%D0%A1huselnist.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
| population_density_km2 = 4500
| timezone1          = [[Eastern European Time|EET]]
| utc_offset         = +2
| timezone_DST       = [[Eastern European Summer Time|EEST]]
| utc_offset_DST     = +3
| coordinates        = {{coord|49|59|33|N|36|13|52|E|type:city_region:UA|display=inline,title}}
| elevation_m        = 152
| population_demonym = Kharkivite<ref>[http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1998/099820.shtml Ukraine's second Winter Olympics: one medal, some good performances] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003042643/http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1998/099820.shtml |date=3 October 2020}}, [[The Ukrainian Weekly]] (1 March 1998)</ref>
| postal_code_type   = Postal code
| postal_code        = 61001–61499
| blank_name         = [[Licence plate]]
| blank_info         = AX, KX, ХА (old), 21 (old)
| blank1_name        = [[Town twinning|Sister cities]]
| blank1_info        = <small>[[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]], [[Bologna]], [[Cincinnati]], [[Kaunas]], [[Lille]], [[Nuremberg]], [[Poznań]], [[Tianjin]], [[Jinan]], [[Kutaisi]], [[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]], [[Rishon LeZion]], [[Brno]], [[Daugavpils]]</small>
| website            = {{URL|www.city.kharkiv.ua}}
| footnotes          = 
| module             = 
| subdivision_type3  = [[Hromada]]
| subdivision_name3  = [[Kharkiv urban hromada]]
}}

'''Kharkiv''', also known as '''Kharkov''',{{efn|See {{section link||Etymology}} below.}} is the second-largest [[List of cities in Ukraine|city]] in [[Ukraine]].<ref name="Kharkiv: #2 + situation October 2014">[http://www.euronews.com/2014/10/23/kharkiv-never-had-eastern-western-conflicts/ Kharkiv "never had eastern-western conflicts"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320011859/https://www.euronews.com/2014/10/23/kharkiv-never-had-eastern-western-conflicts |date=20 March 2022 }}, ''[[Euronews]]'' (23 October 2014)</ref> Located in the northeast of the country, it is the largest city of the historic region of [[Sloboda Ukraine]]. Kharkiv is the administrative centre of [[Kharkiv Oblast]] and [[Kharkiv Raion]]. Prior to the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]] in early 2022, it had an estimated population of 1,421,125.<ref name="living_kharkiv" /> 

Founded in 1654 as a [[Cossacks|Cossack]] fortress, by late 19th century Kharkiv had developed within the [[Russian Empire]] as a major commercial and industrial centre. From December 1919 to January 1934, Kharkiv was the capital of the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]]. During this period migration from the distressed countryside and a relaxation of restrictions on Ukrainian cultural expression changed the city's ethnic complexion: [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] replaced [[Russians|Russian]] as the largest recorded nationality. It was the sixth largest city in the [[Soviet Union]] during its existence.

Kharkiv has been a major cultural, scientific, educational, transport, and industrial centre in independent Ukraine. Among its principal landmarks are the [[Annunciation Cathedral, Kharkiv|Annunciation]] and [[Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv|Dormition]] cathedrals, the [[Derzhprom]] building in [[Freedom Square (Kharkiv)|Freedom Square]], the [[Kharkiv railway station|Kharkiv Railway Station]], the [[National University of Kharkiv]], and the [[Kharkiv Tractor Plant|Kharkiv Tractor Factory (HTZ)]]. [[Machine industry|Machinery]], [[electronics]] and military hardware have been the leading industries.

In March and April 2014, the city saw both pro-Russia and pro-Ukrainian demonstrations, and an aborted attempt by [[Russian people's militias in Ukraine|Russian-backed separatists]] to seize control of the city and regional administration. Kharkiv was a major target for Russian forces in the [[Eastern front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine|eastern Ukraine campaign]] during the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]] before they were pushed back to the [[Russia–Ukraine border|international border]]. The city remains under intermittent [[Kharkiv strikes (2022–present)|Russian fire]], with reports that by April 2024 almost a quarter of the city had been damaged or destroyed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Balmforth |first=Tom |title=Ukraine's air defence shortages leave Kharkiv more exposed to Russian bombs |website=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kharkivs-civilians-under-fire-ukraine-faces-catastrophic-air-defence-shortage-2024-04-12/ }} (12 April 2024)</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Security |first1=Ellie Cook |last2=Reporter |first2=Defense |date=11 April 2024 |title=Zelensky issues dire Kharkiv warning |url=https://www.newsweek.com/volodymyr-zelensky-kharkiv-warning-russia-ground-operation-offensive-ukraine-1889311 |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=[[Newsweek]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ukraine war briefing: Kharkiv residents suffer as Russia intensifies attacks {{!}} Ukraine {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/may/01/ukraine-war-briefing-kharkiv-residents-suffer-as-russia-intensifies-attacks |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=amp.theguardian.com}}</ref>

==Etymology==
* English: {{IPAc-en|'|k|a:r|k|I|v}} {{respell|KAR|kiv}}; {{IPAc-en|UK|'|k|a:r|k|Q|v}} {{respell|KAR|kov}}; {{IPAc-en|US|'|k|a:r|k|O:|f}} {{respell|KAR|kawf}};
* {{langx|uk|link=no|[[wikt:Харків|Харків]]}}, {{IPA|uk|ˈxɑrkiu̯|pron|Uk-Харків.ogg}}
* {{langx|ru|link=no|[[wikt:Харьков|Харьков]]}}, {{IPA|ru|ˈxarʲkəf|pron|Ru-Kharkov.ogg}}

The city's name can be originated from its [[Kharkiv (river)|namesake river, ''Kharkiv'']].<ref>{{Cite book|title = Historical Dictionary of Ukraine|author=[[Ivan Katchanovski]]|publisher = Scarecrow Press, Inc.|year = 2013|isbn = 9780810878471|location = Lanham, Maryland|pages = 253|last2 = Kohut|first2 = Zenon E.|last3 = Nebesio|first3 = Bohdan Y.|last4 = Yurkevich|first4 = Myroslav}}</ref> There is a folk etymology that connects the name of both the settlement and the river to a legendary [[Zakhary Chepiha|Cossack founder named ''Kharko'']]<ref>Ivan Katchanovski et al. (eds.), ''Historical Dictionary of Ukraine'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=-h6r57lDC4QC&pg=PA253 p. 253] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405180150/https://books.google.com/books?id=-h6r57lDC4QC&pg=PA253|date=5 April 2023}}</ref> (a diminutive form of the Greek name [[Chariton (name)|Chariton]], {{langx|uk|Харитон|translit=Kharyton}},<ref name="KUW231114" /> or [[Zechariah (given name)|Zechariah]], {{langx|uk|Захарій|translit=Zakharii}}).<ref name="wikisource">{{cite web|url=https://uk.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%96%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%B0:%D0%9A%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BB%D1%8F%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9._%D0%95%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B0_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D1%96%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%B9_%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BA%D1%8A_%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%86%D1%97%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F._1798.pdf/175|publisher=uk.wikisource.org|title=Сторінка:Котляревський. Енеида на малороссійскій языкъ перелицїованная. 1798.pdf/175 — Вікіджерела|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019082952/https://uk.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%96%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%B0:%D0%9A%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BB%D1%8F%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9._%D0%95%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B0_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D1%96%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%B9_%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BA%D1%8A_%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%86%D1%97%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F._1798.pdf/175|url-status=live}}</ref> But the river's name is attested earlier than the foundation of the fortress.<ref>Slavs in Canada, vol. 2, Inter-university Committee on Canadian Slavs (1968), p. 255.</ref>

''Kharkov'', the transliteration of the name from Russian, was the traditional standard English spelling of the city's name favoured prior to [[History of Ukraine|Ukraine's independence]] in 1991 (similar to the spelling of Kiev versus [[Kyiv]]).

Like all other cities across the country, ''Kharkiv'' became the internationally standardized Latin-alphabet transliteration of the Ukrainian name according to the [[Romanization of Ukrainian#Ukrainian National transliteration|Ukrainian National romanization system]], which was adopted for official use by Ukraine's cabinet in 2010, approved by the [[United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names|UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names]] in 2012, and adopted by the BGN/PCGN in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2-6 May 2011 |title=United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names |url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/ungegn/docs/26th-gegn-docs/WP/WP21_Roma_system_Ukraine%20_engl._.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419132557/https://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/docs/26th-gegn-docs/WP/WP21_Roma_system_Ukraine%20_engl._.pdf |archive-date=19 April 2022 |access-date=25 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=4 October 2018 |title=Open Letter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine |url=https://ireland.mfa.gov.ua/news/67570-open-letter-of-the-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-of-ukraine |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220406185944/https://ireland.mfa.gov.ua/news/67570-open-letter-of-the-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-of-ukraine |archive-date=6 April 2022 |access-date=25 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems |url=https://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_uk.pdf |title=Report on the Current Status of United Nations Romanization Systems for Geographical Names |publication-date=February 2013 |chapter=Ukrainian |access-date=14 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220420084523/http://eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_uk.pdf |archive-date=20 April 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=24 April 2020 |title=Guidance on the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN)/Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) romanization systems |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/romanization-systems |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627005821/http://pcgn.org.uk/Romanisation_systems.htm |archive-date=27 June 2014 |access-date=14 May 2022 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref> This spelling appears in ''Encyclopædia Britannica''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kharkiv |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Kharkiv-Ukraine |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717060303/https://www.britannica.com/place/Kharkiv-Ukraine |archive-date=17 July 2015 |access-date=12 July 2022 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> and in dictionaries as the spelling for the Ukrainian city.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Oxford Dictionary of English |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2023 |chapter=Kharkiv}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Odesa |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/odesa |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220624131126/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/odesa |archive-date=24 June 2022 |access-date=24 June 2022 |website=Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Kharkiv |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/kharkiv |access-date=12 July 2022 |website=Collins Dictionary |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of KHARKIV |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/odesa |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320204251/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/odesa |archive-date=20 March 2022 |access-date=24 June 2022 |website=Merriam-Webster |language=en}}</ref> The spelling ''Kharkiv'' has also been adopted as the Library of Congress Name Authority Heading.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LCCN Permalink - No Connections Available |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/n79139057 |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=lccn.loc.gov |language=en}}</ref> As noted by the ''[[Christian Science Monitor]]'', many in the English-language media outlets historically spelled the city ''Kharkov'', even after changing the spelling of Kiev to Kyiv, but since the beginning of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine more outlets<ref name="CSM spellings">{{Cite news |date=29 March 2022 |title=Kyiv, Odesa, and what's in a name |language=en |work=[[Christian Science Monitor]] |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2022/20220329/Kyiv-Odesa-and-what-s-in-a-name |url-status=live |access-date=12 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712010415/https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2022/20220329/Kyiv-Odesa-and-what-s-in-a-name |archive-date=12 July 2022}}</ref><ref name="USA Today spellings">{{cite news |last=Lee |first=Ella |date=13 April 2022 |title=Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked questions over why Ukrainian cities have historically been transliterated after their Russian versions |work=[[USA Today]] |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/04/13/kyiv-kiev-ukraine-cities-why-spelling-matters/7231437001/ |url-status=live |access-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230004728/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/04/13/kyiv-kiev-ukraine-cities-why-spelling-matters/7231437001/?gnt-cfr=1 |archive-date=30 December 2022}}</ref> and style guides<ref>{{Cite news |date=2020-12-23 |title=Guardian and Observer style guide: O |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-o |access-date=2023-11-14 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=17 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317154926/http://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-o |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The ABC Style Guide {{!}} About the ABC |url=https://about.abc.net.au/abc-editorial/the-abc-style-guide/#U |access-date=2023-11-14 |website=about.abc.net.au |archive-date=5 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201105140015/https://about.abc.net.au/abc-editorial/the-abc-style-guide/#U |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-11 |title=Associated Press Stylebook |url=https://www.apstylebook.com/topical_most_recent |access-date=2023-11-14 |archive-date=11 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511180352/https://www.apstylebook.com/topical_most_recent |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> have been shifting away from Russian transliterations.

==History==
{{see also|Timeline of Kharkiv}}
{{main|History of Kharkiv}}
{{Quote box |width=23em |align=left  |bgcolor=GhostWhite
| title = Historical affiliations
| fontsize = 90%
|{{flagicon image|Flag of Oryol (variant).svg}} [[Tsardom of Russia]]/{{flagicon image|Flag of Russia.svg}}[[Russian Empire]]<br/> ({{flagicon image|Kharkiv_Regiment.svg}} as part of [[Kharkiv Regiment]]) 1654–1765<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag of Russia.svg}} [[Russian Empire]] 1765–1917<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag of Russia.svg}} [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]] Mar–Nov 1917<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Ukraine_(1917–1921).svg}} [[Ukrainian People's Republic|UPR]] Nov-–Dec 1917<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Ukrainian_People's_Republic_of_the_Soviets.svg}} [[Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets|UPRS]] Dec 1917 – Apr 1918<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Ukraine_(1917–1921).svg}} UPR/[[Ukrainian State]] Apr 1918 – Jan 1919<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Ukrainian_People's_Republic_of_the_Soviets.svg}} [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Ukraine]] Jan–Jun 1919<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Russia.svg}} [[Armed Forces of South Russia|South Russia]] 1919 Jun–Dec<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Ukrainian_People's_Republic_of_the_Soviets.svg}} Soviet Ukraine Dec 1919 – Dec 1922<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1924).svg}} [[Soviet Union]] 1922–1941<br/>{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Germany_(1935–1945).svg}} [[Third Reich]] 1941–1943<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_USSR_(1936-1955).svg}} Soviet Union Feb–Mar 1943<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Germany_(1935–1945).svg}} Third Reich Mar–Sep 1943<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg}} Soviet Union 1943–1991<br/>
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_Ukraine.svg}} [[Ukraine]] 1991–present
}}

===Early history===
The earliest historical references to the region are to [[Scythians|Scythian]] and [[Sarmatians|Sarmatian]] settlement in the 2nd century BC. Between the 2nd to the 6th centuries AD there is evidence of [[Chernyakhov culture]], a multiethnic mix of the [[Getae|Geto]]-[[Dacians|Dacian]], [[Sarmatians|Sarmatian]], and [[Goths|Gothic]] populations.
<ref>{{cite book |last1= Eiddon |first1=Iorwerth |last2= Edwards |first2=Stephen |last3= Heather |first3=Peter |year= 1998 |title=The Late Empire |volume=13 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |series=The Cambridge Ancient History |chapter=Goths & Huns |isbn=0-521-30200-5 |page=488}}</ref> In the 8th to 10th centuries the [[Khazar]] fortress of ''Verkhneye Saltovo'' stood about {{convert|25|miles}} east of the modern city, near [[Staryi Saltiv]].<ref>Kevin Alan Brook, ''The Jews of Khazaria'' (2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=hEuIveNl9kcC&pg=PA34 p. 34] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405180157/https://books.google.com/books?id=hEuIveNl9kcC&pg=PA34 |date=5 April 2023 }}.</ref> During the 12th century, the area was part of the territory of the [[Cumans]], and then from the mid 13th century of the [[Mongol Empire|Mongol]]/[[Tatars|Tartar]] [[Golden Horde]].

By the early 17th century the area was a contested frontier region with renegade populations that had begun to organise in [[Cossacks|Cossack]] formations and communities defined by a common determination to resist both [[Tatars|Tatar]] slavery and [[Szlachta|Polish]], [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuanian]] and [[Tsardom of Russia|Russian]] [[serfdom]]. Mid-century, the [[Khmelnytsky uprising]] against the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]] saw the brief establishment of an independent [[Cossack Hetmanate]].<ref name="Solchanyk2001">{{cite book |author=Roman Solchanyk |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LNvTSDQXFXgC&pg=PA6 |title=Ukraine and Russia: The Post-Soviet Transition |date=January 2001 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-1018-0 |page=6 |access-date=31 March 2015 |archive-date=2 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002071000/https://books.google.com/books?id=LNvTSDQXFXgC&pg=PA6#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Kharkiv Fortress ===
[[File:Kharko.jpg|thumb|Kharkiv's legendary founder Kharko (postcard 1890s).|left]]
In the midst of this period of turmoil for [[Right-bank Ukraine]], groups of people came onto the banks of [[Lopan River|Lopan]] and [[Kharkiv River|Kharkiv]] rivers where in 1654 they resurrected and fortified an abandoned settlement.<ref name="living_kharkiv">{{Cite web |script-title=uk:Живий Харків. Нічна екскурсія містом-господарем |trans-title=Living Kharkiv. Nightly excursion through the host-city |url=https://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2012/06/8/88316/ |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=[[Ukrainska Pravda]] |archive-date=7 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507102527/https://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2012/06/8/88316/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

The settlement reluctantly accepted the protection and authority of a Russian [[voivode]] from [[Chuhuiv]] {{convert|40|km|mi}} to the east. The first appointed voivode from [[Moscow]] was Voyin Selifontov in 1656, who began to build a local [[Ostrog (fortress)|ostrog]] (fort). In 1658, a new voivode, Ivan Ofrosimov, commanded the locals to kiss the cross in a demonstration of loyalty to [[Alexis of Russia|Tsar Alexis]]. Led by their [[otaman]] Ivan Kryvoshlyk, they refused. However, with the election of a new otaman, Tymish Lavrynov, relations appear to have been repaired, the Tsar in Moscow granting the community's request (signed by the [[Dean (Christianity)|deans]] of the new [[Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv|Dormition Cathedral]] and parish churches of Annunciation and Trinity) to establish a local market.<ref name="living_kharkiv" />[[File:Харьков. Покровский собор и архиерейский дом.jpg|thumb|The Intercession Cathedral with bell tower and Ozerianska church (right) built in 1689|left]]

At that time the population of Kharkiv was just over 1000, half of whom were local Cossacks. Selifontov had brought with him a Moscow garrison of only 70 soldiers.<ref name="living_kharkiv" /> Defence rested with a local Sloboda Cossack regiment under the jurisdiction of the [[Razriad|Razryad]] [[Prikaz]], a military agency commanded from [[Belgorod]].<ref name="living_kharkiv" />

The original walls of Kharkiv enclosed today's streets: Kvitky-Osnovianenko Street, Constitution Square, Pavlivskyi Square, Serhiivskyi Square, and Sobornyi Descent.<ref name="living_kharkiv"/> There were 10 towers of which the tallest, Vestovska, was some {{convert|16|m|ft}} high. In 1689 the fortress was expanded to include the [[Intercession Cathedral, Kharkiv|Intercession Cathedral]] and Monastery, which became a seat of a local church hierarch, the [[Protopope]].<ref name="living_kharkiv" />

===Russian Empire===
[[File:Charkow.jpg|thumb|A 19th-century view of Kharkiv, with the belltower of the [[Assumption Cathedral, Kharkiv|Assumption Cathedral]] dominating the skyline|left]]
Administrative reforms led to Kharkiv being governed from 1708 from [[Kyiv Governorate|Kyiv]],<ref name="1708List">{{cite web|url=http://constitution.garant.ru/history/act1600-1918/2005/|script-title=ru:Указ об учреждении губерний и о росписании к ним городов, 1708 г., декабря 18|trans-title=Decree on the establishment of Provinces and cities assigned to them, 18 December 1708|language=ru|website=constitution.garant.ru|access-date=31 March 2015|archive-date=28 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728200403/http://constitution.garant.ru/history/act1600-1918/2005/|url-status=live}}</ref> and from 1727 from [[Belgorod]]. In 1765 Kharkiv was established as the seat of a separate [[Sloboda Ukraine Governorate]].<ref name="voronezh">{{cite web|url=http://arsvo.ru/arkhivnaya-sluzhba/istoriya-administrativno-territorialnogo-deleniya-voronezhskogo-kraya-2-voronezhs|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525173851/http://arsvo.ru/arkhivnaya-sluzhba/istoriya-administrativno-territorialnogo-deleniya-voronezhskogo-kraya-2-voronezhs|archive-date=25 May 2013|script-title=ru:История административно-территориального деления воронежского края. 2. Воронежская губерния|trans-title=History of the Administrative-Territorial Division of the Voronezh Region. 2. Voronezh Province.|publisher=Archive service of Voronezh Oblast|language=ru|access-date=10 June 2012}}</ref>

