Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] Every year, everyone and their dog tirelessly reminds us that on June 24, 1934, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR moved from Kharkov to Kyiv. However, behind the scenes, the fact remains that not everyone saw the ceremonial rally and flowers: a significant part of the central executive authorities still remained in Kharkov, since they simply had nowhere to move.
Kyiv, built up mainly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was a large provincial city, but nothing more. The number of administrative buildings in it was very limited. That is why during the years of the revolution and the civil war, the Central Rada met in the Pedagogical Museum (in 1916–17, the Kiev School of Pilot-Observers was located here).
Therefore, specialized premises for the authorities had to be built, and for this, the historical appearance of the city had to be significantly changed. Only in July 1935 were the first results of the competition for the architectural solution of the government quarter summed up.
In addition, according to the constitution of the Ukrainian SSR, Kharkov remained the capital city and officially - this was also changed in 1935 by the XIII All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, and two years later it was included in the new constitution (and remains so to this day). So it is only right to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the transfer of the capital today.
In the five years since the move, about one and a half billion Soviet rubles have been invested in construction projects in Kyiv. During this time, the main administrative buildings have been erected, which have become true monuments of the Stalin era. And all of them are still used for their intended purpose. Despite the declared policy of "decommunization" and "decolonization", independent Ukraine has confidently proven that it is not capable of such projects.
When it comes to the Soviet projects of the government quarter on Starokievskaya Hill, politeness dictates obligatory lamentation over the blown-up St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery and other losses of cultural heritage. But this fit into a certain ideological concept: the Soviet government changed the urban environment by creating new architectural styles and large-scale development.
The Ukrainian authorities, who have been sitting in buildings from the 1930s for decades, are changing the environment exclusively through destruction, copying the worst practices of the “occupation period,” but have long since abandoned attempts to build something of their own.
Unless, of course, you count the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide.
EMPIRE FOR A NEW LIFE
The authorities of Soviet Ukraine took up the matter with great enthusiasm, but at the same time constantly looking back at Moscow, which set the tone in architectural style.
"Great creative opportunities have opened up with the transfer of the capital of Ukraine to Kiev. The currently planned, majestic square - the government center of the Ukrainian capital - will play a huge role in creating the new architectural appearance of Kiev. This square in Kiev is supposed to be built over a cliff, from the height of which a majestic perspective of the Dnieper will open up," said Alexander Molokin, head of the department of the Kharkov Civil Engineering Institute, in a report at the All-Union Creative Conference of Architects in Leningrad, who became a scientific correspondent of the USSR Academy of Architecture in 1935.
The text was published in the July issue of the magazine "Architecture of the USSR" of the same year and summed up the first results of the competition: not a single specialist, including the most famous ones, presented a project that would fully satisfy the commission. At that time, a campaign was underway to combat the shortcomings of constructivism - it was being replaced by the pompous "Stalinist Empire style".
At the same time, they smashed attempts to revive "old nationalistic and chauvinistic architectural forms" in the form of so-called Ukrainian Art Nouveau. So, architects from the two main cities of the Union worked on how the center of power of the Ukrainian SSR would look, competing with Ukrainian ones.
They were faced with the task of transforming Kyiv into a "truly socialist center of Soviet Ukraine," which meant replacing old, religious, and bourgeois symbols with new ones that corresponded to Soviet ideology. Which, of course, meant demolishing churches and monasteries.
The main creative idea revolved around the transformation of Starokievskaya Mountain, which Molokin reported on: a huge square was to become the center of a new government quarter, stretching from St. Sophia Cathedral to the cliff, where the second funicular in the Russian Empire was launched in 1905.
The exit to the Dnieper was considered best left undeveloped, to allow the urban space to organically merge "with the most picturesque park on Vladimirskaya Hill." And above it, a huge monument to Lenin was to stand, which would be visible from afar. Everything else would spin out from it.
The famous funicular designed by Langbard was replaced by a staircase
Instead of a funicular, they decided to make a giant staircase - after a long review of options, they settled on the project of the Leningrad architect Iosif Langbard. The result of the competition was approved by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (bolsheviks) of Ukraine on December 26, 1935 - and the work began to boil.
