Gosprom after the Russian air strike: about 700 windows smashed, recovery may take years

As a result of the Russian attack on Derzhprom in Kharkiv, the 7th entrance was damaged, glass fell out of hundreds of windows, but all the main structures survived. Despite the fact that the building is not heavily damaged, its restoration may take years or even decades, UNN reports with reference to Kharkiv Today.

On October 28, in the evening, a Russian guided aerial bomb hit the northern wall of the House of State Industry. Derzhprom, which had become the main symbol of Kharkiv's resilience during the war, suffered visible damage.

A lot of expertise is required

From the facade, the damage to Derzhprom is almost invisible. Only a few broken windows and a pile of boards in front of the 8th entrance indicate that the building is not in good shape. The entrance to the neighboring 7th entrance is free, and the duty officer is on duty, but no one is working here today except her and the cleaners. This entrance houses the offices of several departments of the regional administration, the regional office of the State Committee for Financial Monitoring, the Kharkiv Economic Court, and offices of private companies. In the lobby, there are collected items near the elevators and a safe. On the floors, you can hear the sound of glass breaking as they are cleaning up what's left of the windows.

The most damaged was the annexe that housed the courtroom. The bomb pierced the roof of the third floor and damaged the second floor.

"Fragments of the ceiling of the second and third floors and a fragment of the outer wall of one of the premises in the northern part of the building were damaged. More damage was caused by the breakthrough of engineering networks, which flooded all the premises of the entrance," said the Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab, which documents the consequences of Russian shelling.

The company has not yet accurately assessed the extent of the damage and made an inventory of the damage. Today, they are dealing with urgent issues, such as closing the contours of the windows.

"We need time to go around and see what is damaged - it will take at least three days. We lost about 600-700 windows, I think. The ceilings were not damaged, except for the extension up to three floors, nowhere else. People are working there, we are sewing up the contours. This will also take at least three days," Mykola Chekhunov, director of Derzhprom, told KHARKIV Today.

While the windows can be closed by the end of the working week, the repair of the broken walls can take years. After all, the building is an architectural monument, and it will not be possible to simply restore the lost walls, as is done in Kharkiv high-rise buildings.

"Now a commission will be set up to examine the site and come to the conclusion that an instrumental survey should be carried out, to which the relevant specialists, civil engineers, will be invited. They will use special equipment to analyze the damage. Then the appropriate scientific and technical recommendation will be developed, and only after that we can talk about some work," Anton Korotovskikh, chief architect of Kharkiv region , explained to KHARKIV Today.

The head of the KhRMA , Oleh Syniehubov, said he is already looking for money for reconstruction. He plans to ask for it from the state budget, UNESCO, various charitable organizations and patrons, including the American billionaire philanthropist Howard Buffett, who has been helping Kharkiv region a lot. 

In 2023, UNESCO added Derzhprom to the list of sites for enhanced protection, but this is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site (as of February 2022, Freedom Square with the silhouette of Derzhprom was on the waiting list). Meanwhile, the organization has not expressed its attitude to the crime of the Russian military anywhere - there is no relevant post on its website or on UNESCO's social media.

This is not the first time enemies have attacked Derzhprom

The bombing of Derzhprom came as a shock to many Kharkiv residents, as the building had become a symbol of local resistance since the beginning of the full-scale invasion thanks to the emblem designed by artist Patrick Casanelli "Kharkiv Zalizobeton" . 

"It seems to me that Kharkiv art, Kharkiv style, is influenced by Derzhprom. This gray reinforced concrete rock, this geometry, these repeating patterns inevitably affect the locals. The rationalization of space, thoughts, and even creative impulses is a consequence of the influence of this form," Kharkiv artist Polina Kuznetsova wrote on her Facebook page.

This is not the first time that reinforced concrete has saved Derzhprom from destruction. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said at the arrival site that "Derzhprom survived World War II, but was destroyed by the Russians." There were numerous posts about this on social media. However, this is not entirely true. During the occupation of the city, the Nazis destroyed all of Derzhprom's engineering systems and tried to set the building on fire, but reinforced concrete does not burn. When the Red Army and the Third Reich fought for Kharkiv in 1943, the Nazis tried to destroy the Kharkiv symbol.

"When leaving Kharkiv, the Nazis mined Derzhprom. The charred remains of a man with traces of torture and bullet wounds were found in the basement of the building. According to experts, it was he who made the explosion of the mine charges impossible. This was described in detail by Stroitelnaya Gazeta on February 4, 1986, in the article "Operation Trap". Only one large hole was gaping under the transition bridge adjacent to entrance 7. The blast wave bent the window frames of the stairwell. In the lobby of entrance 7, the outer entrance door, transom and turnstile were gone, as well as most of the parquet floors on the first and third floors. The roof of the building was gaping with holes from bombs and shells, and the elevators were frozen like dead boxes," wrote the authors of the book ‘Derzhprom’ Eduard Zvonitsky and Alexander Leibfreud.

It was repaired after the war, from 1944 to 1947. The reconstruction was carried out by the Svitlo Shakhtyora plant. All structures were restored in their original form.