[[Kharkiv University]] was established in 1805 in the Palace of [[Governorate-General]].<ref name="living_kharkiv" /> Alexander Mickiewicz, brother of the Polish national poet [[Adam Mickiewicz]], was a professor of law in the university, while another celebrity, [[Goethe]], searched for instructors for the school.<ref name="living_kharkiv" /> One of its later graduates was the Ukrainian poet and writer [[Ivan Franko]], to whom it awarded a doctorate in Russian linguistics in 1906.<ref name="living_kharkiv" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.istpravda.com.ua/short/2011/08/23/53238/|script-title=uk:У Харкові відкрили меморіальну дошку Івану Франку|trans-title=A memorial plaque to Ivan Franko was unveiled in Kharkiv|language=uk|publisher=Istpravda.com.ua|date=23 August 2011|access-date=21 July 2012|archive-date=10 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110182137/http://www.istpravda.com.ua/short/2011/08/23/53238/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The streets were first cobbled in the city centre in 1830.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.istpravda.com.ua/artefacts/2011/01/24/17847/|script-title=uk:Харків і харків'яни XIX-го сторіччя|trans-title=Kharkiv and Kharkiv denizens in 19th century photos|language=uk|publisher=Istpravda.com.ua|date=24 January 2011|access-date=21 July 2012|archive-date=22 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622033200/http://www.istpravda.com.ua/artefacts/2011/01/24/17847/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1844 the {{convert|90|m|ft}} tall Alexander Bell Tower, commemorating the victory over [[Napoleon|Napoleon I]] in 1812, was built next to the first [[Assumption Cathedral, Kharkiv|Assumption Cathedral]] (later to be transformed by the Soviet authorities into a [[radio tower]]). A system of running water was established in 1870.<ref name="living_kharkiv" />[[File:Kursk Kharkov 1869.jpg|thumb|The first railway station in Kharkiv was built in 1869]]In the course of the 19th century, although predominantly Russian speaking, Kharkiv became a centre of Ukrainian culture.<ref name="hromada">{{cite web |title=Hromadas |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CH%5CR%5CHromadas.htm |access-date=14 January 2016 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia of Ukraine]] |archive-date=27 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151227030724/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CH%5CR%5CHromadas.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The first Ukrainian newspaper was published in the city in 1812. Soon after the [[Crimean War]], in 1860–61, a [[hromada (secret society)|hromada]] was established in the city, one of a network of secret societies that laid the groundwork for the appearance of a Ukrainian national movement. Its most prominent member was the philosopher, linguist and pan-slavist activist [[Alexander Potebnja|Oleksandr Potebnia]]. Members of a student hromada in the city included the future national leaders [[Borys Martos]] and [[Dmytro Antonovych]],<ref name="hromada" /> and reputedly were the first to employ the slogan "Glory to Ukraine!" and its response "Glory on all of earth!".<ref>{{Cite web |title="Glory to Ukraine!": Who and when was the slogan created? |url=https://www.istpravda.com.ua/eng/articles/2018/10/4/153036/ |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=www.istpravda.com.ua |archive-date=25 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225103647/https://www.istpravda.com.ua/eng/articles/2018/10/4/153036/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1900, the student hromada founded the [[Revolutionary Ukrainian Party]] (RUP), which sought to unite all Ukrainian national elements, including the growing number of socialists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Revolutionary Ukrainian party |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CR%5CE%5CRevolutionaryUkrainianparty.htm |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815103758/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CR%5CE%5CRevolutionaryUkrainianparty.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Following the [[1905 Russian Revolution|revolutionary events 1905]] in which Kharkiv distinguished itself by avoiding a [[Pogroms in the Russian Empire|reactionary pogrom]] against its Jewish population,<ref>{{Citation |last=HAMM |first=MICHAEL F. |editor-first1=Anthony J |editor-first2=Jonathan D |editor-last1=Heywood |editor-last2=Smele |title=Jews and revolution in Kharkiv: how one Ukrainian city escaped a pogrom in 1905 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203002087-15/jews-revolution-kharkiv-one-ukrainian-city-escaped-pogrom-1905-michael-hamm?context=ubx |work=The Russian Revolution of 1905 |year=2013 |doi=10.4324/9780203002087 |isbn=9780203002087 |access-date=2022-08-14 |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814112242/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203002087-15/jews-revolution-kharkiv-one-ukrainian-city-escaped-pogrom-1905-michael-hamm?context=ubx |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> the RUP in Kharkiv, [[Poltava]], [[Kyiv]], [[Nizhyn]], [[Lubny]], and [[Krasnodar|Yekaterinodar]] repudiated the more extreme elements of [[Ukrainian nationalism]]. Adopting the [[Erfurt Program]] of [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|German Social Democracy]], they restyled themselves the [[Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party]] (USDLP). This was to remain independent of, and opposed by, the [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] faction of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Russian SDLP]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=УКРАЇНСЬКА СОЦІАЛ-ДЕМОКРАТИЧНА РОБІТНИЧА ПАРТІЯ, Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia |url=https://leksika.com.ua/11580826/ure/ukrayinska_sotsial-demokratichna_robitnicha_partiya |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=leksika.com.ua |archive-date=25 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125001434/https://leksika.com.ua/11580826/ure/ukrayinska_sotsial-demokratichna_robitnicha_partiya |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last1=Senkus |first1=Roman |last2=Zhukovsky |first2=Arkadii |date=1993 |title=Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers' party |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CU%5CK%5CUkrainianSocialDemocraticWorkersparty.htm |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com |archive-date=22 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922030327/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CU%5CK%5CUkrainianSocialDemocraticWorkersparty.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

After the [[February Revolution]] of 1917, the USDLP was the main party in the first Ukrainian government, the [[General Secretariat of Ukraine]]. The [[Tsentralna Rada]] (central council) of Ukrainian parties in ''Kyiv'' authorised the Secretariat to negotiate national autonomy with the [[Russian Provisional Government]]. In the succeeding months, as wartime conditions deteriorated, the USDLP lost support in Kharkiv and elsewhere to the [[Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party]] (SR) which organised both in peasant communities and in disaffected military units.<ref name=":6" />

===Soviet era===

==== Capital of Soviet Ukraine ====
[[File:palace of industry.jpg|thumb|200px|The [[Derzhprom]] (Palace of Industry) completed in 1928.|left]]
In the [[1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election|Russian Constituent Assembly election]] held in November 1917, the [[Bolsheviks]] who had seized power in [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] and Moscow received just 10.5 percent of the vote in the [[Kherson Governorate|Governorate]], compared to 73 percent for a bloc of Ukrainian and [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Russian Socialist Revolutionaries]]. Commanding worker, rather than peasant, votes, within the city itself the Bolsheviks won a plurality.<ref name="Radkey1989-115">{{cite book |author=Oliver Henry Radkey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXINAQAAMAAJ |title=Russia goes to the polls: the election to the all-Russian Constituent Assembly, 1917 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8014-2360-4 |pages=115, 117 |access-date=11 August 2022 |archive-date=2 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002071000/https://books.google.com/books?id=gXINAQAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

When in [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] Lenin's [[Council of People's Commissars]] disbanded the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]] after its first sitting, the [[Tsentralna Rada]] in [[Kyiv]] proclaimed the independence of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] (UPR).<ref name="KUW231114" /> [[Bolsheviks]] withdrew from Tsentralna Rada and formed their own Rada (national council) in Kharkiv.<ref name="hdU Katchanovski">[https://books.google.com/books?id=-h6r57lDC4QC&dq=kharkiv+antonov+1917&pg=PA713 Historical Dictionary of Ukraine (Historical Dictionaries of Europe)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405224823/https://books.google.com/books?id=-h6r57lDC4QC&dq=kharkiv+antonov+1917&pg=PA713|date=5 April 2023}} by Ivan Katchanovski, Scarecrow Press (Publication date: 11 July 2013), {{ISBN|0810878453}} (page 713)</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=CuLpivm5lDsC&dq=bolsheviks+moved+to+Kharkiv&pg=PA7 Literary Politics in Soviet Ukraine, 1917–1934] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405180152/https://books.google.com/books?id=CuLpivm5lDsC&dq=bolsheviks+moved+to+Kharkiv&pg=PA7 |date=5 April 2023 }}. Durham and London: Duke University Press. {{ISBN|0-8223-1099-6}} (page 7)</ref> By February 1918 their forces had [[Russian Civil War|captured much of Ukraine]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&dq=bolsheviks+moved+to+Kharkiv+soviet+Ukraine&pg=PA1195 World War I: A Student Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411071742/https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&dq=bolsheviks+moved+to+Kharkiv+soviet+Ukraine&pg=PA1195 |date=11 April 2023 }}. [[ABC-CLIO]]. p. 1195. {{ISBN|978-1-85109-879-8}}</ref>

The Bolsheviks made Kharkiv the capital of the [[Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic]].<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/05/22/ukraine-phony-war/ Ukraine: The Phony War?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113023301/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/05/22/ukraine-phony-war/ |date=13 January 2016 }}, [[The New York Review of Books]] (27 April 2014)</ref> Six weeks later, under the treaty terms agreed with the [[Central Powers]] at [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk|Brest-Litovsk]], they abandoned the city and ceded the territory to the German-occupied [[Ukrainian State]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pt03BAAAQBAJ&dq=Kharkiv+German+1918&pg=PA205 Borderlands into Bordered Lands: Geopolitics of Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine (Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, Vol. 98) (Volume 98)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405224824/https://books.google.com/books?id=pt03BAAAQBAJ&dq=Kharkiv+German+1918&pg=PA205 |date=5 April 2023 }}, Ibidem Verlag, 2010, {{ISBN|383820042X}} (page 24)</ref>

After the German withdrawal, the [[Red Army]] returned but, in June 1919, withdrew again before the advancing forces of [[Anton Denikin]]'s [[White movement]] [[Volunteer Army|Volunteer]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&dq=Denikin+Kharkiv&pg=PA97 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411071747/https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC&dq=Denikin+Kharkiv&pg=PA97 |date=11 April 2023 }}, [[Harvard University Press]], 858 pages, {{ISBN|0-674-07608-7}}, page 97</ref> By December 1919, Soviet authority was restored.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hV1h0_iMrE4C&dq=Denikin+December+1919+Kharkiv&pg=PA101 The A to Z of the Russo-Japanese War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405180153/https://books.google.com/books?id=hV1h0_iMrE4C&dq=Denikin+December+1919+Kharkiv&pg=PA101|date=5 April 2023}}. Scarecrow Press Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-8108-6841-0}} (page 101)</ref> The Bolsheviks established Kharkiv as [[Capital (political)|the capital]] of the [[Ukrainian SSR|Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]] and, in 1922, this was formally incorporated as a constituent republic of the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2012/01/25/69897/ |title=Донбас і Україна (з історії революційної боротьби 1917–18 рр.) (Donbas and Ukraine. (From articles and declarations of Mykola Skrypnyk)) |publisher=Istpravda.com.ua |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-date=27 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120827145101/http://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2012/01/25/69897/ |url-status=live }}</ref>[[File:MapKharkov-1930-1823.jpg|alt=Plan of Kharkov, 1930|thumb|Plan of Kharkiv, 1930]]A number of prestige construction projects in new officially-approved [[Constructivist architecture|Constructivist style]] were completed,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=HEWRYK |first=TITUS D. |date=1992 |title=Planning of the Capital in Kharkiv |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036482 |journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies |volume=16 |issue=3/4 |pages=325–359 |jstor=41036482 |issn=0363-5570 |access-date=14 August 2022 |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814133659/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036482 |url-status=live }}</ref> among them [[Derzhprom]] (Palace of Industry) then the tallest building in the Soviet Union (and the second tallest in Europe),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kharkov.ua/culture/2b.html |title=Derzhprom statistics |publisher=Kharkov.ua |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-date=29 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091129213053/http://www.kharkov.ua/culture/2b.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the Red Army Building, the Ukrainian Polytechnic Institute of Distance Learning (UZPI), the [[Kharkiv City Council]] building, with its massive asymmetric tower, and the central department store that was opened on the 15th Anniversary of the [[October Revolution]].<ref name="living_kharkiv" /> As new buildings were going up, many of city's historic architectural monuments were being torn down. These included most of the baroque churches: Saint Nicholas's Cathedral of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church, the Church of the Myrrhophores, Saint Demetrius's Church, and the Cossack fortified Church of the Nativity.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Kharkiv |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CK%5CH%5CKharkiv.htm |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com |archive-date=22 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922153340/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CK%5CH%5CKharkiv.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Under [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s [[First Five-Year Plans (Pakistan)|First Five Year Plan]], the city underwent intensified industrialisation, led by a number of national projects. Chief among these were the [[Kharkiv Tractor Plant|Kharkiv Tractor Factory (HTZ)]], described by Stalin as "a steel bastion of the [[Collectivization of agriculture|collectivisation of agriculture]] in the Ukraine",<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stalin |first=Joseph |date=1931 |title=To the Workers and the Administrative and Technical personnel of Kharkov Tractor Works Project |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/10/x01.htm |journal=Stalin Collected Works |volume=13 |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-date=10 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710125822/https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/10/x01.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[Malyshev Factory]], an enlargement of the old Kharkiv Locomotive Factory, which at its height employed 60,000 workers in the production of heavy equipment.<ref name="AJKtfF15">[http://america.aljazeera.com/multimedia/2015/2/kharkiv-tank-factory.html Tank factory workers decry war that pits Ukrainian against Ukrainian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626174542/http://america.aljazeera.com/multimedia/2015/2/kharkiv-tank-factory.html |date=26 June 2022 }}, [[Al Jazeera America]] (27 February 2015)</ref> By 1937, the output of Kharkiv's industries was reported as being 35 times greater than in 1913.<ref name=":5" />

Since the turn of the century, the influx of new workers from the countryside changed the ethnic composition of Kharkiv. According to census returns, by 1939, the Russian share of the population had fallen from almost two-thirds to one third, while the Ukrainian share rose from a quarter to almost half. The Jewish population rose from under 6 percent of the total, to over 15 percent<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> (sustaining a [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] secondary school, a popular Jewish university and extensive publication in [[Yiddish]] and Hebrew).<ref name=":9" />[[File:GolodomorKharkiv.jpg|thumb|Starved peasants on the street during the [[Holodomor]] 1933.|left]]
In the 1920s, the [[Ukrainian SSR]] promoted the use of the [[Ukrainian language]], mandating it for all schools. In practice the share of secondary schools teaching in the [[Ukrainian language]] remained lower than the ethnic [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] share of the [[Kharkiv Oblast]]'s population.<ref>[http://balticworlds.com/games-from-the-past/ Games from the Past: The continuity and change of the identity dynamic in Donbas from a historical perspective ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140827095731/http://balticworlds.com/games-from-the-past/ |date=27 August 2014 }}, [[Södertörn University]] (19 May 2014)</ref> The [[Ukrainization]] policy was reversed, with the prosecution in Kharkiv in 1930 of the [[Union for the Freedom of Ukraine process|Union for the Freedom of Ukraine]]. Hundreds of Ukrainian intellectuals were arrested and deported.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn3xDTiL0PQC&q=%22official+language%22&pg=PA1 Language Policy in the Soviet Union] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922165542/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn3xDTiL0PQC&q=%22official+language%22&pg=PA1 |date=22 September 2023 }} by [[Lenore Grenoble]], [[Springer Science+Business Media]], 2003, {{ISBN|978-1-4020-1298-3}} (page 84)</ref>[[File:Pamiatnyk.jpg|thumb|A monument to the [[Persecuted kobzars and bandurists|persecuted kobzars]] |270x270px]]

In 1932 and 1933, the combination of grain seizures and the forced collectivisation of peasant holdings created famine conditions, the [[Holodomor]], driving people off the land and into Kharkiv, and other cities, in search of food.<ref name="Leonavičius |first1=Vylius Ozolinčiūtė 2019">{{cite journal |last1=Leonavičius |first1=Vylius |last2=Ozolinčiūtė |first2=Eglė |date=1 December 2019 |title=The Transformation of the Soviet Agriculture |journal=Sociologija: Mintis Ir Veiksmas |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=93–131 |doi=10.15388/SocMintVei.2019.1.10 |doi-access=free |s2cid=213399789}}</ref><ref name="Ellman2007">{{cite journal |last1=Ellman |first1=Michael |author-link=Michael Ellman |date=June 2007 |title=Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932–33 Revisited |journal=[[Europe-Asia Studies]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=663–693 |doi=10.1080/09668130701291899 |s2cid=53655536}}</ref> Eye-witness accounts by westerners—among them those of [[Communist Party USA|American Communist]] [[Fred Beal]] employed in the [[Kharkiv Tractor Plant|Kharkiv Tractor Factory]]<ref name=":2">{{cite book |last=Beal |first=Fred Erwin |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b332369&view=1up&seq=11&skin=2021 |title=Proletarian journey: New England, Gastonia, Moscow. |date=1937 |publisher=Hillman-Curl |location=New York |pages=283–284, 289–291 |access-date=11 August 2022 |archive-date=10 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810014224/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b332369&view=1up&seq=11&skin=2021 |url-status=live }}</ref> —were cited in the international press but, until the era of ''[[Glasnost]]'' were consistently [[Holodomor denial|denounced in the Soviet Union as fabrications]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Levy |first1=Clifford J. |date=16 March 2009 |title=A New View of a Famine That Killed Millions |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/world/europe/16kiev.html |access-date=11 August 2022 |archive-date=4 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220804005058/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/world/europe/16kiev.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="reflections">{{Cite Q|Q108386870|pages=96}}</ref><ref>Boriak, Hennadii (Fall 2001). "The publication of sources on the history of the 1932–1933 famine-genocide: history, current state, and prospects". ''Harvard Ukrainian Studies'' '''25''' (3–4): 167–186.</ref>

In 1934, hundreds of Ukrainian writers, intellectuals and cultural workers were arrested and executed in the attempt to eradicate all vestiges of [[Ukrainian nationalism]]. The purges continued into 1938. Blind Ukrainian street musicians [[Kobzars]] were also rounded up in Kharkiv and murdered by the [[NKVD]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=CFqB2_OX_oQC&dq=Stalin+Ukrainian+minstrels+Kharkiv&pg=PA116 Ukrainian minstrels: and the blind shall sing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405224825/https://books.google.com/books?id=CFqB2_OX_oQC&dq=Stalin+Ukrainian+minstrels+Kharkiv&pg=PA116 |date=5 April 2023 }} by Natalie Kononenko, M.E. Sharp, {{ISBN|0-7656-0144-3}}/{{ISBN|978-0-7656-0144-5}}, page 116</ref> Confident in his control over Ukraine, in January 1934 Stalin had the capital of the Ukrainian SSR moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv.<ref name="George O. Liber 1992">{{cite book |last=Liber |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2oqThmrFCfwC&pg=PA160 |title=Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth, and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR, 1923–1934 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0521522434 |access-date=2 September 2017 |archive-date=2 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002071001/https://books.google.com/books?id=2oqThmrFCfwC&pg=PA160 |url-status=live }}</ref>

During April and May 1940, about 3,900 Polish prisoners of [[Starobilsk]] camp were executed in the Kharkiv NKVD building, later secretly buried on the grounds of an NKVD pansionat in [[Piatykhatky, Kharkiv Oblast|Piatykhatky]] forest (part of the [[Katyn massacre]]) on the outskirts of Kharkiv.<ref name="Fischer">[[Benjamin Fischer (historian)|Fischer, Benjamin B.]], "[https://web.archive.org/web/20000816221054/http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter99-00/art6.html The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field]", ''[[Studies in Intelligence]]'', Winter 1999–2000, last accessed on 10&nbsp;December 2005</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=15 August 2016 |title=Records Relating to the Katyn Forest Massacre at the National Archives |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/katyn-massacre |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=National Archives |language=en |archive-date=8 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408082201/https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/katyn-massacre |url-status=live }}</ref> The site also contains the numerous bodies of Ukrainian cultural workers who were arrested and shot in the [[Great Purge|1937–38 Stalinist purges]].

