The Park club as the cradle of a New Man

City park named after M. Gorky Among the listed gardens of Ukraine, the park named after M. Gorky (City Park) stands alone. Why? Because it's not just a park, but a park club! It was a Soviet phenomenon of the 1920s and 1930s that had existed until the end of the Soviet era. In fact, the City Park (nowadays it returned its original name) emerged in the late nineteenth century. It was aimed to prevent environmental catastrophe in the city. At that time, Kharkiv suffered from several dust storms that were caused by deforestation around the city. In 1895, on the northern outskirts of the city, they began to plant trees to prevent disaster. It was considered to use the new green area as a country park for horseback riding, following the example of the Bois de Boulogne near Paris. The wide central alley and the remains of the ring "crew" alley that had the shape of a hippodrome, reminds us of that time. The City Park was opened to visitors in 1907. After the Russian Revolution, the park was renamed to the Communal Park. Taking into account the new proletarian visitors, the new, untypical for the parks, pavilions were built, for example, the showers for women and men - after hard work and before a cultural rest the proletarian people had to take showers. In this concept, the home has been seen only as a place to sleep. There was a flower bed in front of the main alley, which had the shape of a globe. Flowers were planted to picture the worker and the train that were symbols of the world revolution. Not far from the park there was a correctional labor colony named after Dzerzhinsky, an institution where the former criminals were rehabilitated to be new Soviet youth. In 1928, Maxim Gorky, a famous Russian writer and honorable Chief of this place, had visited the Colony and the Communal Park next to it. Not long before Gorky had attended New York, where he became acquainted with the world's wonder - Luna Park in Coney Island. The writer wasn't impressed; he was struck by the backward ideology of it. His visits to Kharkiv Communal Park, as well as to a similar park in Moscow (now Gorky Park) prompted him to write an article on concepts of youth parks in the Soviet Union. Stalin liked the idea of ​​parks-clubs and similar parks were opened in all major cities of the country. Most of them were named after M. Gorky. In 1938, Kharkiv Park was finally renamed the Central Park of Culture and Recreation named after Gorky. The main attractions of that time were a parachute tower and a children's railway, and a very popular shooting gallery. That is, the entertainment attractions of the 1930s helped to get trained soldiers to fight in the Second World War. In the mid-1960s, Kharkiv Park was recognized as the best park in the USSR in terms of cultural and educational work: it was attended by more than 100,000 visitors every holiday. Many park attractions had not only entertaining but also practical use. For example, a cable car road was built as a line of public transport. In the 1990s, most of such park attractions were stopped, and it had begun to disappear from the city maps. But Kharkiv park is listed and had to be preserved. It turned out that the decision to renovate it was the right one - crowds of visitors, constant renewal of attractions, and community services - the only way to save the life of parks of this type. Olga Shvydenko