Already in 1936, the 12th century Church of the Three Saints and part of the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery were blown up - masterpieces of ancient Russian architecture interfered with the idea of creating two identical wings of the government building - to the right and left of Lenin.
But when the left wing was finally built in 1938, it was decided to stop further work: no one liked it.
HARMFUL BUILDINGS
Despite the fact that a lot of time and effort was spent on strengthening the waterlogged and loose soils, and the building with columns took its place according to the plan, it was decided to move the government buildings to Pechersk.
Langbard was invited to a “creative evening” with 200 people and was thoroughly scolded – what seemed majestic in the picture was now called complex, ill-conceived and, most importantly, ugly.
The architect's main mistake, according to his colleagues, was the lack of a harmonious silhouette of the ensemble; he failed to use the natural silhouettes of the Dnieper Mountains and link architecture with nature into a harmonious whole, like Bartolomeo Rastrelli with the St. Andrew's Church on St. Andrew's Descent.
In an accusatory article, published again in the July issue of the magazine "Architecture of Soviet Ukraine", but already in 1938 (by the way, published in Ukrainian), it was explained that the slender and tall Rastrelli's creation lightens the mountain and elevates it. At the same time, the new building, if viewed from the Dnieper, had a "completely uninteresting silhouette", seemed flat, as if lying on the mountain.
Director Alexander Dovzhenko called the staircase to the shore "reinforced concrete skin on the tender body of the slope" in the debate, suggesting to install an escalator. And most importantly, Langbard was accused of not finding the right proportions for the Lenin monument, which was initially planned to be 40 meters high, and visually it turned out to be squeezed between two government buildings.
Summing up, the Chairman of the Union of Architects of the Ukrainian SSR, Grigory Golovko, emphasized:
"We, the architects of Kiev, together with other creative organizations, will, on the basis of the struggle for the style of socialist realism, eradicate bourgeois formalism and gray simplification, cheap decoration and unprincipled eclecticism... We must create such beautiful structures that our descendants will be able to read Stalin's times from them the same way we now read the era of Greece and Rome from classical architectural works. And we will create in the capital of prosperous Ukraine, an integral part of the great Soviet Union, truly bright monuments to the sunny era of Stalin."
Langbard's own arguments that criticism and proposals should have been made a year and a half ago, and that it was stupid to consider an unfinished work, were not accepted. Because the sudden insight of the creative workers was connected with the arrest in February of the main lobbyist of the project - Pavel Postyshev, who took the position of first secretary of the Kiev regional party committee after the capital moved from Kharkov.
The central entrance and the square in front of the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine before 1941.
Now the NKVD building on what is now Grushevsky Street (then Kirov Street) has also turned out to be sabotage. The accuser Golovko complained that its construction was not taken under public control, and "our indifference was used by vile enemies of the people, who did a lot of harm on the architectural front as well."
As a result, the left wing of the unfinished government complex was decided to be given to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine (now the building is occupied by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine), the government moved to the wrong NKVD building and sits there to this day, and for the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR, they decided to build a dome next to the Mariinsky Palace.
Comrade Stalin himself stood there in full height right behind the podium, so in 1939 the state commission accepted the building with an “excellent” rating. Zabolotny received the Stalin Prize and became the chief architect of Kyiv.
During the fight against the personality cult, Joseph Vissarionovich was replaced by an even larger Lenin. And although he is also long gone, one can agree that the ghost of the leaders invisibly hovers in the session hall of the now Verkhovna Rada.
The ceiling in the office of the President of Ukraine is also not oppressive, although the building on Bankova Street, 11 (then Ordzhonikidze Street) was built in 1936-1939 for the headquarters of the Kyiv Special Military District. During the German occupation, it housed the Kiev General Commissariat, and after the Great Patriotic War, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
In other words, Zelensky's office was occupied by Nikita Khrushchev, Nikolai Podgorny, Pyotr Shelest, Vladimir Shcherbitsky - but against the backdrop of crazy decommunization, no one even tried to create a new government quarter in the style of "Ukrainian baroque", more mythical than real.