==== German occupation ====
During [[World War II]], Kharkiv was the focus of major battles. The city [[First Battle of Kharkov|was captured]] by [[Nazi Germany]] on 24 October 1941.<ref name="kharkiv_at_war">{{cite web |url=http://www.istpravda.com.ua/artefacts/2011/04/3/34315/ |title=Харків часів "дорослого дитинства" Людмили Гурченко (Kharkiv at times of "matured childhood" of Lyudmila Gurchenko) |publisher=Istpravda.com.ua |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-date=22 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622051343/http://www.istpravda.com.ua/artefacts/2011/04/3/34315/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.andersval.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6267&Itemid=190 |title=Kharkiv through the eyes of Lyudmila Gurchenko |publisher=Andersval.nl |date=31 March 2011 |access-date=15 July 2012 |archive-date=6 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120906070121/http://www.andersval.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6267&Itemid=190 |url-status=live }}</ref> A disastrous [[Red Army]] [[Second Battle of Kharkov|offensive]] failed to recover the city in May 1942.<ref>The Red Army committed 765,300 men to this offensive, suffering 277,190 casualties (170,958 killed/missing/PoW, 106,232 wounded) and losing 652 tanks, and 4,924 guns and mortars. {{cite book |last=Glantz |first=David M. |title=Kharkov 1942, anatomy of a military disaster through Soviet eyes |publisher=[[Ian Allan Publishing]] |year=1998 |isbn=0-7110-2562-2 |page=218}}</ref><ref>per [[Robert M. Citino]], author of "Death of the Wehrmacht", and other sources, the Red Army came to within a few miles of Kharkiv on 14 May 1942 by Soviet forces under [[Semyon Timoshenko|Marshal Timoshenko]] before being driven back by German forces under Field Marshal [[Fedor von Bock]], p. 100</ref> It was retaken ([[Operation Star]]) on 16 February 1943, but [[Third Battle of Kharkov|lost again to the Germans]] on 15 March 1943. 23 August 1943 saw a final [[Fourth battle of kharkov|liberation]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |author=Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=joX_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |title=Ukraine in World War II |publisher=Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance |year=2015 |location=Ukraine |page=26 |language=en |access-date=31 July 2023 |archive-date=31 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230731153225/https://books.google.com/books?id=joX_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On the eve of the occupation, Kharkiv's pre-war population of 700,000 had been doubled by the influx of refugees.<ref name="Evening Kharkiv">{{Cite web |title=Харьков в годы Великой Отечественной войны &#124; Вечерний Харьков |url=https://vecherniy.kharkov.ua/news/14899/ |website=Evening Kharkiv |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812154336/https://vecherniy.kharkov.ua/news/14899/ |url-status=live }}</ref> What remained of the pre-war Jewish population of 130,000 were slated by the Germans for "special treatment". Between December 1941 and January 1942, they massacred and buried an estimated 15,000 Jews in a ravine outside of town named [[Drobytsky Yar]].<ref>{{Citation |last1=Karpyuk |first1=Gennady |date=23–29 December 2006 |url=http://www.dt.ua/3000/3150/55411/ |volume=49 |issue=628 |trans-title=A tragedy that not everyone wanted to know about |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209085420/http://www.dt.ua/3000/3150/55411/ |access-date=16 December 2011 |archive-date=9 December 2008 |script-work=uk:Дзеркало Тижня |script-title=uk:Трагедія, про яку дехто не дуже хотів знати}}</ref> Over their 22 months occupation they executed a further 30,000 residents, among them suspected [[Soviet partisans]] and, after a brief period of toleration, Ukrainian nationalists. 80,000 people died of hunger, cold and disease. 60,000 were forcibly transported to Germany as slave workers (''[[Ostarbeiter]]'').<ref name="KvUah5e">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ktyM07I9HXwC&dq=Kharkiv+German+November+1918&pg=PT338 |title=Ukraine: A History |edition=4th |first=Orest |last=Subtelny |author-link=Orest Subtelny |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-1442609914 |page=338 |access-date=13 March 2023 |archive-date=11 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411071745/https://books.google.com/books?id=ktyM07I9HXwC&dq=Kharkiv+German+November+1918&pg=PT338 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":5"/> Among these was [[Borys Romanchenko|Boris Romanchenko]]. On 18 March 2022, the 96-year-old survivor of forced labor at the [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]], [[Peenemünde]], [[Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp|Dora]] and [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen Belsen]] [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]] was killed when Russian fire hit his apartment bloc.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kelly |first=Lidia |date=22 March 2022 |title=WWII Holocaust survivor killed in Ukraine's Kharkiv |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/wwii-holocaust-survivor-killed-ukraines-kharkiv-2022-03-22/ |access-date=2022-08-13 |archive-date=12 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512204700/https://www.reuters.com/world/wwii-holocaust-survivor-killed-ukraines-kharkiv-2022-03-22/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=96-year-old Holocaust survivor said killed in Russian shelling of his Kharkiv home |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/96-year-old-holocaust-survivor-said-killed-in-russian-shelling-of-his-kharkiv-home/ |access-date=2022-08-13 |date=21 March 2022 |website=[[Times of Israel]] |language=en-US |archive-date=13 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813165954/https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/96-year-old-holocaust-survivor-said-killed-in-russian-shelling-of-his-kharkiv-home/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

By the time of Kharkiv's liberation in August 1943, the surviving population had been reduced to under 200,000.<ref name="Evening Kharkiv"/> Seventy percent of the city had been destroyed.<ref name=":7" /> According to a New York Time's piece, "The city was more battered than perhaps any other in the Soviet Union save Stalingrad."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Verini |first=James |date=19 May 2022 |title=Surviving the Siege of Kharkiv |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/19/magazine/kharkiv-siege.html |access-date=2023-08-14 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=5 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705011709/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/19/magazine/kharkiv-siege.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Post-World War II ====
Before the occupation, Kharkiv's [[Malyshev Factory|tank industries]] had been evacuated to the [[Urals]] with all their equipment, and became the heart of [[Red Army|Red Army's]] tank programs and in particular of the Kharkiv designed [[T-34]]. These enterprises returned to Kharkiv after the war, and became central elements of the post-war Soviet [[Military–industrial complex|military industrial complex]].<ref name="KvUah5e" /> Houses and factories were rebuilt, and much of the city's center was reconstructed in the style of [[Stalinist architecture|Stalinist Classicism]].<ref name="living_kharkiv" /> [[History of the Jews in Kharkiv|Kharkiv's Jewish community]] revived after World War II: by 1959 there were 84,000 Jews living in the city. However, [[Soviet anti-Zionism]] restricted expressions of Jewish religion and culture, and was sustained until the final Gorbachev years. The confiscated [[Kharkiv Choral Synagogue]] reopened as a synagogue in 1990.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |title=Kharkov, Ukraine Virtual Jewish History Tour |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kharkov-ukraine-virtual-jewish-history-tour |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405180150/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kharkov-ukraine-virtual-jewish-history-tour |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:IMG 2428 zerk.jpg|thumb|170px|[[Zerkalʹnaya struya|Mirror Stream]] fountain|left]]
[[File:Kharkov0060.jpg|thumb|Kharkiv in 1981]]

In the [[Brezhnev era|Brezhnev-era]], Kharkiv was promoted as a "model Soviet city". Propaganda made much of its "youthfulness", a designation broadly used to suggest the relative absence in the city of "material and spiritual relics" from the pre-revolutionary era, and its commitment to the new frontiers of Soviet industry and science. The city's machine-and-weapons building prowess was attributed to a forward-looking collaboration between its large-scale industrial enterprises and new research institutes and laboratories.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Studenna-Skrukwa |first=Marta |date=2020 |title=Model Soviet City of the Brezhnev Era: The Image of Kharkiv in Selected Propaganda Texts |url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_12775_HiP_2020_015 |journal=Historia i Polityka |volume=32 |language=EN |issue=39 |page=67 |doi=10.12775/HiP.2020.015 |s2cid=229566527 |issn=1899-5160 |doi-access=free |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812134517/http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_12775_HiP_2020_015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The last [[First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine|Communist Party chief of Ukraine]], [[Vladimir Ivashko]], appointed in 1989, trained as a mining engineer and served as a party functionary in Kharkiv.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Remnick |first=David |date=29 September 1989 |title=SHCHERBITSKY DISMISSED AS COMMUNIST PARTY BOSS IN UKRAINE |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/09/29/shcherbitsky-dismissed-as-communist-party-boss-in-ukraine/f903ba8a-bece-4493-894e-9a3b28e87d81/ |access-date=2022-08-14 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=28 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828011513/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/09/29/shcherbitsky-dismissed-as-communist-party-boss-in-ukraine/f903ba8a-bece-4493-894e-9a3b28e87d81/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He led the Communists to victory in Kharkiv and across the country in the [[1990 Ukrainian parliamentary election|parliamentary election]] held in the Ukrainian SSR in March 1990.<ref name="kalinichenko">{{cite web |script-title=uk:КАЛІНІЧЕНКО В.В., РИБАЛКА І.К. ІСТОРІЯ УКРАЇНИ. ЧАСТИНА ІІІ: 1917–2003 рр. |url=http://www-history.univer.kharkov.ua/e-library/kalinichenko_textbook/Kalinichenko_10.2.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512070738/http://www-history.univer.kharkov.ua/e-library/kalinichenko_textbook/Kalinichenko_10.2.htm |archive-date=2008-05-12 |language=uk}}</ref> The election was relatively free, but occurred well before organised political parties had time to form, and did not arrest the decline in the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU's]] legitimacy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McFaul |first=Michael |url=http://archive.org/details/postcommunistpol0000mcfa |title=Post-communist politics : democratic prospects in Russia and Eastern Europe |date=1993 |publisher=Washington, D.C. : Center for Strategic and International Studies |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-89206-208-9 |pages=17–19}}</ref> This was accelerated by the intra-party coup attempt against President [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and his reforms on 18 August 1991, during which Ivashko temporarily replaced Gorbachev as [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU General Secretary.]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Perrie |first1=Maureen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KAPxOl_mh4YC |title=The Cambridge History of Russia: Volume 3, The Twentieth Century |last2=Lieven |first2=D. C. B. |last3=Suny |first3=Ronald Grigor |date=2 November 2006 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-81144-6 |pages=344–349 |language=en |chapter=The Gorbachev Era}}</ref>

[[National University of Kharkiv|The National University of Kharkiv]] was at the forefront of democratic agitation. In October 1991, a call from Kyiv for an all-Ukrainian university strike to protest Gorbachev's [[Union of Sovereign States#Development|new]] [[New Union Treaty|Union Treaty]] and to call for new multi-party elections was met with a rally at the entrance to the university attended not only by students and university teachers, but also by a range of public and cultural figures.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Революція на граніті: Як харківські студенти змінили історію держави 30 років тому – новини Харкова |url=https://kh.depo.ua/ukr/kh/revolyutsiya-na-graniti-yak-kharkivski-studenti-zminili-istoriyu-derzhavi-30-rokiv-tomu-202010231230205 |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=www.depo.ua |language=uk |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814231233/https://kh.depo.ua/ukr/kh/revolyutsiya-na-graniti-yak-kharkivski-studenti-zminili-istoriyu-derzhavi-30-rokiv-tomu-202010231230205 |url-status=live }}</ref> The protests—the so-called [[Revolution on Granite]]<ref name="lesson-revolution-granite">[http://m.day.kyiv.ua/en/article/day-after-day/lesson-revolution-granite The lesson of the Revolution on Granite] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415162522/http://m.day.kyiv.ua/en/article/day-after-day/lesson-revolution-granite |date=15 April 2021 }}, ''[[Den (newspaper)|Den]]'' (4 October 2016)</ref>—ended on 17 October with a resolution of the [[Verkhovna Rada]] of the Ukrainian SSR promising further democratic reform. In the event, the only demand fulfilled was the removal of the Communist Prime Minister.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zhyshko |first=Serhii |date=2016 |title=The lesson of the Revolution on Granite |url=https://m.day.kyiv.ua/en/article/day-after-day/lesson-revolution-granite |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=«Антидот» і «детокс» від «Дня» |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814231233/https://m.day.kyiv.ua/en/article/day-after-day/lesson-revolution-granite |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Independent Ukraine ===
In the 1 December 1991 [[1991 Ukrainian independence referendum|Referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence]], on a turnout of 76 percent 86 percent of the [[Kharkiv Oblast]] approved separate Ukrainian statehood.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 September 2015 |title=Ukrainian Independence Referendum |url=https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991-2/the-end-of-the-soviet-union/the-end-of-the-soviet-union-texts/ukrainian-independence-declaration/ |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=Seventeen Moments in Soviet History |language=en-US |archive-date=14 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414065531/https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991-2/the-end-of-the-soviet-union/the-end-of-the-soviet-union-texts/ukrainian-independence-declaration/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the [[1990s post-Soviet aliyah]], many Jews from Kharkiv emigrated to [[Israel]] or to Western countries.<ref>{{cite web |title=Virtual Jewish World: Kharkov, Ukraine |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kharkov-ukraine-virtual-jewish-history-tour |access-date=2022-03-15 |publisher=[[Jewish Virtual Library]] |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405180150/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kharkov-ukraine-virtual-jewish-history-tour |url-status=live }}</ref> The city's Jewish population, 62,800 in 1970,<ref name=":9" /> dropped to 50,000 by the end of the century.<ref>{{cite web |title=Khar'kiv |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/kharkiv |access-date=2022-03-15 |publisher=[[YIVO]] |archive-date=12 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512011725/https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Kharkiv |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Новорічне оформлення майдану Свободи, м. Харків.jpg|thumb|New Year's decoration of [[Freedom Square (Kharkiv)|Freedom Square]] in Kharkiv in 2018]]The [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|collapse of the Soviet Union]] disrupted, but did not sever, the ties that bound Kharkiv's heavy industries to the integrated Soviet market and supply chains, and did not diminish dependency on Russian oil, minerals, and gas.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Sutela |first1=Pekka |title=The Underachiever: Ukraine's Economy Since 1991 |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2012/03/the-underachiever-ukraines-economy-since-1991?lang=en |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |language=en |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729100406/https://carnegieendowment.org/2012/03/09/underachiever-ukraine-s-economy-since-1991-pub-47451 |url-status=live }}</ref> In Kharkiv and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, the limited prospects for securing new economic partners in the West, and concern for the rights of Russian-speakers in the new national state, combined to promote the interests of political parties and candidates emphasising understanding and cooperation with the [[Russian Federation]]. In the new century, these were represented by the [[Party of Regions]] and by the presidential ambitions of [[Viktor Yanukovych|Victor Yanukovych]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=29 September 2010 |title=The Party of Regions monopolises power in Ukraine |url=https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2010-09-29/party-regions-monopolises-power-ukraine |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=OSW Centre for Eastern Studies |language=en |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814133452/https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2010-09-29/party-regions-monopolises-power-ukraine |url-status=live }}</ref> which in Kharkiv triumphed in the [[Kharkiv City Council|city council]] elections of 2006, in the parliamentary elections of 2007 and in the presidential elections of 2010.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Platonova |first=Daria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=01E_EAAAQBAJ&pg=PP27 |title=The Donbas Conflict in Ukraine: Elites, Protest, and Partition |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-000-45326-3 |pages=27 |language=en |access-date=22 August 2022 |archive-date=2 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002071002/https://books.google.com/books?id=01E_EAAAQBAJ&pg=PP27#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although never attaining the level of protest witnessed in Kyiv and in communities further west, following the disputed [[2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election|2012 Parliamentary elections]] public opposition to [[Viktor Yanukovych|President Yanukovych]] and his party surfaced in Kharkiv amid accusations of systematic corruption and of sabotaging prospects for new ties to the European Union.<ref>[http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukraine-opposition-protests-election-results-316008.html Ukraine opposition protests election results] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920002302/http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukraine-opposition-protests-election-results-316008.html |date=20 September 2015 }}, [[Kyiv Post]] (1 November 2012)</ref>

The journalist [[Katya Soldak]], who was born in Kharkiv, documents the city's post-Soviet development in her award-winning documentary film “[[The Long Breakup]]”, tracing its path from the collapse of the Soviet Union toward independence and democratic governance.

====Pro-Russian unrest and violence====
{{main|2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine#Kharkiv Oblast}}
The [[Euromaidan]] protests in the winter of 2013–2014 against then president [[Viktor Yanukovych]] consisted of daily gatherings of about 200 protestors near the statue of [[Taras Shevchenko]] and were predominantly peaceful.<ref name="separatistarrests25324984"/> Disappointed at the turnout, an activist at Kharkiv University suggested that his fellow students "proved to be as much of an inert, grey and cowed mass as Kharkiv's ‘''biudzhetniki''’ " (those whose income derives from the state budget, mostly public servants).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kharkiv Talks in a Viennese Kitchen – On Revolution, War and Literature in Ukraine |url=https://www.iwm.at/transit-online/kharkiv-talks-in-a-viennese-kitchen-on-revolution-war-and-literature-in |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=IWM WEBSITE |language=en |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815200538/https://www.iwm.at/transit-online/kharkiv-talks-in-a-viennese-kitchen-on-revolution-war-and-literature-in |url-status=live }}</ref> But Pro-Yanukovych demonstrations, held near the [[statue of Lenin in Kharkiv|statue of Lenin]] in [[Freedom Square (Kharkiv)|Freedom (previously Dzerzhinsky) Square]], were similarly small.<ref name="separatistarrests25324984"/>

In the wake of Yanukovych's ouster in February, there were attempts in Kharkiv to follow the example of separatists in neighbouring [[Donbas]].<ref name="Ukraine crisis timeline BBC">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26248275|title=Ukraine crisis: Timeline|work=BBC News|date=13 November 2014|access-date=22 March 2015|archive-date=3 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140603193226/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26248275|url-status=live}}</ref> On 2 March 2014, a Russian "tourist" from Moscow replaced the [[Ukrainian flag]] with a [[Russian flag]] on the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Building.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/world/europe/russias-hand-can-be-seen-in-the-protests.html | title = From Russia, 'Tourists' Stir the Protests | first = Andrew | last = Roth | work = The New York Times | date = 4 March 2014 | access-date = 27 February 2017 | archive-date = 4 March 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140304074020/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/world/europe/russias-hand-can-be-seen-in-the-protests.html | url-status = live }}<br>{{cite news | url = https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-26435333 | title = Russian site recruits 'volunteers' for Ukraine | work = BBC News | date = 4 March 2014 | access-date = 21 June 2018 | archive-date = 22 July 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180722074502/https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-26435333 | url-status = live }}</ref> On 6 April 2014 pro-Russian protestors occupied the building and unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine as the "[[Kharkiv People's Republic]]".<ref name="separatistarrests25324984">[https://www.rferl.org/a/kharkiv-operation-ukraine-terrorism-separatist-arrests/25324984.html Ukraine Authorities Clear Kharkiv Building, Arrest Scores Of 'Separatists'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111211046/https://www.rferl.org/a/kharkiv-operation-ukraine-terrorism-separatist-arrests/25324984.html |date=11 November 2021 }}, [[Radio Free Europe]] (8 April 2014)<br>[https://carnegieeurope.eu/2018/09/12/how-eastern-ukraine-is-adapting-and-surviving-case-of-kharkiv-pub-77216 How Eastern Ukraine Is Adapting and Surviving: The Case of Kharkiv], [[Carnegie Europe]] (12 September 2018)</ref><ref name="Focus Information Agency">{{cite web | url=http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2014/04/07/332351/pro-russia-activists-declare-establishment-of-kharkiv-peoples-republic.html | title=Pro-Russia activists declare establishment of 'Kharkiv people's republic' | work=Focus Information Agency | date=7 April 2014 | access-date=13 April 2014 | archive-date=9 April 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140409121553/http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2014/04/07/332351/pro-russia-activists-declare-establishment-of-kharkiv-peoples-republic.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> Doubts arose about their local origin as they had initially targeted the city's [[Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre|Opera and Ballet Theatre]] before recognising their mistake.<ref>{{Cite web  |date=8 April 2014 |title=Protesters Storm Kharkiv Theater Thinking It Was City Hall |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/04/08/protesters-storm-kharkiv-theater-thinking-it-was-city-hall-a33739 |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=The Moscow Times |language=en |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815112502/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/04/08/protesters-storm-kharkiv-theater-thinking-it-was-city-hall-a33739 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Kharkiv's mayor, [[Hennadiy Kernes|Hennadiy "Gepa" Kernes]], elected in 2010 as the nominee of the [[Party of Regions]], was placed under house arrest. Claiming to have been "prisoner of Yanukovych's system",<ref name="prisoner of Yanukovych">[http://mymedia.org.ua/en/articles/revolution/kharkiv_s_kernes_justifies_his_180-degree_political_turn_by_saying_he_was_prisoner_of_yanukovych_sys.html "Kharkiv's Kernes justifies his 180-degree political turn by saying he was 'prisoner' of Yanukovych system"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206195542/https://mymedia.org.ua/en/articles/revolution/kharkiv_s_kernes_justifies_his_180-degree_political_turn_by_saying_he_was_prisoner_of_yanukovych_sys.html|date=6 December 2021}}, [[MY-MEDIA]], 6 March 2014; accessed 28 August 2014.</ref> he now declared his loyalty to acting President [[Oleksandr Turchynov]].<ref name="separatistarrests25324984" /> In a televised address on 7 April, Turchynov had announced that "a second wave of the Russian Federation's special operation against Ukraine [has] started" with the "goal of destabilising the situation in the country, toppling Ukrainian authorities, disrupting the elections, and tearing our country apart".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Authorities Clear Occupied Kharkiv Building |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/kharkiv-operation-ukraine-terrorism-separatist-arrests/25324984.html |access-date=2022-08-15 |newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=8 April 2014 |language=en |archive-date=11 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111211046/https://www.rferl.org/a/kharkiv-operation-ukraine-terrorism-separatist-arrests/25324984.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Kernes persuaded the police to storm the regional administration building and push out the separatists. He was allowed to return to his mayoral duties.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last=Loiko |first=Sergei |date=28 April 2014 |title=Ukraine mayor in critical condition after he was shot in the back |url=https://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-ukraine-mayor-shot-20140428-story.html |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815112502/https://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-ukraine-mayor-shot-20140428-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Police action against the separatists was reinforced by a special forces unit from [[Vinnytsia]] directed by Ukrainian Interior Minister [[Arsen Avakov]] and [[Stepan Poltorak]] the acting commander of the [[Internal Troops of Ukraine|Ukrainian Internal Forces]].<ref name="separatistarrests25324984" /><ref name="KRR2">{{cite news | url=http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/kharkiv-settles-down-while-pro-russian-separatists-still-hold-buildings-in-luhansk-donetsk-342517.html | title=Kharkiv settles down, while pro-Russian separatists still hold buildings in Luhansk, Donetsk | work=Kyiv Post | date=8 April 2014 | access-date=13 April 2014 | archive-date=13 January 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113023301/http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/kharkiv-settles-down-while-pro-russian-separatists-still-hold-buildings-in-luhansk-donetsk-342517.html | url-status=live }}</ref> On 13 April, some pro-Russian protesters again made it inside the Kharkiv regional state administration building, but were quickly evicted.<ref name="KRR2" /><ref name="kharkivinfiltrate">{{cite news |date=13 April 2014 |title=Kharkiv city government building infiltrated by pro-Russian protesters |work=Kyiv Post |url=http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/pro-russian-militants-attack-pro-ukrainian-demonstrators-in-kharkiv-including-at-least-three-severely-343292.html |access-date=13 April 2014 |archive-date=13 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113023301/http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/pro-russian-militants-attack-pro-ukrainian-demonstrators-in-kharkiv-including-at-least-three-severely-343292.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Unian.net">{{cite web |url=http://www.unian.net/politics/907771-posle-napadeniya-antimaydanovtsev-na-miting-evromaydana-v-harkove-postradalo-50-chelovek.html |title=После нападения антимайдановцев на митинг Евромайдана в Харькове пострадало 50 человек : Новости УНИАН |publisher=Unian.net |date=14 April 2014 |access-date=28 April 2014 |archive-date=19 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519144043/http://www.unian.net/politics/907771-posle-napadeniya-antimaydanovtsev-na-miting-evromaydana-v-harkove-postradalo-50-chelovek.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Violent clashes resulted in the severe beating of at least 50 pro-Ukrainian protesters in attacks by pro-Russian protesters.<ref name="kharkivinfiltrate" /><ref name="Unian.net" />

