Department store "KHATORG"

Kharkiv Central Department Store is one of the oldest retailers in the city.  The name of the area it is located has been changed several times: Torhova,  Lobova, Narodna, Birzhova, Pavlivska, Rosa Luxemburg Square (since January 1919). In 2013, it was renamed back d to Pavlivska. In the second half of the XIX century, Torhova square became one of the major transport junctions of the city. More than three hundred years ago, on the site of the department store, there was the so-called Christmas Tower of the first Kharkiv fortress. This plot used to be a place for holiday fairs and shopping malls. Therefore, in Soviet times, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to build a modern department store instead of the shopping malls. In 1930, Alexandr Linetsky developed the project of the department store in the style of constructivism. And in three years, the object was operating at full capacity. The Central Department Store was founded in 1933, as a part of the Kharkiv Joint-Stock Company called KhATORG. Since December 1934, the department store had been subordinated to the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade of the USSR and was called the Kharkiv Central Exemplary Department Store. In 1938, it was expanded. The reconstruction project was developed by P. Frolov. World War II left only the skeleton of this building. Therefore, a group of architects (M. Movshovich, B. Klein and V. Kharlamov) had to recreate a project. Since constructivism was already banned, and neoclassicism became the dominant style, the store was rebuilt in the Stalinist Empire style. Restoration of the Kharkiv Central Department Store lasted until the mid-1950s. In 1969, the department store had been subordinated to the Kharkiv City Trade Department. Since June 1994, KhATORG has been an Open Joint Stock Company with a half thousand shareholders. It is one of the oldest trade objects of the Soviet period in Kharkiv. Its modern look is a result of several reconstructions.