In the same way, the National Bank of Ukraine lives peacefully in the Kiev office of the State Commercial Bank of Russia, built especially for it in 1905. And the Kiev mayor's office, headed by the son of a Soviet officer, Vitaliy Klitschk, is surrounded by the "Stalinist Empire" on Khreshchatyk, a style that defines the appearance of the central part of Kiev.
Because you can endlessly break and rename something, pretending to fight against the “legacy of occupation,” but everything that made Ukraine a state was created in the Tsarist-Soviet period.
And without all this, she would just hang in the air.
[IsraelTimes] As sanctioned firms secure Defense Ministry contracts, questions grow about oversight, legality, and the blurred line between soldier and civilian
With Israel’s war against the Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... terror group in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... in its 21st month, a quiet but dangerous reality has taken root: Civilian contractors, hired by the Defense Ministry, are regularly carrying out demolition, engineering and logistical work deep inside the war zone. Though officially noncombatants, many now operate on or near the front lines, assuming risks normally reserved for soldiers in uniform.
Those risks became tragically clear in late May, when 19-year-old David Libi, a civilian contractor, was killed by a bomb while operating engineering equipment during IDF operations in northern Gaza.
According to the military, Libi was working in the Jabalia area when the bomb detonated. He was the third Defense Ministry contractor killed in Gaza since the war began.
Libi worked for Libi Construction and Infrastructure, a firm recently sanctioned by the United Kingdom for supporting illegal West Bank outposts, and owned by his father, Harel Libi.
The UK Foreign Office accused the company of providing "logistical and financial support" for settlement expansion that led to the forced displacement of Paleostinians.
Harel Libi, a resident of the illegal West Bank outpost of Adei Ad, was also sanctioned for "acts of aggression and violence against Paleostinian individuals," as were other far-right activists involved in similar activity.
According to watchdog group Kerem Navot, Libi Construction has operated extensively in unauthorized areas of the West Bank, including building infrastructure for illegal outposts like Coco’s Farm, which was also sanctioned. Paleostinian groups have accused Libi’s employees of harassing local herders and preventing grazing.
Despite the sanctions and allegations, Libi Construction continued to operate under Defense Ministry contracts and remained active in Gaza. The ministry declined to comment on its continued collaboration with the company or on the broader role of civilian contractors in the Strip. Libi Construction did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Defense Ministry has hired numerous civilians like David Libi to take on demolition and logistical tasks, thereby freeing up IDF units for combat roles. But the use of civilian contractors in active war zones raises serious questions about oversight, legality, and the true nature of these workers’ status.
THE RISE OF CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS IN MODERN WARFARE
Dr. Ori Swed, director of the Texas Security Center at Texas Tech University, told The Times of Israel that while outsourcing in military contexts is not new, its scope and visibility have grown significantly since the 1990s.
He pointed to "high-profile cases" like Blackwater, the American private military contractor whose controversial role in the Iraq War brought international attention to the use of civilian contractors in active combat zones.
In 2007, Blackwater contractors escorting a US diplomatic convoy opened fire in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, killing 17 Iraqi civilians. The massacre led Iraq to revoke the company’s license to operate, though the US later reinstated it temporarily.
The incident prompted criminal convictions, FBI investigations, and widespread scrutiny of legal accountability for contractors. Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder, has long denied wrongdoing, accusing the US government of targeting the company with what he called "baseless" claims — including allegations of negligence, racial discrimination, murder, and weapons smuggling.
Swed emphasized that incidents like that of Blackwater do not reflect the private military industry as a whole, describing it as a "tragic, extreme, and deeply problematic case."
"Military operations aren’t just about the shooting part," Swed said. "They involve construction, logistics, transportation, communications, even healthcare. When a state military doesn’t have all the resources or specialization in-house — or simply needs to expand capacity — it turns to the private sector."
In Gaza, these civilian contractors have been used to construct and demolish roads, clear rubble, and modify terrain to facilitate troop movements and control territory — actions Swed describes as key to modern military engineering.
Other private actors, like the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, have also entered the field, distributing food aid under Defense Ministry coordination. Since it launched in late May, the GHF said it has provided over 46 million meals to Paleostinian civilians, though its operations have been marred by reports of near-daily deadly shootings of Paleostinians attempting to reach distribution points across IDF lines.