On 28 April, [[Hennadiy Kernes|Kernes]] was shot by a sniper,<ref>{{cite news |date=28 April 2014 |title=Ukraine crisis: US and EU to intensify Russia sanctions |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27183591 |access-date=28 April 2014 |archive-date=1 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301222721/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27183591 |url-status=live }}[http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-ukraine-mayor-shot-20140428,0,1011902.story?track=rss#axzz30JGhcEHC Ukraine mayor in critical condition after he was shot in the back] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505011013/http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-ukraine-mayor-shot-20140428,0,1011902.story?track=rss#axzz30JGhcEHC |date=5 May 2014 }}, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' (28 April 2014)</ref> a victim, commentators suggested, of his former pro-Russian allies.<ref name=":8" /> Following recovery from his wounds, he was twice been re-elected, but in December 2020 died of COVID-19 related complications.<ref name="3156284kharkivITwaKmWa">[https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/3156284-kharkiv-mayor-kernes-dies.html Kharkiv mayor Kernes dies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111214322/https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/3156284-kharkiv-mayor-kernes-dies.html|date=11 November 2021}}, [[Ukrinform]] (17 December 2020)<br />[https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-54502494 Помер Геннадій Кернес: мер Харкова, який виграв вибори з реанімації] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217074508/https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-54502494|date=17 December 2020}}, [[BBC Ukrainian]] (17 December 2020) {{in lang|uk}}</ref><ref name="246371KeysKernesKmWa">{{in lang|uk}} [https://m.tyzhden.ua/publication/246371 Keys to cities. What is the secret of longevity of mayors] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111214335/https://m.tyzhden.ua/publication/246371|date=11 November 2021}}, [[The Ukrainian Week]] (10 August 2020)</ref> Kernes was succeeded as mayor by [[Ihor Terekhov]] of the "[[Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv]]".<ref name="7313698KharkivSnap" /><ref name="Kharkiv7308397Terekhov" />

Relatively peaceful demonstrations continued to be held, with "pro-Russian" rallies gradually diminishing and "pro-Ukrainian unity" demonstrations growing in numbers.<ref name="OSCE624">{{cite press release |url=http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/120113 |title=Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine based on information received until 23 June 2014 |publisher=Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe |date=24 June 2014 |access-date=22 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122133303/http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/120113 |archive-date=22 November 2015}}</ref><ref name="OSCE257">{{cite press release |url=http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/121790 |title=Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine based on information received until 18:00 hrs, 23 July |publisher=Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe |date=24 July 2014 |access-date=25 July 2014 |archive-date=11 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111212651/https://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/121790 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Status quo 17814">{{in lang|uk}} [http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/obschestvo/17.08.2014/na_ploschadi_svobody_proshli_dva_mitinga/ Two liberty square rally] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320011916/https://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/obschestvo/17.08.2014/na_ploschadi_svobody_proshli_dva_mitinga |date=20 March 2022 }}, Status quo (17 August 2014)</ref> On 28 September 2014, activists dismantled Ukraine's largest monument to Lenin at a pro-Ukrainian rally in the central square.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/katyasoldak/2014/09/28/ukrainian-crowds-topple-lenin-statue-again/ Ukrainian Crowds Topple Lenin Statue (Again)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020132743/https://www.forbes.com/sites/katyasoldak/2014/09/28/ukrainian-crowds-topple-lenin-statue-again/ |date=20 October 2017 }}. Retrieved 29 September 2014.</ref> Polls conducted from September to December 2014 found little support in Kharkiv for joining Russia.{{r|Navalny140923}}{{r|DT150103}}

From early November until mid-December, Kharkiv was struck by seven non-lethal bomb blasts. Targets of these attacks included a rock pub known for raising money for Ukrainian forces, a hospital for Ukrainian forces, a military recruiting centre, and a [[National Guard of Ukraine|National Guard]] base.<ref>[http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-russia-kharkiv-bombs-20141210-story.html Seven recent blasts in Ukraine city stir fear of new Russian menace] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320012623/https://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-russia-kharkiv-bombs-20141210-story.html |date=20 March 2022 }}, [[Los Angeles Times]] (11 December 2014)<br>[https://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-spate-bombings-hit-ukraine-military-hub-114452090.html# Mysterious spate of bombings hit Ukraine military hub] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315155646/http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-spate-bombings-hit-ukraine-military-hub-114452090.html |date=15 March 2016 }}, [[Agence France-Presse]] (10 December 2014)</ref> According to [[Security Service of Ukraine|SBU]] investigator Vasyliy Vovk, [[Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)|Russian covert forces]] were behind the attacks, and had intended to destabilise the otherwise calm city of Kharkiv.<ref>[http://www.unian.info/society/1020077-sbu-russian-special-services-target-kharkiv-odesa-situation-difficult-to-control.html SBU: Russian special services target Kharkiv, Odesa, situation difficult to control] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141214215037/http://www.unian.info/society/1020077-sbu-russian-special-services-target-kharkiv-odesa-situation-difficult-to-control.html |date=14 December 2014 }}, [[Ukrainian Independent Information Agency]] (10 December 2014)</ref> Attacks continued into 2015, including a bombing that killed four people during a march commemorating the [[List of people killed during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution|Euromaidan victims]].<ref name="separatistarrests25324984" />

After the Euromaidan events and Russian [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|actions in the Crimea]] and [[War in Donbas (2014–2022)|Donbas]] ruptured relations with Moscow, the Kharkiv region experienced a sharp fall in output and employment. Once a hub of cross border trade, Kharkiv was turned into a border fortress. A reorientation to new international markets, increased defense contracts (after Kyiv, the region contains the second-largest number of military-related enterprises) and export growth in the economy's services sector helped fuel a recovery, but people's incomes did not return to pre-2014 levels.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Jarábik |first=Natalia Shapovalova, Balázs |title=How Eastern Ukraine Is Adapting and Surviving: The Case of Kharkiv |url=https://carnegieeurope.eu/2018/09/12/how-eastern-ukraine-is-adapting-and-surviving-case-of-kharkiv-pub-77216 |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=Carnegie Europe |language=en |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308154832/https://www.rferl.org/a/kharkiv-operation-ukraine-terrorism-separatist-arrests/25324984.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

By 2018 Kharkiv officially has the lowest unemployment rate in Ukraine, 6 percent. But in part this reflected labor shortages caused by the steady outflow of young and skilled workers to Poland and other European countries.<ref name=":02" />

Until 18 July 2020, Kharkiv was incorporated as a [[city of regional significance (Ukraine)|city of oblast significance]] and served as the administrative center of Kharkiv Raion though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Kharkiv Oblast to seven, the city of Kharkiv was merged into Kharkiv Raion.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Про утворення та ліквідацію районів. Постанова Верховної Ради України № 807-ІХ.|url=http://www.golos.com.ua/article/333466|access-date=2020-10-03|date=18 July 2020|website=Голос України|language=uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Нові райони: карти + склад |url=https://www.minregion.gov.ua/press/news/novi-rajony-karty-sklad/ |publisher=Міністерство розвитку громад та територій України |language=Ukrainian}}</ref>

==== 2022 Russian invasion ====
{{main|Battle of Kharkiv (2022)|Kharkiv strikes (2022–present)}}During the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]], Kharkiv [[Battle of Kharkiv (2022)|was the site of heavy fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian forces]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schwirtz |first=Michael |date=25 February 2022 |title=Scenes from Kharkiv: Battle wreckage, the boom of artillery, and people sheltering in the subway. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/world/europe/kharkiv-ukraine-military.html |access-date=26 February 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=25 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225173613/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/world/europe/kharkiv-ukraine-military.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On 27 February, the governor of Kharkiv Oblast [[Oleh Syniehubov]] claimed that Russian troops were repelled from Kharkiv.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/27/kharkiv-fighting-russia-ukraine-invasion |website=[[The Guardian]] |title=Kharkiv governor claims Russian troops repelled from city |date=27 February 2022 |access-date=27 February 2022 |last=Harding |first=Luke |archive-date=27 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227162935/https://apple.news/AaXq70KfATu2dJIxsVdW9vw |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to a 28 February 2022, report from Agroportal 24h, the [[Kharkiv Tractor Plant|Kharkiv Tractor Plant (KhTZ)]], in the south east of the city, was destroyed and "engulfed in fire" by "massive shelling" from Russian forces.<ref name=":4">{{cite web |title=Ukrainian Tractor Factory Destroyed in Bombing |url=https://www.agequipmentintelligence.com/articles/5369-ukrainian-tractor-factory-destroyed-in-bombing |access-date=14 March 2022 |website=www.agequipmentintelligence.com |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220316120452/https://www.agequipmentintelligence.com/articles/5369-ukrainian-tractor-factory-destroyed-in-bombing |url-status=live }}</ref> Video purported to record explosions and fire at the plant on 25 and 27 February 2022.<ref>{{cite web |title=Реальная Война Новости Украина |url=https://t.me/voynareal/10377 |access-date=14 March 2022 |website=Telegram |archive-date=14 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314111604/https://t.me/voynareal/10377 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=video of the fire reportedly at the Kharkiv Tractor Plant |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY5kGPtCGTo |language=en |access-date=14 March 2022 |archive-date=14 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314111609/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY5kGPtCGTo&feature=youtu.be |url-status=live }}</ref> UNESCO has confirmed that in the first three weeks of bombardment the city experienced the loss or damage of at least 27 major historical buildings.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 May 2022 |title=Kharkiv catalogues war's toll on its architectural gems |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/05/kharkiv-catalogues-war-toll-on-architectural-gems-historic-buildings-ukraine |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=The Guardian |language=en |archive-date=24 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724091916/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/05/kharkiv-catalogues-war-toll-on-architectural-gems-historic-buildings-ukraine |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 4 March 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that on the fourth day of the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation]], 28 February 2022, Federation forces used cluster munitions in the [[Industrialnyi District, Kharkiv|KhTZ]], the [[Saltivskyi District|Saltivskyi]] and [[Shevchenkivskyi District, Kharkiv|Shevchenkivskyi]] districts of the city. The rights group—which noted the "inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions and their foreseeable effects on civilians"—based its assessment on interviews and an analysis of 40 videos and photographs.<ref>{{cite web |date=4 March 2022 |title=Ukraine: Cluster Munitions Launched Into Kharkiv Neighborhoods |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/04/ukraine-cluster-munitions-launched-kharkiv-neighborhoods |access-date=13 March 2022 |website=Human Rights Watch |language=en |archive-date=13 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220313140732/https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/04/ukraine-cluster-munitions-launched-kharkiv-neighborhoods |url-status=live }}</ref> In March 2022, during the [[Battle of Kharkiv (2022)|Battle of Kharkiv]], the city was designated as a [[Hero City of Ukraine]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Богданьок |first=Олена |date=6 March 2022 |title=Харків, Чернігів, Маріуполь, Херсон, Гостомель і Волноваха тепер міста-герої |language=uk |newspaper=Суспільне &#124; Новини |url=https://suspilne.media/214620-harkiv-cernigiv-mariupol-herson-gostomel-i-volnovaha-otrimali-zvanna-misto-geroj-prezident/ |access-date=13 March 2022 |archive-date=13 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220313224944/https://suspilne.media/214620-harkiv-cernigiv-mariupol-herson-gostomel-i-volnovaha-otrimali-zvanna-misto-geroj-prezident/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In May 2022, Ukrainian forces began a counter-offensive to drive Russian forces away from the city and towards the international border. By 12 May, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence reported that Russia had withdrawn units from the Kharkiv area.<ref name="fox">{{cite news |last=Norman |first=Greg |date=12 May 2022 |title=Russia withdrawing troops after 'heavy losses', proving 'inability to capture key Ukrainian cities,' UK says |newspaper=Fox News |url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/russia-withdrawing-troops-kharkiv-ukraine-war-uk-says |access-date=14 May 2022 |archive-date=15 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515230813/https://www.foxnews.com/world/russia-withdrawing-troops-kharkiv-ukraine-war-uk-says |url-status=live }}</ref> Russian artillery and rockets remain within range of the city, and it [[Bombing of Kharkiv (2022–present)|continues to suffer shelling]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Enemy shell falls near apartment building in Kharkiv region |url=https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3550225-enemy-shell-falls-near-apartment-building-in-kharkiv-region.html |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=www.ukrinform.net |date=14 August 2022 |language=en |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814192811/https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3550225-enemy-shell-falls-near-apartment-building-in-kharkiv-region.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and missile strikes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Russians fire missiles at Kharkiv Region's Zmiiv community, three civilians injured |url=https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3550022-russians-fire-missiles-at-kharkiv-regions-zmiiv-community-three-civilians-injured.html |access-date=2022-08-14 |website=www.ukrinform.net |date=14 August 2022 |language=en |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814080545/https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3550022-russians-fire-missiles-at-kharkiv-regions-zmiiv-community-three-civilians-injured.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=31 December 2023 |title=Ukraine war: Russia hits back after Kyiv attack on border city |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67851431 |access-date=31 December 2023 |work=[[BBC News]]}}<br>{{Cite web |date=29 December 2023 |title=Russia launches largest air attack on Ukraine since start of full-scale war |url=https://kyivindependent.com/russian-strikes-injure-at-least-7-in-kyiv-casualties-reported-in-lviv-dnipro-kharkiv/ |access-date=2023-12-30 |website=The Kyiv Independent |language=en}}</ref>

{{main|2024 northeastern Ukraine offensive}}

In May 2024, after two weeks intensive fighting, and the loss of a number of border villages, Ukrainian forces halted a renewed Russian advance toward Kharkiv. The Ukrainian defence was assisted by American-supplied [[M142 HIMARS|HIMARS missiles]], and by US permission to fire these across the border at military targets within Russian territory.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Farmer |first=Ben |date=8 June 2024 |title=Russia thwarted over Kharkiv after cross-border Himars strikes |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/08/russia-ukraine-kharkiv-key-missile-launch-sites-counter-att/ |access-date=2024-06-17 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> The Russians retaliated with [[25 May 2024 Kharkiv missile strikes|missile strikes]], including a [[Glide bomb|glide-bomb]] attack that hit and destroyed an [[Epicentr K|Epicenter K]] hypermarket killing 18 civilians.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kottasová |first=Radina Gigova, Ivana |date=2024-05-27 |title=Russian strike kills 18 people in Kharkiv megastore, the deadliest attack Ukraine has seen in weeks |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/27/europe/russian-strike-kharkiv-megastore-intl/index.html |access-date=2025-02-02 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref>

==Geography==
[[File:Kharkivstrelka.jpg|thumb|right|The Lopan-Kharkiv river spur]]
Kharkiv is located at the banks of the [[Kharkiv River|Kharkiv]], [[Lopan River|Lopan]], and [[Udy River|Udy]] rivers, where they flow into the [[Donets|Siverskyi Donets]] watershed in the north-eastern region of Ukraine.

Historically, Kharkiv lies in the [[Sloboda Ukraine]] region (''Slobozhanshchyna'' also known as ''Slobidshchyna'') in Ukraine, in which it is considered to be the main city.

The approximate dimensions of city of Kharkiv are: from the North to the South — 24.3&nbsp;km; from the West to the East — 25.2&nbsp;km.

Based on Kharkiv's topography, the city can be conditionally divided into four lower districts and four higher districts.

The highest point above sea level, in Piatykhatky, is 202m, and the lowest is Novoselivka in Kharkiv is 94m.{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

Kharkiv lies in the large valley of rivers of [[Kharkiv River|Kharkiv]], [[Lopan]], [[Udy (river)|Udy]], and Nemyshlia. This valley lies from the North West to the South East between the Mid Russian highland and Donets lowland. All the rivers interconnect in Kharkiv and flow into the river of [[Seversky Donets|Northern Donets]]. A special system of concrete and metal dams was designed and built by engineers to regulate the water level in the rivers in Kharkiv.{{Citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Kharkiv has a large number of green city parks with a long history of more than 100 years with very old oak trees and many flowers.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} [[Central Park (Kharkiv)|Central Park]] is Kharkiv's largest public garden. The park has nine areas: children, extreme sports, family entertainment, a medieval area, entertainment center, French park, cable car, sports grounds, retro park. This park was previously named after [[Maxim Gorky]] until June 2023 when it was renamed Central Park for Culture and Recreation.<ref>{{cite web|title=In Kharkiv, the Central Park named after Gorky and several streets|url=https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-regions/3722289-u-harkovi-perejmenuvali-centralnij-park-im-gorkogo-ta-kilka-vulic.html|date=13 June 2023|access-date=26 January 2024|language=Ukrainian|website=[[Ukrinform]]}}</ref>

===Climate===
Kharkiv's climate is [[Humid continental climate|humid continental]] ([[Köppen climate classification]] ''Dfa''/''Dfb'') with long, cold, snowy winters and warm to hot summers.

The average rainfall totals {{convert|519|mm|in|0|abbr=on}} per year, with the most in June and July.
{{Weather box
|width=auto
|location=Kharkiv, Ukraine (1991–2020, extremes 1841–present)
|metric first=yes
|single line=yes
| Jan record high C = 11.1
| Feb record high C = 14.6
| Mar record high C = 23.7
| Apr record high C = 30.5
| May record high C = 34.5
| Jun record high C = 39.8
| Jul record high C = 38.4
| Aug record high C = 39.8
| Sep record high C = 34.5
| Oct record high C = 29.3
| Nov record high C = 20.3
| Dec record high C = 13.4
| year record high C = 39.8
| Jan high C = -2.1
| Feb high C = -0.8
| Mar high C = 5.2
| Apr high C = 14.7
| May high C = 21.4
| Jun high C = 25.2
| Jul high C = 27.4
| Aug high C = 26.8
| Sep high C = 20.5
| Oct high C = 12.6
| Nov high C = 4.3
| Dec high C = -0.7
| year high C = 12.9
| Jan mean C = -4.5
| Feb mean C = -3.8
| Mar mean C = 1.4
| Apr mean C = 9.7
| May mean C = 16.1
| Jun mean C = 20.0
| Jul mean C = 22.0
| Aug mean C = 21.1
| Sep mean C = 15.1
| Oct mean C = 8.2
| Nov mean C = 1.6
| Dec mean C = -2.9
| year mean C = 8.7
| Jan low C = -6.8
| Feb low C = -6.6
| Mar low C = -1.9
| Apr low C = 4.8
| May low C = 10.7
| Jun low C = 14.7
| Jul low C = 16.6
| Aug low C = 15.4
| Sep low C = 10.2
| Oct low C = 4.4
| Nov low C = -0.8
| Dec low C = -5.1
| year low C = 4.6
| Jan record low C = -35.6
| Feb record low C = -29.8
| Mar record low C = -32.2
| Apr record low C = -11.4
| May record low C = -1.9
| Jun record low C = 2.2
| Jul record low C = 5.7
| Aug record low C = 2.2
| Sep record low C = -2.9
| Oct record low C = -9.1
| Nov record low C = -20.9
| Dec record low C = -30.8
| year record low C = -35.6
| precipitation colour = green
| Jan precipitation mm = 37
| Feb precipitation mm = 33
| Mar precipitation mm = 36
| Apr precipitation mm = 32
| May precipitation mm = 54
| Jun precipitation mm = 58
| Jul precipitation mm = 63
| Aug precipitation mm = 39
| Sep precipitation mm = 44
| Oct precipitation mm = 44
| Nov precipitation mm = 39
| Dec precipitation mm = 40
| year precipitation mm = 519
| Jan snow depth cm = 8
| Feb snow depth cm = 11
| Mar snow depth cm = 8
| Apr snow depth cm = 1
| May snow depth cm = 0
| Jun snow depth cm = 0
| Jul snow depth cm = 0
| Aug snow depth cm = 0
| Sep snow depth cm = 0
| Oct snow depth cm = 0
| Nov snow depth cm = 1
| Dec snow depth cm = 4
| year snow depth cm = 11
| Jan rain days = 10
| Feb rain days = 8
| Mar rain days = 10
| Apr rain days = 13
| May rain days = 14
| Jun rain days = 15
| Jul rain days = 13
| Aug rain days = 10
| Sep rain days = 12
| Oct rain days = 13
| Nov rain days = 13
| Dec rain days = 12
| year rain days = 143
| Jan snow days = 19
| Feb snow days = 18
| Mar snow days = 12
| Apr snow days = 2
| May snow days = 0.1
| Jun snow days = 0
| Jul snow days = 0
| Aug snow days = 0
| Sep snow days = 0.03
| Oct snow days = 2
| Nov snow days = 9
| Dec snow days = 18
| year snow days = 80
| Jan humidity = 85.9
| Feb humidity = 82.7
| Mar humidity = 74.8
| Apr humidity = 62.3
| May humidity = 60.4
| Jun humidity = 62.1
| Jul humidity = 62.4
| Aug humidity = 59.1
| Sep humidity = 65.7
| Oct humidity = 75.8
| Nov humidity = 84.1
| Dec humidity = 86.8
| year humidity = 71.8
| Jan sun = 44
| Feb sun = 68
| Mar sun = 131
| Apr sun = 187
| May sun = 267
| Jun sun = 289
| Jul sun = 308
| Aug sun = 286
| Sep sun = 205
| Oct sun = 123
| Nov sun = 55
| Dec sun = 36
| year sun = 1999
|source 1 = Pogoda.ru.net<ref name=weather1>{{cite web
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191213142352/http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/climate/34300.htm
| archive-date = 13 December 2019
| url = http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/climate/34300.htm
| title = Weather and Climate – The Climate of Kharkiv
| publisher = Weather and Climate (Погода и климат)
| access-date = 8 November 2021
| language = ru}}</ref>
|source 2 = [[NCEI]] (humidity and sun 1991–2020)<ref name=NOAA>
{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250420201556/https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/archive/arc0216/0253808/6.6/data/0-data/Region-6-WMO-Normals-9120/Ukraine/CSV/Kharkiv_34300.csv |archive-date=20 April 2025 |url=https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/archive/arc0216/0253808/2.2/data/0-data/Region-6-WMO-Normals-9120/Ukraine/CSV/KHARKIV_34300.csv |title=Kharkiv Climate Normals 1991–2020 |work=World Meteorological Organization Climatological Standard Normals (1991–2020) |format=CSV |publisher=[[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]] |access-date=20 April 2025}}</ref>
}}

{{wide image|Будинок держпромисловості 3.jpg|700px|align-cap=center|A panoramic view of the [[Freedom Square (Kharkiv)|Freedom Square]], with [[Derzhprom]] and the [[House of Projects]] in the foreground.}}

==Governance==

===Legal status and local government===
{{see also|List of mayors of Kharkiv}}
The [[Mayor of Kharkiv]] and the [[Kharkiv City Council]] govern all the business and administrative affairs in the City of Kharkiv.

