Locals claim that this huge expanse of cobbles is the second-largest in the world after Beijing's Tiananmen Sq. At 750m long it's indisputably huge and is certainly Kharkiv's most unique sight.
Planned as an ensemble of Ukrainian government buildings when Kharkiv was the republican capital, it was laid out between 1925 and 1935. The late-1920s Derzhprom at its western end was the first Soviet skyscraper, a geometric series of concrete and glass blocks and bridges. On the southern side of the square is the university (early 1930s), formerly the House of Planning, which displays classic Soviet aesthetics. Lenin still proudly stands in the midst of it all, looking as though he's just about to take a bow – perhaps someone should tell him the show ended way back when.
