In 1982 on 2, Kreschatik street there was grandly opened Kyiv museum of V.I.Lenin (today’s Ukrainian house), moved here from 57,Volodymyrska street. This ceremony had finished the global reconstruction of the whole park zone, adjoining today’s European square. New built memorial complex had successfully “buried” few places, loved by local citizens: “Summery” cinema, two outdoor cafes – “Vladimirskiy hill” and “Little Elephant”, an amusement park “Fun townlet” with the observation wheel, merry-go-round (a gift from czechoslovakian exhibition, being held in Kyiv in 1959), house of mirrors, glider swings, ping-pong tables, “loop the loop” attraction, pneumatic shooting gallery etc.
Many longstanding shadowy chestnut alleys had disappeared, as well as the Rivyera restaurant. Famous summer dance-floor “The Frog”, well remembered by older generation, had turned to a landfill site…
The stairs, tending to the memorial of two significant events of Kyiv life - Christianization of Kyivan Rus’ and returning to the Magdeburg Law city – is currently in a horrible condition. Historical tram line from today’s European square to Podil area had been closed. In May, 1892 in front of a big abundance of people, took place the trial start up of the first electric tram in Russian empire down the steep Oleksandivs’kiy slope (today’s Andriivs’kiy slope).
Although nothing lasts forever, it’s a pity to loose the place, where every evening thousands of Kyivans used to have fun, meet new people, dance, sing songs, and simply take the air in the park on Dniper river slopes, and the music was constantly wafting from the park radio centre – they were playing the records of those times.
Good days to remember… In 60-s of the last century, near the Philarmonic House, there were couple of telephone boxes – it used to be the place, where the young made appointments. Going upstairs, to the left from Philarmonia, you appeared in the shadowy chestnut alley, with stands of all soviet republics’ newspapers along it. The alley with its comfortable park benches, tended to an old summer concert venue. On one of the benches you could often find an artist, who was cutting paper silhouettes of all those who wished.
And here we are, at the summer concert venue, from which the sculptures of proletariat leaders Lenin and Stalin were observing the audience. Professional artists, as well as amateur-talent groups, were performing on this stage, were given the lectures about machinations of global imperialism and possibilities of life on other planets, parodists and satirical singers entertained people. There were also held fun competitions with prizes among the audience.
The order in the park was maintained by police and its voluntary helpers – members of voluntary people’s guarding groups.
Pavement walking alleys tended from here to “Cukooshka” and “Rivera” restaurants. There were lots of removable tables for trading along the alleys, where people could buy beer, lemonade, sandwiches, and cookies.
What a joy were the attractions! At the “Fun townlet” entrance there was sitting an elderly capped man. He was serving the attraction called “Check on you strength level!”. The rule was to hit the point by the hammer, so the indicator pointer jumps up, showing the result. If the pointer approaches the 5000 mark, a competitor gets the prize – the capped man treats him with a quarter-litre bottle of vodka. Interesting, that the cork of the bottle was closed by a sealing wax. It all was very joyful, but sometimes mishap cases occurred. There was an occurrence, when the plane of the “Loop the loop” attraction got stuck in the loop, and the passenger got hung there upside down. It turned out to be the electric panel power cut. People rushed to look for the electrician, but couldn’t find him. When found at last, he was a bit drunk, nevertheless fixed the problem. As the day was going down, the amusement park got closed… Only the restaurants continued working, but not longer then till 1 o’clock. Night time amusement places did not exist at that time, as people needed to rest before the next working day…
© Real estate agency "Teren Plus".
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January 2014
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