The mayor of Kharkiv has the executive powers; the city council has the administrative powers as far as the government issues are concerned.

The mayor of Kharkiv is elected by direct public election in Kharkiv every four years.

The city council is composed of elected representatives, who approve or reject the initiatives on the budget allocation, tasks priorities and other issues in Kharkiv. The representatives to the city council are elected every four years.

The mayor and city council hold their regular meetings in the City Hall in Kharkiv.

===Administrative divisions===
While Kharkiv is the [[Capital (political)|administrative centre]] of the [[Kharkiv Oblast]] ([[Administrative divisions of Ukraine|province]]), the city affairs are managed by the [[Kharkiv City Municipality|Kharkiv Municipality]]. Kharkiv is a [[Administrative divisions of Ukraine|city of oblast subordinance]].
{| class="toccolours" style="float:right; font-size:80%; margin-left:10px;"
|+ <big></big>
| style="padding-left:1em;" | <ol>
<li>[[Kholodnohirskyi District]]</li>
<li>[[Shevchenkivskyi District, Kharkiv|Shevchenkivskyi District]]</li>
<li>[[Kyivskyi District, Kharkiv|Kyivskyi District]]</li>
<li>[[Saltivskyi District]]</li>
<li>[[Nemyshlianskyi District]]</li>
<li>[[Industrialnyi District, Kharkiv|Industrialnyi District]]</li>
<li>[[Slobidskyi District]]</li>
<li>[[Osnovianskyi District]]</li>
<li>[[Novobavarskyi District]]</li>
</ol>
|[[File:Административное деление Харькова.svg|185px]]
| <ol start="18">
</ol>
|}
The territory of Kharkiv is divided into 9 administrative [[raion]]s ([[districts]]), until February 2016 they were named for people, places, events, and organizations associated with early years of the Soviet Union but many were renamed in February 2016 to comply with [[Decommunization in Ukraine|decommunization laws]].<ref name=nmcrinK>{{Cite web |script-title=uk:У Харкові "декомунізували" ще 48 вулиць і 5 районів |trans-title=Another 48 streets and 5 districts "decommunized" in Kharkiv |url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/02/3/7097721/ |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=[[Ukrainska Pravda]] |language=uk |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701072227/https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/02/3/7097721/ |url-status=live }}<br>{{Cite web |date=30 June 2023 |script-title=ru:Переименование районов |trans-title=Three districts renamed in Kharkiv |url=https://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/vlast/03.02.2016/v_harkove_pereimenovali_tri_rajona |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=Status Quo |language=ru |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701072229/https://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/vlast/03.02.2016/v_harkove_pereimenovali_tri_rajona |url-status=live }}<br>{{in lang|uk}} [http://ua.korrespondent.net/city/kharkov/3624201-u-kharkovi-vyrishyly-ne-pereimenovuvaty-zhovtnevyi-i-frunzenskyi-raiony It was decided not to rename the Zhovtnevyi and the Frunzenskyi districts in Kharkiv] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204022044/http://ua.korrespondent.net/city/kharkov/3624201-u-kharkovi-vyrishyly-ne-pereimenovuvaty-zhovtnevyi-i-frunzenskyi-raiony |date=4 February 2016 }}, [[Korrespondent.net]] (3 February 2015)</ref> Also, owing to this law, over 200 streets have been renamed in Kharkiv since 20 November 2015.<ref>{{in lang|ru}} [http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/vlast/20.11.2015/gorsovet_pereimenoval_170_ulic/ List of 170 renamed streets] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124034924/http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/vlast/20.11.2015/gorsovet_pereimenoval_170_ulic |date=24 January 2016 }}, SQ (20 November 2015)<br>{{in lang|uk}} [http://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/harkovskiy-gorsovet-pereimenoval-173-ulitsy-1448020126.html Kharkiv city council renamed 173 streets, 4 parks and a metro station] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127033358/http://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/harkovskiy-gorsovet-pereimenoval-173-ulitsy-1448020126.html |date=27 January 2016 }}, [[RBC Ukraine]] (20 November 2015)<br>{{in lang|ru}} [http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/obschestvo/03.02.2016/v_harkove_pereimenovali_esche_50_ulic_spisok/ 50 streets renamed in Kharkiv: list] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204060806/http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/obschestvo/03.02.2016/v_harkove_pereimenovali_esche_50_ulic_spisok/ |date=4 February 2016 }}, SQ (3 February 2015)</ref>

The raions are named:<ref name=nmcrinK/><ref name="3684227-u-kharkovi">{{in lang|uk}} [https://ua.korrespondent.net/city/kharkov/3684227-u-kharkovi-dekomunizuvaly-piat-stantsii-metro-i-pivsotni-vulyts In Kharkiv, five metro stations and fifty streets have been communicated] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930034214/https://ua.korrespondent.net/city/kharkov/3684227-u-kharkovi-dekomunizuvaly-piat-stantsii-metro-i-pivsotni-vulyts |date=30 September 2018 }}, [[Korrespondent.net]], (18 May 2016)</ref>
# [[Kholodnohirskyi District|Kholodnohirskyi]] ({{langx|uk|Холодногірський район}}, ''Cold Mountain''; namesake: the historic name of the neighbourhood<ref>{{in lang|ru}} [http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/obschestvo/23.02.2016/rajony_harkova_istoriya_s_geografiej/ Districts Of Kharkiv. History with geography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318002709/http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/obschestvo/23.02.2016/rajony_harkova_istoriya_s_geografiej |date=18 March 2017 }}, SQ (23 February 2015)</ref>) (formerly Leninskyi; namesake: [[Vladimir Lenin]])
# [[Shevchenkivskyi District, Kharkiv|Shevchenkivskyi]] ({{langx|uk|Шевченківський район}}); namesake: [[Taras Shevchenko]] (formerly Dzerzhynskyi; namesake [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]])
# [[Kyivskyi District, Kharkiv|Kyivskyi]] ({{langx|uk|Київський район}}); namesake: [[Kyiv]] (formerly Kahanovychskyi; namesake: [[Lazar Kaganovich]])
# [[Saltivskyi District|Saltivskyi]] ({{langx|uk|Салтівський район}}); namesake: [[Saltivka]] residential area (formerly Moskovskyi; namesake: Moscow)
# [[Nemyshlianskyi District|Nemyshlianskyi]] ({{langx|uk|Немишлянський район}}) (formerly Frunzenskyi: namesake: [[Mikhail Frunze]]<ref name="3684227-u-kharkovi"/>);
# [[Industrialnyi District, Kharkiv|Industrialnyi]] ({{langx|uk|Індустріальний район}}) (formerly Ordzhonikidzevskyi; namesake: [[Sergo Ordzhonikidze]])
# [[Slobidskyi District|Slobidskyi]] ({{langx|uk|Слобідський район}}) (formerly [[Communist International|Komintern]]іvskyi<ref name="3684227-u-kharkovi"/>); namesake: [[Sloboda Ukraine]]
# [[Osnovianskyi District|Osnovianskyi]] ({{langx|uk|Основ'янський район}}) (formerly Chervonozavodskyi<ref name="3684227-u-kharkovi"/>); namesake: Osnova, a city neighborhood
# [[Novobavarskyi District|Novobavarskyi]] ({{langx|uk|Новобаварський район}}) (formerly Zhovtnevyi<ref name="3684227-u-kharkovi"/>); namesake: Nova Bavaria, a city neighborhood

==Demographics==
{{Update|section|date=February 2023}}
{{Historical populations
|1660<ref name="Тайны подземного Харькова">Л.И. Мачулин. Mysteries of the underground Kharkiv. — Х.: 2005. {{ISBN|966-8768-00-0}} {{in lang|ru}}</ref>
 |1000
|1788<ref name="Харьков: Архитектура">Kharkiv: Architecture, monuments, renovations: Travel guide. Ed. {{ill|Aleksandr Jurevitsj Leybfreyd|ru|Лейбфрейд, Александр Юрьевич}}, В. Реусов, А. Тиц. — Х.: Прапор, 1987{{in lang|ru}}</ref>
 |10742
|1850<ref name="dyachenko">{{cite web|author=N. T. Dyachenko|url=http://dalizovut.narod.ru/ulizy/ulizy.htm|script-title=ru:Улицы и площади Харькова|trans-title=Streets and squares of Kharkiv|language=ru|year=1977|website=dalizovut.narod.ru|access-date=31 March 2015|archive-date=17 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317094240/http://dalizovut.narod.ru/ulizy/ulizy.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
 |41861
|1861<ref name="dyachenko"/>
 |50301
|1901<ref name="dyachenko"/>
 |198273
|1916<ref name="skorobohatov">А.В. Скоробогатов. Kharkiv in times of German occupation (1941–1943). – X.: Прапор, 2006. {{ISBN|966-7880-79-6}}{{in lang|uk}}</ref>
 |352300
|1917<ref name="От крепости до столицы">Oleksandr Leibfreid, Yu. Poliakova. Kharkiv. From fortress to capital. – Х.: Фолио, 2004{{in lang|ru}}</ref>
 |382000
|1920<ref name="skorobohatov"/>
 |285000
|1926<ref name="skorobohatov"/>
 |417000
|1939<ref name="perepis-1939">State archives of Kharkiv Oblast. Ф. Р-2982, оп. 2, file 16, pp 53–54</ref>
 |833000
|1941<ref name="skorobohatov"/>
 |902312
|1941<ref>Colonel ''Н. И. Рудницкий''. Военкоматы Харькова в предвоенные и военные годы.{{in lang|ru}}</ref>
 |1400000
|1941<ref name="skorobohatov"/><ref>In reference to the German census of December 1941; without children and teenagers no older 16 years of age; numerous city-dwellers evaded the registration{{in lang|ru}}</ref>
 |456639
|1943<ref name="История: без белых пятен">''[[Nikita Khrushchev]]''. Report to ЦК ВКП(б) of 30 August 1943. History: without «white spots». ''Kharkiv izvestia'', No. 100–101, 23 August 2008, page 6{{in lang|ru}}</ref>
 |170000
|1959<ref name="dyachenko"/>
 |930000
|1962<ref name="dyachenko"/>
 |1000000
|1976<ref name="dyachenko"/>
 |1384000
|1982<ref name="Харьков: Архитектура"/>
 |1500000
|1989<ref>{{cite web|title=All-Union Population Census 1989. Urban population of the Union republics, their territorial units, urban settlements and urban districts by gender|url=https://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng89_reg2.php}}</ref>
 |1609959|2001<ref name="Перепись 2001">[[Ukrainian Census (2001)]]</ref>
 |1470902|2011<ref name="Cities & Towns of Ukraine">{{cite web|title=Cities & Towns of Ukraine|url=http://pop-stat.mashke.org/ukraine-cities.htm}}</ref>|1446500|January 2022<ref name="Cities & Towns of Ukraine"/>|1421125|March 2022|400000|June 2022|750000|November 2022|1100000}}

According to the [[Soviet Census (1989)|1989 Soviet Union Census]], the population of the city was 1,593,970. In 1991, it decreased to 1,510,200, including 1,494,200 permanent residents.<ref name="Our Kharkiv">{{cite web|url=http://www.kharkov.com/news/?p=25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822193837/http://www.kharkov.com/news/?p=25|archive-date=22 August 2006 |title= Kharkiv today |access-date=4 May 2007 |work=Our Kharkiv |language=ru}}</ref> The population in 2023 was 1,430,885.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Population of Kharkiv, Ukraine (UA) 2023 |url=https://world-meters.com/population/ukraine/kharkiv-706483 |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=World Meters |language=en |archive-date=12 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012234615/https://world-meters.com/population/ukraine/kharkiv-706483 |url-status=live }}</ref> Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine after the capital, [[Kyiv]].<ref name="ukrcensus1">{{cite web|url=http://ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/city/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060109012020/http://ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/city/|archive-date=9 January 2006 |title= Results / General results of the census / Number of cities |access-date=28 August 2006 |work=[[Ukrainian Census (2001)|2001 Ukrainian Census]] }}</ref> The [[2001 Ukrainian census|first independent all-Ukrainian population census]] was conducted in December 2001, and the next all-Ukrainian population census is decreed to be conducted after the end of the ongoing [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russo-Ukrainian war]]. As of 2001, the population of [[Kharkiv Oblast]] is as follows: 78.5% living in urban areas, and 21.5% living in rural areas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/urban-rural/|title=Всеукраїнський перепис населення 2001 {{!}} English version {{!}} Results {{!}} General results of the census {{!}} Urban and rural population|website=2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua|access-date=11 January 2017|archive-date=22 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422150832/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/urban-rural/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Ethnicity===
{| class="standard"
! Ethnic group|| 1897<ref name=":1">[http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=1604 Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку и уездам 50 губерний Европейской России] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225015405/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=1604 |date=25 February 2022 }} Демоскоп</ref>||1926||1939||1959<ref name=":3">Історія міста Харкова ХХ століття, Харків 2004, р. 456</ref>||1989<ref name="Our Kharkiv"/>||2001<ref name="vharkov">{{cite web|url=http://vharkov.ru/description/about.html|publisher=vharkov.ru|title=Общая информация о Харькове на vharkov|access-date=18 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140829124130/http://vharkov.ru/description/about.html|archive-date=29 August 2014}}</ref><ref name="ukrcensus">{{cite web|url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/general/estimated/kharkiv/|publisher=2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua|title=Всеукраїнський перепис населення 2001 – Результати – Основні підсумки – Загальна кількість населення – Харківська область|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019082857/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/general/estimated/kharkiv/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{dubious|date=September 2018}}
|-
| [[Ukrainians]]|| 25.9%||38.6% || 48.5% || 48.4% || 50.4% || 62.8%
|-
| [[Russians]]|| 63.2%||37.2%||32.9%||40.4%||43.6%||33.2%
|-
| Jews|| 5.7%||19.5%||15.6%||8.7%||3.0%||0.7%
|}

====Notes====
* 1660 year – approximated estimation
* 1788 year – without the account of children
* 1920 year – times of the [[Russian Civil War]]
* 1941 year – estimation on 1 May, right before [[German-Soviet War]]
* 1941 year – next estimation in September varies between 1,400,000 and 1,450,000
* 1941 year – another estimation in December during the occupation without the account of children
* 1943 year – 23 August, liberation of the city; estimation varied 170,000 and 220,000
* 1976 year – estimation on 1 June
* 1982 year – estimation in March

Kharkiv has a sizeable [[Ukraine–Vietnam relations#Vietnamese community in Ukraine|Vietnamese community]] who dominate the local {{Ill|Barabashovo Market|lt=Barabashovo market|uk|Барабашово}} (one of the largest markets in Europe).<ref name="Barabashovo2024jun18"/> At the market most of these (Vietnamese) traders use a [[Ukrainization|Ukrainianised]] version of their names.<ref name="Barabashovo2024jun18"/>

=== Language ===
Distribution of the population of the city of Kharkiv by [[First language#Defining "native language"|native language]] according to the [[2001 Ukrainian census|2001 census]]:<ref>{{cite web | language=uk | url=https://socialdata.org.ua/projects/mova-2001/ | title=Рідні мови в об'єднаних територіальних громадах України}}</ref>
{| class="standard"
|-
! Language
! Number
! Percentage
|-
| [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
| align="right"| 460 607 ||align="right"| 31.77%
|-
| [[Russian language in Ukraine|Russian]]
| align="right"| 954 901 || align="right"| 65.86%
|-
| Other or undecided
| align="right"| 34 363 || align="right"| 2.37%
|-
| Total
| align="right"| 1,449,871 || align="right"| 100.00%
|}

According to a survey conducted by the [[International Republican Institute]] in April–May 2023, 16% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 78% spoke Russian.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ratinggroup.ua/files/ratinggroup/reg_files/municipal_survey_may_2023_ua_-_final.pdf|title=Municipal Survey 2023|website=ratinggroup.ua|access-date=9 August 2023|archive-date=19 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719164824/https://ratinggroup.ua/files/ratinggroup/reg_files/municipal_survey_may_2023_ua_-_final.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Religion==
[[File:Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv - 04.jpg|thumb|left|[[Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv|Assumption or Dormition Cathedral]]]]
[[File:Blagoveschensky Cathedral - 01.jpg|thumb|[[Annunciation Cathedral, Kharkiv|Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral]] is one of the [[List of tallest Orthodox churches|tallest Orthodox churches]] in the world. It was completed on 2 October 1888.]]

Kharkiv is an important religious centre in Eastern Ukraine.

There are many old and new religious buildings, associated with various denominations in Kharkiv. [[Assumption Cathedral, Kharkiv|Assumption Orthodox Cathedral]] was built in Kharkiv in the 1680s and rebuilt in the 1820s and 1830s.<ref name="kharkiv">{{cite web|url=http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/churchinfo/33|publisher=Kharkiv Diocese|title=Харьковская епархия Украинской Православной Церкви|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=25 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625042819/http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/churchinfo/33|url-status=live}}</ref> Holy Trinity Orthodox Church was built in Kharkiv in 1758–1764 and rebuilt in 1857–1861.<ref name="kharkiv4">{{cite web |title=Харьковская епархия Украинской Православной Церкви |url=http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/churchinfo/37 |access-date=18 June 2017 |publisher=Kharkiv Diocese |archive-date=24 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624205113/http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/churchinfo/37 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Annunciation Cathedral, Kharkiv|Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral]], one of the [[List of tallest Orthodox churches|tallest Orthodox churches]] in the world, was completed in Kharkiv on 2 October 1888.<ref name="kharkiv3">{{cite web |title=Харьковская епархия Украинской Православной Церкви |url=http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/churchinfo/5 |access-date=18 June 2017 |publisher=Kharkiv Diocese |archive-date=12 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612215608/http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/churchinfo/5 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Recently built churches include St. Valentine's Orthodox Church and St. Tamara's Orthodox Church.<ref name="kharkiv5">{{cite web |title=Харьковская епархия Украинской Православной Церкви |url=http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/churchinfo/52 |access-date=18 June 2017 |publisher=Kharkiv Diocese |archive-date=24 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624224343/http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/churchinfo/52 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="kharkiv6">{{cite web |title=Освящен храм благоверной царицы Тамары города Харькова – Харьковская епархия |url=http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/readnews/932 |access-date=18 June 2017 |publisher=Kharkiv Diocese |archive-date=24 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624204026/http://www.eparchia.kharkov.ua/readnews/932 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Kharkiv's Jewish population is estimated to be around 8,000 people.<ref name="jewishkharkov">{{cite web |title=Kharkov Jewish Community |url=http://www.jewishkharkov.org/ |access-date=18 June 2017 |publisher=jewishkharkov.org |archive-date=3 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603061208/http://www.jewishkharkov.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It is served by the old [[Kharkiv Choral Synagogue]], which was fully renovated in Kharkiv in 1991–2016.

There are two mosques including the [[Kharkiv Cathedral Mosque]] and one Islamic center in Kharkiv.{{Citation needed span|text=|date=April 2022}}

==Economy==
[[File:Сумська,17-22.Харків.jpg|thumb|[[Sumska Street]] is the main thoroughfare of Kharkiv.]]