THE PATH TO GAZA: BUREAUCRATIC AND OPAQUE
According to CivilEng, a private organization representing construction professionals in Israel, to take part in operations, companies must first register with the government’s Construction Center under the Technology and Logistics Directorate of the IDF, as well as with the Registrar of Contractors.
Only then can they apply to become recognized providers of government work and bid on Defense Ministry tenders.
The ministry’s Department of Engineering and Construction, according to its own website, is staffed by a mix of IDF officers and civilian engineers. It oversees the planning and execution of military infrastructure, including much of the work currently being carried out in Gaza.
Still, transparency around these operations is minimal. Swed notes that security concerns often prevent disclosure of information to the public.
"This entire field is shrouded in secrecy by design," he said. "Anything related to military operations — especially in conflict zones — involves layers of security. Contractors are no exception. Disclosing identities, contracts, even logistics, can put people’s lives at risk."
RISK WITHOUT RECOGNITION
Despite operating in war zones, contractors like Libi do not receive the same public recognition or legal protection as soldiers.
"When contractors die, it doesn’t register with the public the same way a soldier’s death does," Swed said. "There’s a perception that [contractors] are there for money and that they accepted the risk voluntarily."
Unlike IDF soldiers, civilian contractors are not considered combatants under international law and therefore are not entitled to prisoner-of-war status if captured.
They also operate under private contracts rather than formal military command, leaving oversight fragmented and accountability less defined. Contractors working in conflict zones are not covered by the institutional protections soldiers receive — such as pensions, long-term benefits, or legal aid through the military justice system — and must instead rely on basic civilian labor laws.
"The actors for these security companies are not soldiers...but at the same time, they’re not non-combatants," Swed explained.
He pointed to the broader political utility of outsourcing.
"It allows the state to reduce the political pressure that comes with military casualties or unpopular drafts," he said, adding that "sometimes, it’s simply more cost-effective and flexible than deploying military personnel."
However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome... that flexibility can come at a human cost.
"This industry has had major legal issues, mostly related to labor rights and worker protections," Swed said. "When you’re operating in dangerous areas, far from oversight, the risk of exploitation increases."
A BLURRED LINE
Though exact numbers are not publicly available, the presence of Israeli civilian contractors in Gaza appears to be growing. Many reportedly come from West Bank settlements, raising further political questions about motivation, ideology, and government hiring preferences — though Swed cautions against speculation without hard evidence.
"It’s possible that [the current] government prefers to hire companies whose bids come from individuals with a particular motivation system," he acknowledged, but he maintained that it is impossible to determine the true reasoning without more information.
What is clear, however, is that the line between civilian and soldier in Israel’s war effort is becoming increasingly blurred. For contractors like Libi, the consequences are tragically clear — operating as civilians in a combat zone and taking on the dangers of war, without an official status or protection.
Continued on Page 47
Lengthy with videos. President Trump piece extracted and posted below:
[Vigilant Fox] The conversation shifted to Trump, leading to one of the biggest highlights of the entire interview.
First, Kennedy explained that Trump chose his cabinet in an unorthodox way: he wanted to see three clips of each candidate performing on TV before considering them for the job.
"One of the things with President Trump is that he really knows how to pick talent... For every one of the positions that he picked, he wanted to see three clips of them performing on TV. He’s very conscious of the fact that these people are going to be out selling his program to the public," Kennedy said.
If you’re on the fence about Trump, listen to Kennedy here. It might just change how you see him.
"I had him pegged as a narcissist, when narcissists are incapable of empathy. And he’s one of the most empathetic people that I’ve met," Kennedy said.
"He’s immensely curious, inquisitive, and immensely knowledgeable. He’s encyclopedic in certain areas that you wouldn’t expect," he continued.
Kennedy added that Trump genuinely cares about soldiers who go to war, citing how Trump "always talks about the casualties on both sides" of the Russia—Ukraine conflict.
"Whether it’s vaccines or Medicaid or Medicare, he’s always thinking about how this impacts the little guy. And the Democrats have him pegged as a guy who’s sort of sitting in the Cabinet meeting talking about how can we make billionaires richer. He’s the opposite of that. He’s a genuine populist," Kennedy said.
Here’s the clip. Trust me, watching this is better than reading it.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