The 2016–2020 economic development strategy: "Kharkiv Success Strategy", is created in Kharkiv.<ref name="kharkiv8">{{cite web|url=http://www.strategy.kharkov.ua/|publisher=strategy.kharkov.ua|title=Розробка стратегії розвитку міста Харкова на 2016–2020 роки "Харків – стратегія успіху"|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=18 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618082605/http://www.strategy.kharkov.ua/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kharkiv9">{{cite web|url=https://old.karazin.ua/ua/general/univer_today/announce?news_id=5793|publisher=old.karazin.ua|script-title=uk:Круглий стіл «Розробка Стратегії розвитку міста Харкова до 2020 року: наука і освіта»|access-date=2023-07-01|archive-date=1 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701075810/https://old.karazin.ua/ua/general/univer_today/announce?news_id=5793|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kharkiv10">{{Cite web |last=LLC |first=Hulu |script-title=uk:В університеті Каразіна обговорять перспективи розвитку освіти |url=http://www.city.kharkiv.ua/uk/news/v-universiteti-karazina-obgovoryat-perspektivi-rozvitku-osviti-32374.html |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=www.city.kharkiv.ua |language=uk |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701075812/https://city.kharkiv.ua/uk/news/v-universiteti-karazina-obgovoryat-perspektivi-rozvitku-osviti-32374.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Kharkiv has a diversified service economy, with employment spread across a wide range of professional services, including financial services, manufacturing, tourism, and high technology.

===Industrial corporations===
[[File:3F9A5699 (37149528342).jpg|thumb|[[Kvant-2]] module – its control system was designed at [[Khartron]] in Kharkiv.]]
During the Soviet era, Kharkiv was the capital of industrial production in Ukraine and a large centre of industry and commerce in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]]. After the [[history of the Soviet Union (1985–1991)#Dissolution of the USSR|collapse of the Soviet Union]] the largely defence-systems-oriented industrial production of the city decreased significantly. In the early 2000s, the industry started to recover and adapt to market economy needs. The enterprises comprise machine-building, electro-technology, instrument-making, and energy conglomerates.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

State-owned industrial giants, such as [[Turboatom]] and [[Elektrovazhmash]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spetm.com.ua/eng/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928224657/http://www.spetm.com.ua/eng/index.html|archive-date=28 September 2008 |title=spetm.com.ua |publisher=spetm.com.ua |access-date=20 April 2012}}</ref> occupy 17% of the heavy power equipment construction (e.g., turbines) market worldwide. Multipurpose aircraft are produced by the [[Antonov]] aircraft manufacturing plant. The [[Malyshev factory]] produces not only [[armoured fighting vehicle]]s, but also harvesters. [[Khartron]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartron.com.ua/en/content/forms-cooperation|title=Hartron: Forms of cooperation|publisher=hartron.com.ua|access-date=22 March 2015|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402141302/http://www.hartron.com.ua/en/content/forms-cooperation|url-status=live}}</ref> is the leading designer of space and commercial control systems in Ukraine and the former [[Commonwealth of Independent States|CIS]].{{fact|date=March 2025}}
[[File:Будинок держпромисловості (ДЕРЖПРОМ).jpg|thumb|[[House of Projects]] and [[Derzhprom]]]]

===IT industry===
As of April 2018, there were 25,000 specialists in IT industry of the Kharkiv region, 76% of them were related to computer programming. Thus, Kharkiv accounts for 14% of all IT specialists in Ukraine and makes the second largest IT location in the country, right after the capital Kyiv.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kharkivobserver.com/research-reveals-kharkiv-it-industry-volume-is-second-in-ukraine/|title=Kharkiv|access-date=13 June 2019|publisher=Kharkiv|archive-date=7 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607091422/http://kharkivobserver.com/research-reveals-kharkiv-it-industry-volume-is-second-in-ukraine/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Also, the number of active IT companies in the region to be 445, five of them employing more than 601 people. Besides, there are 22 large companies with the workers' number ranging from 201 to 600. More than half of IT-companies located in the Kharkiv region fall into "extra small" category with less than 20 persons engaged. The list is compiled with 43 medium (81–200 employers) and 105 small companies (21–80).{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

Due to the comparably narrow market for IT services in Ukraine, the majority of Kharkiv companies are export-oriented with more than 95% of total sales generated overseas in 2017. Overall, the estimated revenue of Kharkiv IT companies will more than double from $800&nbsp;million in 2018 to $1.85&nbsp;billion by 2025. The major markets are North America (65%) and Europe (25%).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pwc.com/ua/en.html|title=Kharkiv|access-date=13 June 2019|publisher=Kharkiv|archive-date=9 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190609211937/https://www.pwc.com/ua/en.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Finance industry===
Kharkiv is also the headquarters of one of the largest Ukrainian banks, [[UkrSibbank]], which has been part of the [[BNP Paribas]] group since December 2005.

===Trade industry===
There are many large modern shopping malls in Kharkiv.

There is a large number of markets:
* {{Ill|Barabashovo Market|lt=Barabashovo market|uk|Барабашово}}, the largest market in Ukraine{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} and one of the largest markets in Europe<ref name="Barabashovo2024jun18">{{cite news |title='This country gave me a lot': the Vietnamese people staying in Ukraine|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/18/this-country-gave-me-a-lot-the-vietnamese-people-staying-in-ukraine|access-date=18 June 2024|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=18 June 2024}}</ref>
* {{Ill|Tsentralnyi Market|lt=Tsentralnyi market|uk|Благовіщенський базар}} (Blahovishchenskyi market)
* Kinnyi (Horse) market
* Sumskyi market<ref name="kharkiv11">{{cite web|url=http://www.kharkov.info/place/31899|publisher=kharkov.info|script-title=ru:Торговый центр "Сумской рынок" по адресу Харьков, Шевченковский район, Культуры, 8|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=26 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170626150208/http://www.kharkov.info/place/31899|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Raiskyi book market

==Science and education==
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| image1            = (39)_V_N_KARAZIN_KHARKIV_NATIONAL_UNIVERSITY_MAIN_BUILDING_IN_CITY_OF_KHARKIV_STATE_OF_UKRAINE_PHOTOGRAPH_BY_VIKTOR_O_LEDENYOV_20160621.jpg
| width1            = 190
| caption1          = [[House of Projects|Main building]] of [[University of Kharkiv|V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University]].
| image2            = Будинок кооперації, Харків DJI 0050.jpg
| width2            = 190
| caption2          = Northern building of [[University of Kharkiv|V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University]].
| image3            = (41)_MECHNIKOV_LANDAU_KUZNETS_MONUMENTS_AT_V_N_KARAZIN_KHARKIV_NATIONAL_UNIVERSITY_IN_CITY_OF_KHARKIV_STATE_OF_UKRAINE_PHOTOGRAPH_BY_VIKTOR_O_LEDENYOV_20160621.jpg
| width3            = 190
| caption3          = Il'ya I. Mechnikov, Lev D. Landau, Simon A. Kuznets Nobel Laureates Monuments at [[University of Kharkiv|V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University]].
}}

===Higher education===
The [[Kharkiv National University|Vasyl N. Karazin Kharkiv National University]] is the most prestigious reputable classic university, which was founded due to the efforts by [[Vasily Karazin]] in Kharkiv in 1804–1805.<ref name="kharkiv12">{{cite web|url=https://karazin.ua/en|publisher=karazin.ua|title=V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University|access-date=2023-07-01|archive-date=6 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606070237/https://karazin.ua/en/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kyiv">{{cite web|url=http://www.vnz.univ.kiev.ua/content/school/37|publisher=vnz.univ.kiev.ua|title=Харківський національний університет імені В.Н. Каразіна|access-date=18 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827151112/http://www.vnz.univ.kiev.ua/content/school/37|archive-date=27 August 2016}}</ref> On {{OldStyleDate|29 January|1805|17 January}}, the Decree on the Opening of the Imperial University in Kharkiv came into force.

The Roentgen Institute opened in 1931. It was a specialist cancer treatment facility with 87 research workers, 20 professors, and specialist medical staff. The facilities included chemical, physiology, and bacteriology experimental treatment laboratories. It produced x-ray apparatus for the whole country.<ref name="Socialist Health Association">{{cite news |last1=Khwaja |first1=Barbara |date=26 May 2017 |title=Health Reform in Revolutionary Russia |publisher=Socialist Health Association |url=https://www.sochealth.co.uk/2017/05/26/health-reform-revolutionary-russia/ |access-date=26 May 2017 |archive-date=30 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830101010/https://www.sochealth.co.uk/2017/05/26/health-reform-revolutionary-russia/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The city has 13&nbsp;national universities and numerous professional, technical and private higher education institutions, offering its students a wide range of disciplines. These universities include [[Kharkiv National University]] (12,000&nbsp;students), [[Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute|National Technical University "KhPI"]] (20,000&nbsp;students), [[Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics]] (12,000&nbsp;students), [[Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University]], [[Kharkiv National Aerospace University "KhAI"]], [[Kharkiv National University of Economics]], [[Ukrainian Academy of Pharmacy|Kharkiv National University of Pharmacy]], and [[Kharkiv National Medical University]].

More than 17,000&nbsp;faculty and research staff are employed in the institutions of higher education in Kharkiv.

===Scientific research===
The city has a high concentration of research institutions, which are independent or loosely connected with the universities. Among them are three national science centres: [[Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology]], Institute of Meteorology, Institute for Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine and 20&nbsp;national research institutions of the [[National Academy of Science of Ukraine]], such as the [[B Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering]], [[Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine]], State Scientific Institution "Institute for Single Crystals", Usikov Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics (IRE), Institute of Radio Astronomy (IRA), and others. A total number of 26,000&nbsp;scientists are working in research and development.

A number of world-renowned scientific schools appeared in Kharkiv, such as the [[Kharkiv Theoretical Physics School|theoretical physics school]] and the [[Kharkiv Mathematical School|mathematical school]].

There is the Kharkiv Scientists House in the city, which was built by A. N. Beketov, architect in Kharkiv in 1900. All the scientists like to meet and discuss various scientific topics at the Kharkiv Scientists House in Kharkiv.<ref name="khdu">{{cite web|url=http://www.khdu.org/house.php|publisher=khdu.org|title=house|access-date=18 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160727204436/http://www.khdu.org/house.php|archive-date=27 July 2016}}</ref>

===Public libraries===
[[File:Читальный зал Научной библиотеки НФаУ.jpg|thumb|Students in the library of the National University of Pharmacy in Kharkiv]] 
In addition to the libraries affiliated with the various universities and research institutions, the Kharkiv State Scientific V. Korolenko-library is a major research library.

===Secondary schools===
Kharkiv has 212 (secondary education) schools, including 10 [[lyceum]]s and 20&nbsp;[[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasiums]].{{citation needed|date=October 2016}} In May 2024 the first of a scatter of underground schools in Kharkiv was opened in [[Industrialnyi District, Kharkiv|Industrialnyi District]], so children could continue their education amidst the [[Kharkiv strikes (2022–present)|missile strikes in Kharkiv]] by the [[Russian Armed Forces]] during the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]].<ref name="KharkivMAStrikes7455435">{{cite news |title=Trial lessons held in underground school in Kharkiv – photo|url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/05/12/7455435/|access-date=13 May 2024|work=[[Ukrainska Pravda]] |date=12 May 2024|language=English}}</ref>

===Education centers===
There is the educational "Landau Center", which is named after L.D. Landau, Nobel laureate in Kharkiv.<ref name="landaucentre">{{cite web|url=http://landaucentre.org/about/|publisher=landaucentre.org|title=ПРО "ЛАНДАУЦЕНТР" {{pipe}}|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=18 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160718192333/http://landaucentre.org/about/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Culture==
Kharkiv is one of the main cultural centres in Ukraine. It is home to 20 museums, over 10 theatres {{citation needed|date=February 2020}} and a number of art galleries. Until 2022, large music and cinema festivals were hosted in Kharkiv almost every year.

===Theatres===
[[File:Драматичний театр.jpg|thumb|The [[Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre]]]]
The [[Kharkiv State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Mykola Lysenko|Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre]] named after N. V. Lysenko is the biggest theatre in Kharkiv.<ref name="hatob">{{cite web|url=http://www.hatob.com.ua/ukr/|publisher=hatob.com.ua|script-title=uk:Головна – ХАТОБ, ХНАТОБ|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=16 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716084951/http://hatob.com.ua/ukr/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="hatob2">{{cite web|url=http://www.hatob.com.ua/eng|publisher=hatob.com.ua|title=Home|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=19 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170519044728/http://hatob.com.ua/eng|url-status=live}}</ref> 

In 2017 the [[Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre]] named after T. G. Shevchenko was especially popular among theater audiences more prone to speak Ukrainian in daily life.<ref name="theatre-shevchenko">{{cite web|url=http://www.theatre-shevchenko.com.ua/|publisher=theatre-shevchenko.com.ua|title=Харківський Державний Академічний Драматичний Театр ім. Т.Г.Шевченка|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=15 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615113628/http://www.theatre-shevchenko.com.ua/|url-status=live}}</ref> Since the Russian invasion, the theatre has operated underground.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carey |first=Andrew |last2=Tarasova-Markina |first2=Daria |last3=CNN |date=2024-05-19 |title=Life goes on in Kharkiv as Russian advance menaces city |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/19/europe/life-goes-on-in-kharkiv-cmd-intl/index.html |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Театр ім. Т.Г. Шевченка |url=https://www.theatre-shevchenko.com.ua/events/padati.-litati-art-area-dk-31-05-2024-18-00 |access-date=2024-05-19 |website=www.theatre-shevchenko.com.ua}}</ref>

The Kharkiv Academic Drama Theatre was recently renovated, and it is quite popular among locals.<ref name="rusdrama">{{cite web|url=http://rusdrama.kh.ua/|publisher=rusdrama.kh.ua|title=rusdrama.kh.ua/|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=27 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160627181840/http://rusdrama.kh.ua/|url-status=live}}</ref> Until October 2023 this theater was named after Russian poet [[Alexander Pushkin]]; the [[Derussification in Ukraine|derussification of Ukraine campaign]] of that area led to its renaming that also meant the removal of (the word) "[[List of Russian-language playwrights|Russian]]" from the name.<ref name="PushkinskaKharkivTheater">{{cite web|title=Kharkiv got rid of the Pushkin Theater|url=https://www.sq.com.ua/ukr/novini/24.12.2022/xarkiv-pozbavivsya-teatru-puskina|date=23 October 2023|access-date=26 January 2024|language=Ukrainian|website=Status Quo}}</ref>

The Kharkiv Theatre of the Young Spectator (now the Theatre for Children and Youth) is one of the oldest theatres for children.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tyz.kharkov.ua/|title=Харьковский театр для детей и юношества|trans-title=Theatre for Children and Youth|access-date=6 August 2018|archive-date=21 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121154431/http://tyz.kharkov.ua/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Kharkiv Puppet Theatre (The Kharkiv State Academic Puppet Theatre named after VA Afanasyev) is the first puppet theatre in the territory of Kharkiv. It was created in 1935.

The Kharkiv Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy is a theatre founded on 1 November 1929 in Kharkiv.

===Literature===
[[File:Pushkin Theater in Kharkіv (08).jpg|thumb|The Kharkiv Academic Drama Theatre]]
In the 1930s Kharkiv was referred to as a Literary [[Klondike Gold Rush|Klondike]].{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} It was the centre for the work of literary figures such as: [[Les Kurbas]], [[Mykola Kulish]], [[Mykola Khvylovy]], [[Mykola Zerov]], [[Valerian Pidmohylny]], Pavlo Filipovych, Marko Voronny, Oleksa Slisarenko. Over 100 of these writers were repressed during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. This tragic event in Ukrainian history is called the "Executed Renaissance" (Rozstrilene vidrodzhennia). Today, a literary museum located on Frunze Street marks their work and achievements.

Today, Kharkiv is often referred to as the "capital city" of Ukrainian science fiction and fantasy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/history/news/0254-0d7c95ba4d13-654f63b539a3-1000--kharkiv-city-guide/|title=Kharkiv city guide|date=25 January 2010|work=[[UEFA]]|access-date=22 March 2015|archive-date=2 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002071042/https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/history/news/0254-0d7c95ba4d13-654f63b539a3-1000--kharkiv-city-guide/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ukrainetravel.co/kharkiv|title=Ukraine Travel Guide: Kharkiv, Ukraine|work=ukrainetravel.co|access-date=22 March 2015|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402100753/http://www.ukrainetravel.co/kharkiv|url-status=live}}</ref> It is home to a number of popular writers, such as [[H. L. Oldie]], [[Alexander Zorich]], [[Andrey Dashkov]], [[Yuri Nikitin (author)|Yuri Nikitin]] and [[Andrey Valentinov]]; most of them [[Russian language in Ukraine|write in Russian]] and are popular in both Russia and Ukraine. The annual [[science fiction convention]] "Star Bridge" (Звёздный мост) has been held in Kharkiv since 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://old.karazin.ua/en/general/univer_today/news?news_id=63|title=Kharkiv International Festival of Science Fiction "Star Bridge – 2011"|work=V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University|date=September 2011|access-date=2023-07-01|archive-date=1 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701075808/https://old.karazin.ua/en/general/univer_today/news?news_id=63|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Music===
[[File:Academic Chorus of Kharkov Philharmonic.jpg|thumb|Academic choir of Kharkiv Philharmonic named after V. Palkin and chief leader of choir, prize winner of the all-Ukrainian choir masters contest, Andriy Syrotenko.]]

There is the [[Kharkiv Philharmonic Society]] in the city. The leading group active in the Philharmonic has been the Academic Symphony Orchestra. It had 100 musicians of a high professional level, many of whom are prize-winners in international and national competitions.

There is the Organ Music Hall in the city.<ref name="filarmonia3">{{cite web|url=http://filarmonia.kh.ua/filarmonia/dom-organnoj-i-kamernoj-muzyki/|publisher=filarmonia.kh.ua|title=Органный зал, Харьков – концерты, камерная и органная музыка {{pipe}} Харьковская филармония|date=28 October 2015|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=6 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706155923/http://filarmonia.kh.ua/filarmonia/dom-organnoj-i-kamernoj-muzyki/|url-status=live}}</ref> The Organ Music Hall is situated at the [[Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv|Assumption Cathedral]] presently. The [[Rieger–Kloss]] organ was installed in the building of the Organ Music Hall back in 1986. The new Organ Music Hall will be opened at the extensively renovated building of [[Kharkiv Philharmonic Society]] in Kharkiv in November 2016.

The [[Kharkiv Conservatory]] and the [[Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts|Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I.P. Kotlyarevsky]] has been the major music schools.<ref name="kharkiv13">{{cite web|url=http://num.kharkiv.ua/en/|publisher=num.kharkiv.ua|title=Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts|access-date=2023-07-01|archive-date=1 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701190717/https://num.kharkiv.ua/en/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Kharkiv hosted the prestigious, tri-annual [[Hnat Khotkevych]] International Music Competition of Performers of Ukrainian Folk Instruments,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://comments.ua/life/183366-Minkulturi-zapretil-Harkovu.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228232703/http://comments.ua/life/183366-Minkulturi-zapretil-Harkovu.html|archive-date=28 December 2013 |title=Минкультуры запретил Харькову проводить конкурс им. Гната Хоткевича – Комментарии |publisher=Proua.com |date=16 April 2010 |access-date=15 July 2012}}</ref> and the "Kharkiv – City of Kind Hopes" festival.<ref name="filarmonia4">{{cite web|url=http://filarmonia.kh.ua/festival-harkiv-misto-dobrih-nadij-informatsiya-dlya-uchastnikov/|publisher=filarmonia.kh.ua|title=Фестиваль "Харків – місто добрих надій". Информация для участников {{pipe}} Харьковская филармония|date=28 October 2015|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=27 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170527073822/http://filarmonia.kh.ua/festival-harkiv-misto-dobrih-nadij-informatsiya-dlya-uchastnikov/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[black metal]] band [[Drudkh]] came from Kharkiv. In 2024, its former drummer Mykola Sostin, was killed fighting for Ukraine in the war.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kaufman |first=Spencer |date=6 November 2024 |title=Ukrainian Metal Drummer Mykola “Amorth” Sostin Dies in Battle |url=https://consequence.net/2024/11/ukrainian-metal-drummer-mykola-amorth-sostin-dies-in-battle/ |accessdate=17 December 2024 |website=[[Consequence of Sound]]}}</ref>

=== Films ===
From 1907 to 2008, at least 86 feature films were shot in the city's territory and its region. The most famous is ''[[Fragment of an Empire]]'' (1929). Arriving in Leningrad, the main character, in addition to the usual pre-revolutionary buildings, sees the [[Derzhprom]] – a symbol of a new era.

===Film festivals===
The Kharkiv Lilacs international film festival is very popular among movie stars, makers and producers in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America.<ref name="sirenfest.net.ua">{{cite web|url=http://sirenfest.net.ua/en/|publisher=sirenfest.net.ua|title=Харьковская сирень – Главная|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=27 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140927013951/http://sirenfest.net.ua/en/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="times.kh.ua">{{cite web|url=http://times.kh.ua/news/fresh/kharkovskaya_siren_2016_novye_ladoni_znamenitykh_akterov_na_allee_zvezd_foto/158954/|publisher=times.kh.ua|title=times.kh.ua/news/fresh/kharkovskaya_siren_2016_novye_ladoni_znamenitykh_akterov_na_allee_zvezd_foto/158954/|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024232504/http://times.kh.ua/news/fresh/kharkovskaya_siren_2016_novye_ladoni_znamenitykh_akterov_na_allee_zvezd_foto/158954/|archive-date=24 October 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The annual festival is usually conducted in May.<ref name="sirenfest.net.ua"/><ref name="times.kh.ua"/>

There is a special alley with metal hand prints by popular movies actors at Shevchenko park in Kharkiv.
<ref name="times.kh.ua"/><ref name="dozor">{{Cite web |script-title=ru:Возвращение «Харьковской сирени»: новые ладони знаменитых актеров на Аллее звезд (ФОТО) |trans-title=Return of "Kharkiv Lilac": new palms of famous actors on the Avenue of Stars (PHOTO) |url=https://dozor.com.ua/news/tabloid/1205509.html |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=Дозор.UA |archive-date=29 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629091728/https://dozor.com.ua/news/tabloid/1205509.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Visual arts===
Kharkiv has been a home for many famous painters, including [[Ilya Repin]], [[Zinaida Serebryakova]], [[Henryk Siemiradzki]], and [[Vasyl Yermilov]]. There are many modern arts galleries in the city: the Yermilov Centre, Lilacs Gallery, the Kharkiv Art Museum, the Kharkiv Municipal Gallery, the AC Gallery, Palladium Gallery, the Semiradsky Gallery, AVEK Gallery, and Arts of Slobozhanshyna Gallery among others.

===Museums===

[[File:Вид на будівлю Харківського історичного музею з майдану Конституції.jpg|thumb|M. F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum]]
[[File:Xud-muzej.jpg|thumb|[[Kharkiv Art Museum]]]]{{Mainarticle|List of museums in Kharkiv Oblast}}
There are around 147 museums in the Kharkiv's region.<ref name="museums">{{cite web |title=Музеї Харківщини |url=http://museums.kh.ua/ |access-date=18 June 2017 |publisher=museums.kh.ua |archive-date=8 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160908163751/http://museums.kh.ua/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Museums in the city include:

* The [[M. F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum]]<ref name="museum">{{cite web|url=http://museum.kh.ua/eng.html|publisher=museum.kh.ua|title=Information in English – Харківський історичний музей імені М.Ф.Сумцова|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=1 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801125455/http://museum.kh.ua/eng.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The [[Kharkiv Art Museum]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://artmuseum.kh.ua/en/|title=Kharkiv Art Museum|website=artmuseum.kh.ua|access-date=12 March 2023|archive-date=11 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311075637/https://artmuseum.kh.ua/en/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* The Natural History Museum at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University was founded in Kharkiv on 2 April 1807. The museum is visited by 40000 visitors every year.<ref name="kharkiv14">{{cite web|url=https://karazin.ua/en/kultura/muzei-prirodi/|publisher=karazin.ua|title=Museum of Nature {{!}} Karazin University|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=24 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324052205/https://karazin.ua/en/kultura/muzei-prirodi/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kyiv2">{{Cite web |script-title=uk:Державний Музей природи Харківського національного університету імені В.Н. Каразіна |url=https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/79-derzhavniy-muzey-prirodi-harkivskogo-nacionalnogo-universitetu-imeni-vn-karazina |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=zvo.knu.ua |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701072232/https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/79-derzhavniy-muzey-prirodi-harkivskogo-nacionalnogo-universitetu-imeni-vn-karazina |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University History Museum was established in Kharkiv in 1972.<ref name="kharkiv15">{{cite web|url=http://www-museum.univer.kharkov.ua/|publisher=History Museum of Kharkiv National University|script-title=uk:Музей історії Харківського національного університету – Головна|trans-title=History Museum of Kharkiv National University – Main|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=28 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128185327/http://www-museum.univer.kharkov.ua/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kharkiv16">{{Cite web |title=University History Museum |url=https://karazin.ua/en/kultura/muzei-istoriyi-universitetu/ |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=karazin.ua |archive-date=29 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629091728/https://karazin.ua/en/kultura/muzei-istoriyi-universitetu/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="kyiv3">{{Cite web |script-title=uk:Музей історії Харківського національного університету імені В.Н. Каразіна |url=https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/78-muzey-istorii-harkivskogo-nacionalnogo-universitetu-imeni-vn-karazina |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=zvo.knu.ua |archive-date=29 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629091726/https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/78-muzey-istorii-harkivskogo-nacionalnogo-universitetu-imeni-vn-karazina |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University Archeology Museum was founded in Kharkiv on 20 March 1998.<ref name="maesu">{{cite web|url=http://www.maesu.org/|publisher=maesu.org|title=www.maesu.org/|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=21 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120621061534/http://maesu.org/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kyiv4">{{Cite web |script-title=uk:Музей археології та етнографії Слобідської України |trans-title=Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Slobid Ukraine |url=https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/77-muzey-arheologii-ta-etnografii-slobidskoi-ukraini |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=zvo.knu.ua |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701072229/https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/77-muzey-arheologii-ta-etnografii-slobidskoi-ukraini |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute" Museum was created in Kharkiv on 29 December 1972.<ref name="kharkiv17">{{cite web|url=http://www.kpi.kharkov.ua/ru/home/muzeum/|publisher=kpi.kharkov.ua|title=www.kpi.kharkov.ua/ru/home/muzeum/|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=16 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416134911/http://www.kpi.kharkov.ua/ru/home/muzeum/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="kharkiv18">{{cite web|url=http://web.kpi.kharkov.ua/museum/|publisher=web.kpi.kharkov.ua|title=Музей НТУ "ХПI"|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=21 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170621095623/http://web.kpi.kharkov.ua/museum/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kharkiv19">{{cite web|url=http://web.kpi.kharkov.ua/museum/arhiv-sobytij/|publisher=web.kpi.kharkov.ua|title=Архів подій {{pipe}} Музей НТУ "ХПI"|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=26 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426022132/http://web.kpi.kharkov.ua/museum/arhiv-sobytij/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kharkiv20">{{cite web|url=http://web.kpi.kharkov.ua/museum/kontakti/|publisher=web.kpi.kharkov.ua|title=Фотогалерея {{pipe}} Музей НТУ "ХПI"|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=29 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170529180600/http://web.kpi.kharkov.ua/museum/kontakti/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kyiv5">{{Cite web |script-title=uk:Музей історії Національного технічного університету «Харківський політехнічний інститут» |trans-title=Museum of History of the National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute" |url=https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/115-muzey-istorii-nacionalnogo-tehnichnogo-universitetu-harkivskiy-politehnichniy-institut |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=zvo.knu.ua |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701072228/https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/115-muzey-istorii-nacionalnogo-tehnichnogo-universitetu-harkivskiy-politehnichniy-institut |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The National Aerospace University "Kharkiv Aviation Institute" Museum was founded on 29 May 1992.<ref name="kyiv6">{{Cite web |script-title=uk:Музей Національного аерокосмічного університету «ХАІ» |trans-title=Museum of the National Aerospace University "KHAI" |url=https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/2-muzey-nacionalnogo-aerokosmichnogo-universitetu-hai |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=zvo.knu.ua |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701072230/https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/2-muzey-nacionalnogo-aerokosmichnogo-universitetu-hai |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The "National University of Pharmacy" Museum was founded in Kharkiv on 15 September 2010.<ref name="nuph">{{cite web|url=https://nuph.edu.ua/muzejj-istoriji-farmaciji-ukrajini/|publisher=nuph.edu.ua|title=Музей истории Национального фармацевтического университета – Національний фармацевтичний університет (НФаУ)|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=28 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428051243/http://nuph.edu.ua/ru/muzejj-istorii-farmacii-ukrainy/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="nuph2">{{cite web|url=https://nuph.edu.ua/ekspoziciya-muzeyu-istorii-nfau/|publisher=nuph.edu.ua|title=Экспозиционные залы музея – Національний фармацевтичний університет (НФаУ)|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019085802/http://nuph.edu.ua/ru/e-kspozitsionny-e-zaly-muzeya/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kyiv7">{{Cite web |script-title=uk:Музей історії фармації України |trans-title=Museum of the History of Pharmacy of Ukraine |url=https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/51-muzey-istorii-farmacii-ukraini |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=zvo.knu.ua |archive-date=1 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701072231/https://zvo.knu.ua/ua/museums/category/7/51-muzey-istorii-farmacii-ukraini |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The Kharkiv Maritime Museum – a museum dedicated to the history of shipbuilding and navigation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://morskojmuzej.kh.ua/|title=The Kharkiv Maritime Museum|access-date=13 November 2017|archive-date=18 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120618135607/http://morskojmuzej.kh.ua/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The Kharkiv Puppet Museum is the oldest museum of dolls in Ukraine.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}
* Memorial museum-apartment of the family Grizodubov.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}
* Club-Museum of Claudia Shulzhenko.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://artcross.com.ua/museum_shuljenko|title=The KI City Museum. Shulzhenko|access-date=1 December 2017|archive-date=4 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004230206/http://artcross.com.ua/museum_shuljenko|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The Museum of "First Aid".{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}
* The Museum of Urban Transport.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}
* The [[Museum of Sexual Cultures]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last=moygorod.ua |title=Музей секса и сексуальных культур мира |url=https://kharkov.moygorod.ua/ru/museum/muzej-seksualnykh-kultur-mira/ |access-date=9 March 2022 |website=Музей секса и сексуальных культур мира |language=ru |archive-date=9 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409233145/https://kharkov.moygorod.ua/ru/museum/muzej-seksualnykh-kultur-mira/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Landmarks===
[[File:Будинок держпромисловості, Харків DJI 0057.jpg|thumb|[[Derzhprom]]]]

The city is famous for its churches as well as [[Art Nouveau]] and [[Constructivist architecture|constructivist]] architecture:
* [[Assumption Cathedral, Kharkiv|Dormition Cathedral]], built in 17th century in Baroque style and rebuilt in 18th and 19th centuries
* [[Pokrovskyi Monastery, Kharkiv|Pokrovskyi Monastery]], built in 18th century in Baroque style
* [[Annunciation Cathedral, Kharkiv|Annunciation Cathedral]], built in 1887–1901 in Neo-Byzantine style
* [[Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre]], built in 1841
* [[Kharkiv Puppet Theatre]], former [[Volga-Kama Commercial Bank]], built in 1907 in [[Art Nouveau]] style
* [[Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts]], built in 1912 in [[Art Nouveau]] style
* [[Kharkiv Choral Synagogue|Choral Synagogue]], built in 1909–1913
* Central Market Hall, built 1912–1914
* [[Derzhprom]] building, built in 1925–1928 in [[Constructivist architecture|constructivist]] style
* [[Freedom Square, Kharkiv|Freedom Square]]
* Railway Pochtamt (post office), built 1927–29 in [[Constructivist architecture|constructivist]] style
* Palace of Culture of Railway Workers, built 1928–31 in [[Constructivist architecture|constructivist]] style
* [[Kharkiv railway station]], rebuilt in socialist-realist style in 1952
* [[Kharkiv State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Mykola Lysenko|Kharkiv Opera]], built in 1970–1990 in [[Brutalist architecture|brutalist]] style

Other attractions include: [[Taras Shevchenko]] Monument, Mirror Stream, Historical Museum, T.&nbsp;Shevchenko Gardens, [[Kharkiv Zoo]]], Children's narrow-gauge railroad, World War I Tank Mk V, Memorial Complex, and many more.

After the [[2014 Russian annexation of Crimea]] the monument to [[Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny]] in [[Sevastopol]] was removed and handed over to Kharkiv.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 June 2023 |script-title=uk:В Харькове появится памятник Сагайдачному |trans-title=A monument to Sahaidachny in Kharkiv |url=https://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/obschestvo/23.08.2014/v_harkove_poyavitsya_pamyatnik_sagajdachnomu |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=Status Quo |language=ru-UA |archive-date=2 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602024948/https://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/obschestvo/23.08.2014/v_harkove_poyavitsya_pamyatnik_sagajdachnomu |url-status=live }}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Uspensky Cathedral03.jpg|[[Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv|Dormition Cathedral]]
File:Intercession Cathedral, Kharkiv 2010 - 03.jpg|[[Pokrovskyi Monastery, Kharkiv|Pokrovskyi Monastery]]
File:Annunciation Cathedral in Kharkiv - 2017.jpg|[[Annunciation Cathedral, Kharkiv|Annunciation Cathedral]]
File:Shevchenko Drama Theatre in Kharkiv 2020 - 01.jpg|[[Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre]]
File:Constitution Square 24.jpg|Kharkiv Puppet Theatre (former Volga-Kama Bank)
File:Художнє училище 1913р., вул. Червонопрапорна, 8, м.Харків.JPG|[[Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts]]
File:Kharkiv Central Market (01).jpg|Kharkiv Central Market Hall
File:Kharkov Synagogue2.JPG|[[Kharkiv Choral Synagogue]]
File:Здание почтамта. Харьков.jpg|Railway Pochtamt (post office)
File:Палац робiтника, вул.Котлова, 83, Харків.JPG|Palace of Culture of Railway Workers
File:CentralRailwayStKharkov2.JPG|[[Kharkiv railway station]]
</gallery>

===Parks===
[[File:Altana - Kharkiv Gorky Park.jpg|thumb|[[Central Park (Kharkiv)|Central Park]] is one of the main family attractions in Kharkiv.]]
[[File:Shevchenko Garden, Kharkiv 2020 -07.jpg|thumb|Fountains in [[Taras Shevchenko]]'s garden]]
Kharkiv contains numerous parks and gardens such as the Central Park, Shevchenko park, Hydro park, Strelka park, Sarzhyn Yar and Feldman ecopark. The Central Park is a common place for recreation activities among visitors and local people.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} The Shevchenko park is situated in close proximity to the V.N. Karazin National University. It is also a common place for recreation activities among the students, professors, locals and foreigners.

The Ecopark is situated at circle highway around Kharkiv. It attracts kids, parents, students, professors, locals and foreigners to undertake recreation activities. Sarzhyn Yar is a natural ravine three minutes walk from "Botanichniy Sad" station. It is an old girder that now – is a modern park zone more than 12&nbsp;km in length. There is also a mineral water source with cupel and a sporting court.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Spring|url=http://www.kharkovinfo.com/the-spring.html|last=FlexKit|website=www.kharkovinfo.com|language=en|access-date=2 May 2020|archive-date=10 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200510125520/http://www.kharkovinfo.com/the-spring.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Language==
The majority spoken language in Kharkiv is Russian. Even after Ukraine gained its independence, Russian was still used predominantly by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians alike, although after the onset of the 2022 [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], many of the city's residents attempted to transition to Ukrainian.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Higgins |first1=Charlotte |last2=Mazhulin |first2=Artem |date=24 April 2023 |title=Russian-speaking Ukrainians want to shed 'language of the oppressor' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/russian-speaking-ukrainians-want-to-shed-language-of-the-oppressor |access-date=2024-04-13 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Ukrainians are breaking their ties with the Russian language |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/28/ukrainians-are-breaking-their-ties-with-russian-language/}}</ref>

==Media==
There are a large number of broadcast and internet TV channels, AM/FM/PM/internet radio-stations, and paper/internet newspapers in Kharkiv. Some are listed below.

===Newspapers===
* ''Slobidskyi Krai''
* ''Vremya''
* ''Vecherniy Kharkov''
* ''Segodnya''
* ''Vesti''
* ''Kharkovskie Izvestiya''

===Magazines===
* ''Guberniya'' <ref name="guberniya">{{cite web|url=http://www.guberniya.net/|publisher=guberniya.net|title=Губерния – деловой представительский журнал|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=22 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622165343/http://guberniya.net/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===TV stations===
* "7 kanal" channel
* "А/ТВК" channel
* "Simon" channel
* "ATN Kharkiv" channel
* "UA: Kharkiv" channel

===Radio stations===
* Promin
* Ukrainske Radio
* Radio Kharkiv
* Kharkiv Oblastne Radio
* Russkoe Radio Ukraina
* Shanson
* Retro FM

===Online news in English===
* ''The Kharkiv Times''
* ''Kharkiv Observer''

==Transport==
{{Multiple image
| direction         = vertical
| align             = right|thumb|170px
| image1            = Ezh3 modernized train at Palats Sport station.jpg
| image2            = Площадь Конституции Харьков.jpg
| caption2          = [[Kharkiv Metro]]
}}
[[File:Trolleybus PTS Kharkiv.jpg|thumb|Kharkiv trolleybus]]
The city of Kharkiv has been one of the largest transportation centres in Ukraine, connected to numerous other cities of the world by air, rail and road traffic. Kharkiv is one out of four Ukrainian cities with a subway system.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mapa-metro.com/en/Ukraine/|title=Metro maps in Ukraine|access-date=5 May 2022|archive-date=26 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626142402/https://mapa-metro.com/en/Ukraine/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Kharkiv Metro|Kharkiv's Metro]] is the city's rapid transit system operating since 1975. It includes three different lines with 30&nbsp;stations in total.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gortransport.kharkov.ua/subway/index.html |title=Metro. Basic facts |access-date=1 March 2011 |work=City transportation Kharkiv |language=uk |archive-date=8 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150608011119/http://gortransport.kharkov.ua/subway/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=PPoPmK>[http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/364779.html Poroshenko opens new subway station in Kharkiv] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122111230/http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/364779.html |date=22 November 2020 }}, [[Interfax-Ukraine]] (19 August 2016)</ref> Trolleybuses, [[Trams in Kharkiv|trams]] (which celebrated its 100-year anniversary of service in 2006), and ''[[marshrutka]]s'' (private minibuses) are also important means of transportation in the city.

The first railway connection of Kharkiv was opened in 1869. The first train to arrive in Kharkiv came from the north on 22 May 1869, and on 6 June 1869, traffic was opened on the Kursk–Kharkiv–Azov line. Kharkiv's passenger railway station was reconstructed and expanded in 1901, to be later destroyed in the [[Second World War]]. A new [[Kharkiv railway station]] was built in 1952.<ref name="uz">{{cite web|url=http://uz.gov.ua/en/euro2012/stations/|publisher=uz.gov.ua|title=Railway Stations :: Euro-2012 :: Офіційний веб-сайт Укрзалізниці|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=6 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306150758/https://uz.gov.ua/en/euro2012/stations/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Kharkiv is connected with all main cities in Ukraine and abroad by regular railway services. Regional trains known as [[elektrichka|elektrychka]]s connect Kharkiv with nearby towns and villages.
[[File:Будинок «Аеровокзал» DSC4362 07.jpg|thumb|200px|Historical building of [[Kharkiv International Airport|Kharkiv Airport]]]]Until the closure of Ukrainian airspace to civilian flights due to the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russian invasion of Ukraine]],<ref>"[https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/airlines-should-stop-flying-over-all-ukraines-airspace-conflict-zone-monitor-2022-02-24/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224192728/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/airlines-should-stop-flying-over-all-ukraines-airspace-conflict-zone-monitor-2022-02-24/|date=2022-02-24}}." Reuters. Retrieved on February 24, 2022. "Ukraine closes airspace to civilian flights amid Russian military action."</ref> Kharkiv was served by [[Kharkiv International Airport]]. Charter flights are also available. The [[Kharkiv North Airport]] was an industrial airfield serving the [[Antonov|Antonov aircraft company]].

==Sport==
===Kharkiv International Marathon===
Prior to the Russian invasion, Kharkiv International Marathon was considered as a prime international sportive event, attracting many thousands of professional sportsmen, young people, students, professors, locals and tourists to travel to Kharkiv and to participate in the international event.<ref name="kharkivmarathon">{{cite web|url=http://kharkivmarathon.com/en/|publisher=kharkivmarathon.com|title=Main {{pipe}} 5th Kharkiv International Marathon|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=22 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122142340/http://kharkivmarathon.com/en/|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref name="marathonrunnersdiary">{{cite web|url=http://www.marathonrunnersdiary.com/races/europe-marathons/kharkiv-international-marathon.php|publisher=marathonrunnersdiary.com|title=Kharkiv International Marathon 2017 – Race Details – Marathon Runners Diary|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=28 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628005150/http://www.marathonrunnersdiary.com/races/europe-marathons/kharkiv-international-marathon.php|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="sportevent">{{cite web|url=http://sportevent.com.ua/events/kharkivmarathon2016/|publisher=sportevent.com.ua|title=Ukraine Sport Events – Спортивные мероприятия Украины|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019083206/https://sportevent.com.ua/events/kharkivmarathon2016/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kharkiv21">{{cite web|url=http://blogs.kpi.kharkov.ua/v2/rmv/2016/04/09/kharkiv-international-marathon-2016/|publisher=blogs.kpi.kharkov.ua|title=Kharkiv International Marathon 2016 « СОВЕТ МОЛОДЫХ УЧЁНЫХ|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019082905/http://blogs.kpi.kharkov.ua/v2/rmv/2016/04/09/kharkiv-international-marathon-2016/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Football (soccer)===
[[File:KharkovEuro2012.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Kharkiv EURO 2012 host city emblem]]
[[File:Metalist Stadium Kharkiv.jpg|thumb|[[Metalist Oblast Sports Complex|Metalist Stadium]]]]
The most popular sport was [[association football|football]]. The city had several football clubs playing in the Ukrainian national competitions. The most successful is ''[[FC Dynamo Kharkiv]]'' that won eight national titles back in the 1920s–1930s.

* [[FC Metalist Kharkiv]], which plays at the [[Metalist Stadium]]
* [[FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv]], which plays at the [[Metalist Stadium]]
* [[FC Helios Kharkiv]], a defunct club, which played at the [[Helios Arena (Kharkiv)|Helios Arena]]
* [[FC Kharkiv]], a defunct club, which played at the [[Dynamo Stadium (Kharkiv)|Dynamo Stadium]]
* [[FC Arsenal Kharkiv]], which played at the [[Arsenal-Spartak Stadium]] (participates in regional competitions)
* [[FC Shakhtar Donetsk]] also play at the [[Metalist Stadium]] since 2017, due to the [[War in Donbas (2014–2022)|war in Donbas]]

There is also a female football club [[WFC Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv]], which represented Ukraine in the European competitions, and like other clubs briefly suspended activity in the wake of the Russian invasion.

[[Metalist Stadium]] hosted three group matches at [[UEFA Euro 2012]].

===Other sports===
[[File:(79) BYCICLE COMPETITION AT BYCICLE DAY IN CITY OF KHARKIV STATE OF UKRAINE PHOTOGRAPH BY VIKTOR O LEDENYOV 20160709.jpg|thumb|Bicycles racing competition in Kharkiv at Bicycle Day on 9 July 2016.]]

Kharkiv also had some [[ice hockey]] clubs, [[MHC Dynamo Kharkiv]], [[HK Vityaz Kharkiv|Vityaz Kharkiv]], [[Yunost Kharkiv]], [[HC Kharkiv]], who competed in the [[Ukrainian Hockey Championship]].

[[Avangard Budy]] is a [[bandy]] club from Kharkiv, which won the Ukrainian championship in 2013.

There are a men's volleyball teams, [[VC Lokomotyv Kharkiv|Lokomotyv Kharkiv]] and [[VC Yurydychna Akademiya Kharkiv|Yurydychna Akademiya Kharkiv]], which performed in Ukraine and in European competitions.

[[RC Olymp]] is the city's [[rugby union]] club. They provide many players for the [[Ukraine national rugby union team|national team]].

Tennis has also been a popular sport in Kharkiv. There are many professional tennis courts in the city. [[Elina Svitolina]] is a tennis player from Kharkiv.

There is a golf club in Kharkiv.<ref name="superiorresort">{{cite web|url=http://www.superiorresort.com/|publisher=superiorresort.com|title=гольф-курорт Superior Golf & Spa Resort в Харькове|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=17 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617091522/http://www.superiorresort.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Horseriding as a sport was also popular among locals.<ref name="zabytki">{{cite web|url=http://zabytki.in.ua/ru/430/kharkovskii-ippodrom|publisher=zabytki.in.ua|title=zabytki.in.ua/ru/430/kharkovskii-ippodrom|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=12 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312171957/http://zabytki.in.ua/ru/430/kharkovskii-ippodrom|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ippodrom">{{cite web|url=http://ippodrom.pp.ua/publ/kharkovskij_ippodrom/28-1-0-2|publisher=ippodrom.pp.ua|title=Харьковский ипподром|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=9 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160709055305/http://ippodrom.pp.ua/publ/kharkovskij_ippodrom/28-1-0-2|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ippodrom2">{{cite web|url=http://ippodrom.pp.ua/|publisher=ippodrom.pp.ua|title=Конный спорт|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=16 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616102405/http://ippodrom.pp.ua/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="konezavod">{{cite web|url=http://konezavod.com/|publisher=konezavod.com|title=Харьковский Конный Завод – продажа лошадей в Украине|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=20 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620072959/http://konezavod.com/|url-status=usurped}}</ref> There were large stables and horse riding facilities at [[Feldman Ecopark]] in Kharkiv,<ref name="feldman-ecopark">{{cite web|url=http://feldman-ecopark.com/en.html#|publisher=feldman-ecopark.com|title=feldman-ecopark.com/en.html#|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161225191520/http://www.feldman-ecopark.com/en.html|archive-date=25 December 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> which in 2022 were largely destroyed by Russian shelling.<ref>[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-21/kharkiv-zoo-workers-found-shot-to-death-feldman-ecopark/101004712 Ukrainian zoo workers found shot to death and dumped in barricaded room, say owners]</ref>

There was growing interest in cycling among locals.<ref name="vesti-ukr">{{cite web|url=http://vesti-ukr.com/harkov/100881-v-harkove-ustanovili-velosipednyj-rekord|publisher=vesti-ukr.com|title=В Харькове установили велосипедный рекорд. Любители двухколесного транспорта выстроились в огромную фигуру велосипеда {{pipe}} Харьков {{pipe}} Вести|date=24 May 2015|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019082903/http://vesti-ukr.com/harkov/100881-v-harkove-ustanovili-velosipednyj-rekord|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="nezabarom">{{cite web|url=http://kharkov.nezabarom.ua/Muzei-Vystavki-Galerei/blogs/entry/3128/|publisher=kharkov.nezabarom.ua|title=Веложизнь в Харькове – Харьков на Незабаром|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=19 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019082905/http://kharkov.nezabarom.ua/Muzei-Vystavki-Galerei/blogs/entry/3128/|url-status=live}}</ref> Within the city, there was a large century-old bicycle manufacturer, [[Kharkiv Bicycle Plant]],<ref name="usi">{{cite web|url=http://usi.ua/velo/index.php?st=38|publisher=usi.ua|title=Харьковский Велосипедный Завод им.Петровского – велосипеды, тележки, санки, товары для отдыха.|access-date=18 June 2017|archive-date=20 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620013231/http://usi.ua/velo/index.php?st=38|url-status=live}}</ref> which has since converted to military production.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-04-09 |title=Ukraine's oldest bicycle factory is on the brink of bankruptcy |url=https://biz.liga.net/en/all/all/novosti/stareyshiy-v-ukraine-velosipednyy-zavod-okazalsya-na-grani-bankrotstva |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=LIGA |language=en}}</ref>

==Notable people==

[[File:Simon Kuznets 1971b.jpg|thumb|140px|upright|[[Simon Kuznets]]]]
[[File:Landau.jpg|thumb|140px|upright|[[Lev Landau]]]]
[[File:Elie Metchnikoff - Between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915 - LOC.jpg|thumb|140px|upright|[[Élie Metchnikoff]]]]
[[File:Фотография Семирадского.JPG|thumb|140px|upright|[[Henryk Siemiradzki]]]]
[[File:Otto Struve US post 1949crop.JPG|thumb|140px|upright|[[Otto Struve]]]]
[[File:2022.08.17. Serhiy Zhadan Photo Mariusz Kubik 07.JPG|thumb|140px|upright|[[Serhiy Zhadan]]]]

*[[Anastasia Afanasieva]] (born 1982) – psychiatrist, poet, writer, translator
*[[Serhii Babkin]] (born 1978) – singer and actor
*[[Snizhana Babkina]] (born 1985) – actress and music manager
*[[Nikolai P. Barabashov]] (1894–1971) – astronomer, co-author of the first pictures of the far side of the Moon
*[[Pavel Batitsky]] (1910–1984) – Soviet military leader
*[[Vladimir Bobri]] (1898–1986) – illustrator, author, composer, educator and guitar historian
*[[Inna Bohoslovska]] (born 1960) – lawyer, politician and leader of the Ukrainian public organization [[Aktsent|Viche]]
*[[Sergei Bortkiewicz]] (1877–1952) – Russian [[Romantic music|Romantic]] composer and pianist
*[[Maria Burmaka]] (born 1970) – Ukrainian singer, musician and songwriter
*[[Leonid Bykov]] (1928–1979) – Soviet actor, film director, and script writer
*[[Cassandre]] (1901–1968) – Ukrainian-French painter, commercial poster artist, and typeface designer
*[[Juliya Chernetsky]] (born 1982) – TV host, actress, model, and music promoter in the US. ''(Mistress Juliya)''
*[[Denys Chernyshov]] (born 1974) – Ukrainian politician and economist
*[[Andrey Denisov]] (born 1952) – Russian diplomat in China
*[[Vladimir Drinfeld]] (born 1954) – mathematician, awarded [[Fields Medal]] in 1990
*[[Isaak Dunayevsky]] (1900–1955) – Soviet composer and conductor
*[[Ze'ev Elkin]] (born 1971) – Israeli politician 
*[[Konstanty Gorski]] (1859–1924) – Polish composer, violist, organist and music teacher
*[[Valentina Grizodubova]] (1909–1993) – one of the first female pilots in the Soviet Union
*[[Lyudmila Gurchenko]] (1935–2011) – Soviet and Russian actress, singer and entertainer
*[[Mikhail Gurevich (aircraft designer)|Mikhail Gurevich]] (1892–1976) – Soviet aircraft designer, a partner (with [[Artem Mikoyan]]) of the [[MiG]] military aviation bureau
*[[Diana Harkusha]] (born 1994) – Miss Ukraine Universe 2014 and [[Miss Universe 2014]]'s 2nd Runner-up
*[[Leonid Haydamaka]] (1898–1991) – [[bandurist]] and conductor
*[[Vasily Karazin]] (1773–1842) – founder of [[National University of Kharkiv]], which bears his name
*[[Hnat Khotkevych]] (1877–1938) – writer, ethnographer, composer, [[bandurist]]
*[[Mikhail Koshkin]] (1898–1940)– chief designer of the [[T-34]] Soviet tank
*[[Olga Krasko]] (born 1981) – Russian actress
*[[Mykola Kulish]] (1892–1937) – Ukrainian prose writer, playwright and pedagogue
*[[Les Kurbas]] (1887–1937) – movie and theatre director and dramatist
*[[Simon Kuznets]] (1901–1985) – Russian-American economist
*[[Evgeny Lifshitz]] (1915–1985) – Soviet physicist
*[[Eduard Limonov]] (1943–2020) – writer, poet and controversial politician; grew up in Kharkiv and studied at its [[H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University]]
*[[Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy]] (1909–2001) – lead developer of Soviet Shuttle [[Buran program]]
*[[Aleksandr Lyapunov]] (1857–1918) – Russian mathematician and physicist, invented motion [[stability theory]]
*[[Boris Mikhailov (photographer)|Boris Mikhailov]] (born 1938) – photographer and artist
*[[Mykola Mikhnovsky]] (1873–1924) – Ukrainian political leader and activist
*[[T-DJ Milana]] (born 1989) – DJ, composer, dancer and model, lives in Kharkiv
*[[Yuri Nikitin (author)|Yuri Nikitin]] (born 1939) – Russian science fiction and fantasy writer.
*[[Phạm Nhật Vượng]] – Vietnamese entrepreneur and its first billionaire, started his business career in Kharkiv in the 1990s<ref name="Barabashovo2024jun18"/>
*[[H. L. Oldie]] (Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky) (both born 1963) – writers
*[[Justine Pasek]] (born 1979) – [[Miss Universe 2002]]
*[[Valerian Pidmohylny]] (1901–1937) – poet, novelist and literary critic
*[[Olga Rapay-Markish]] (1929–2012) – [[Ceramics|ceramicist]]
*[[Elisabetta di Sasso Ruffo]] (1886–1940) – Russian princess
*[[Serafina Schachova]] – [[Nephrology|nephrologist]]
*[[Eugen Schauman]] (1875–1904) – Finnish nationalist, killed Russian general [[Nikolay Ivanovich Bobrikov|NA Bobrikov]]
*[[Alexander Shchetynsky]] (born 1960) – composer of solo, orchestral and choral pieces.
*[[George Shevelov]] (1908–2002) – linguist, essayist, literary historian and literary critic
*[[Elena Sheynina]] (born 1965) – children's author
*[[Lev Shubnikov]] (1901–1937) – Soviet experimental physicist, worked in the Netherlands and USSR
*[[Klavdiya Shulzhenko]] (1906–1984) – Soviet and Russian popular female singer and actress.
*[[Henryk Siemiradzki]] (1843–1902) – studied at the [[Kharkiv University]]
*[[Alexander Siloti]] (1863–1945) – Russian pianist, conductor and composer
*[[Hryhorii Skovoroda]] (1722–1794) – poet, philosopher and composer
*[[Karina Smirnoff]] (born 1978) – world champion dancer, starring on ''[[Dancing with the Stars]]''
*[[Katya Soldak]] (Ukrainian: Катя Солдак; born 1977 in Kharkiv) journalist, filmmaker, and author
*[[Jura Soyfer]] (1912–1939) – Austrian political journalist and [[cabaret]] writer
*[[Otto Struve]] (1897–1963) – Russian-American astronomer
*[[Sergei Sviatchenko]] (born 1952) – Danish-Ukrainian artist, photographer and architect. 
*[[Ivan Svit]] (1897–1989) –  historian, journalist and writer
*[[Mark Taimanov]] (1926–2016) – concert pianist and chess player
*[[Nikolai Tikhonov]] (1905–1997) – a Soviet Russian-Ukrainian statesman during the Cold War.
*[[Yevgeniy Timoshenko]] (born 1988) – poker player in the US
*[[Andriy Tsaplienko]] (born 1968) – journalist, presenter, filmmaker and writer.
*[[Anna Tsybuleva]] (born 1990) – classical pianist, winner of the [[Leeds International Piano Competition]]
*[[Anna Ushenina]] (born 1985) – women's world chess champion
*[[Vladimir Vasyutin]] (1952–2002) – Soviet [[cosmonaut]] of Ukrainian descent
*[[Vitali Vitaliev]] (born 1954) – journalist and author
*[[Alexander Voevodin]] (born 1949) – biomedical scientist and educator
*[[Yevgania Yosifovna Yakhina]] (1918–1983) – composer
*[[Vasyl Yermylov]] (1894–1968) – Ukrainian and Soviet painter, avant-garde artist and designer.
*[[Serhiy Zhadan]] (born 1974) – Ukrainian poet, novelist, essayist and translator.
*[[Valentine Yanovna Zhubinskaya]] (1926–2013) Ukrainian composer, concertmistress and pianist
*[[Irina Zhurina]] (born 1946) Russian operatic [[coloratura soprano]].
*[[Alexander Zorich]] (Dmitry Gordevsky and Yana Botsman) (both born 1973) – writers
*[[Oksana Cherkashyna]] (born 1988) – actress

=== Sport ===
*[[Leonid Buryak]] (born 1953) – football coach and former footballer
*[[Valentina Chepiga]] (born 1962) – [[Female bodybuilding|female bodybuilder]] and 2000 [[Ms. Olympia]] champion
*[[Olga Danilov]] (born 1973) – Israeli Olympic speed skater
*[[Alexander Davidovich (wrestler)|Alexander Davidovich]] (born 1967) – Israeli Olympic wrestler
*[[Mikhail Gurevich (chess player)|Mikhail Gurevich]] – (born 1959) a Belgian chess player.
*[[Oleksandr Gvozdyk]] (born 1987) – boxer 
*[[Pavlo Ishchenko]] (born 1992) – Olympic Ukrainian-Israeli boxer
*[[Oleksandr Kachorenko]] (born 1980) – professional footballer
*[[Maksym Kalynychenko]] (born 1979) – footballer
*[[Igor Olshanetskyi]] (born 1986) – Israeli Olympic weightlifter
*[[Gennady Orlov]] (born 1945) – Russian sports journalist and former footballer
* [[Ivan Pravilov]] (1963–2012) – ice hockey coach, sexually abused a teenage student, committed [[suicide by hanging]] in prison
*[[Irina Press]] (1939–2004) – athlete who won two Olympic [[gold medal]]s
*[[Tamara Press]] (1937–2021) – Soviet [[shot put]]ter and [[discus throw]]er
*[[Oleh Ptachyk]] (born 1981) – retired footballer
*[[Sergey Richter]] (born 1989) – Israeli Olympic sport shooter
*[[Igor Rybak]] (1934–2005) – Olympic champion lightweight weightlifter
*[[Elina Svitolina]] (born 1994) – tennis player
*[[Kateryna Tabashnyk]] (born 1994) – high jumper 
*[[Ievgeniia Tetelbaum]] (born 1991) – Israeli Olympic synchronized swimmer
*[[Artem Tsoglin]] (born 1997) – Israeli pair skater
*[[Yury Vengerovsky]] (1938–1998) – Olympic gold medal-winning volleyball player
*[[Igor Vovchanchyn]] (born 1973) – mixed martial artist
*[[Oleksandr Zhdanov]] (born 1984) – Ukrainian-Israeli footballer
*[[Oleksandr Zakolodny]] (1987–2023) – mountaineer

===Nobel and Fields prize winners===
*[[Élie Metchnikoff]] (1845–1916) – Russian/French zoologist; researched immunology; jointly awarded the 1908 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]]
*[[Simon Kuznets]] (1901–1985) – American economist and statistician; received the 1971 [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]]
*[[Lev Landau]] (1908–1968) – Soviet physicist, made fundamental contributions to theoretical physics; [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] 1962
*[[Vladimir Drinfeld]] (born 1954) – mathematician now in the United States; awarded the [[Fields Medal]] in 1990

==Twin towns – sister cities==
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Ukraine}}
Kharkiv is [[Sister city|twinned]] with:<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=uk:Міста-партнери |trans-title=Partner cities |url=https://www.city.kharkiv.ua/uk/o-xarkove/goroda-partneryi.html |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=www.city.kharkiv.ua |archive-date=13 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513213548/https://www.city.kharkiv.ua/uk/o-xarkove/goroda-partneryi.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
<!--rest - not twinning or twinning ended-->
*{{flagicon|USA}} [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]], USA (2023)<ref>{{cite web|title= Albuquerque welcomes new Ukrainian 'sister' city|url= https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-welcomes-new-ukrainian-sister-city/|website= KRQE News 13 (www.krqe.com)|date= 29 June 2023|access-date= 10 July 2023|archive-date= 10 July 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230710023856/https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-welcomes-new-ukrainian-sister-city/|url-status= live}}</ref>
*{{flagicon|ITA}} [[Bologna]], Italy (1966)
*{{flagicon|CZE}} [[Brno]], Czech Republic (2005)
*{{flagicon|MNE}} [[Cetinje Municipality|Cetinje]], Montenegro (2011)
*{{flagicon|USA}} [[Cincinnati]], United States (1989)
*{{flagicon|KOR}} [[Daejeon]], South Korea (2013)
*{{flagicon|LVA}} [[Daugavpils]], Latvia (2006)
*{{flagicon|HUN}} [[Debrecen]], Hungary (2016)
*{{flagicon|TUR}} [[Gaziantep]], Turkey (2011)
*{{flagicon|CYP}} [[Geroskipou]], Cyprus (2018)
*{{flagicon|CHN}} [[Jinan]], China (2004)
*{{flagicon|LTU}} [[Kaunas]], Lithuania (2001)
*{{flagicon|GEO}} [[Kutaisi]], Georgia (2005)
*{{flagicon|FRA}} [[Lille]], France (1978)
*{{flagicon|SVN}} [[Maribor]], Slovenia (2012)
*{{flagicon|GER}} [[Nuremberg]], Germany (1990)
*{{flagicon|CYP}} [[Polis, Cyprus|Polis]], Cyprus (2018)
*{{flagicon|POL}} [[Poznań]], Poland (1998)
*{{flagicon|ISR}} [[Rishon LeZion]], Israel (2008)
*{{flagicon|GEO}} [[Tbilisi]], Georgia (2012)
*{{flagicon|CHN}} [[Tianjin]], China (1993)
*{{flagicon|ALB}} [[Tirana]], Albania (2017)
*{{flagicon|SVK}} [[Trnava]], Slovakia (2013)
*{{flagicon|FIN}} [[Turku]], Finland (2022)
*{{flagicon|BUL}} [[Varna, Bulgaria]] (1995)
<!--rest - not twinning or twinning ended-->
{{div col end}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Ukraine}}
* [[Grigoriev Institute for Medical Radiology]]
* {{ill|Kharkiv fortress|uk|Харківська фортеця|ru|Харьковская_крепость}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name=Navalny140923>{{cite news |url= https://navalny.com/p/3836/ |script-title=ru:Соцопрос ФБК по Харьковской и Одесской областям. Европа, Россия, Новороссия |language= ru |trans-title=Survey of Kharkiv and Odesa Oblasts |first= Alexei |last= Navalny |publisher= navalny.com |date= 23 September 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140923121221/https://navalny.com/p/3836/ |archive-date= 23 September 2014 |url-status= live }}</ref>

<ref name=DT150103>{{cite news |url= http://dt.ua/UKRAINE/lishe-3-ukrayinciv-hochut-priyednannya-yih-oblasti-do-rosiyi-160641_.html |script-title= uk:Лише 3% українців хочуть приєднання їх області до Росії |language= uk |trans-title= Only 3% of Ukrainians want their region to become part of Russia |work= [[Dzerkalo Tyzhnia]] |date= 3 January 2015 |access-date= 23 January 2015 |archive-date= 19 October 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171019031451/https://dt.ua/UKRAINE/lishe-3-ukrayinciv-hochut-priyednannya-yih-oblasti-do-rosiyi-160641_.html |url-status= live }}</ref>
}}

==Sources==
{{See also|Timeline of Kharkiv#Bibliography|l1=Bibliography of the history of Kharkiv}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|Kharkiv|voy=Kharkiv}}
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Kharkov (town) |volume= 15 | page = 772 |short= 1}}
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Kharkov (government) |volume= 15 | page = 772 |short= 1}}
*[http://www.infocity.kharkov.ua/ Citynet UA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410201748/http://www.infocity.kharkov.ua/ |date=10 April 2022 }} – Official website of Kharkiv City Information Centre {{in lang|uk}}
*[https://www.city.kharkiv.ua/ Misto Kharkiv] – Official website of Kharkiv City Council {{in lang|uk|ru}}
*[https://studyinukraine.gov.ua/en/study-in-ukraine/universities/?regions=7# Study in Kharkiv] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629091730/https://studyinukraine.gov.ua/en/study-in-ukraine/universities/?regions=7 |date=29 June 2023 }} – Official website of Study in Ukraine {{in lang|en|fr|uk}}Lviv city guide & interactive map
*[https://kh.locator.ua/?l=en An English-language city guide to Kharkiv]
{{Spoken Wikipedia|City of Kharkiv State of Ukraine Recorded by Viktor O Ledenyov.ogg|date=7 January 2016}}
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