Kharkiv

Every place on Earth has certain charm and appeal, which it owes to the people living there and to their deeds. This is also true for Kharkiv.

Geographical Information

Kharkiv is the second biggest city of Ukraine after Kyiv. It is the historical and geographical centre of the territory of Ukraine known as “Slobozhanshchyna”. It is the largest industrial, scientific and cultural centre of the country. It occupies more than 300,000 square kilometers and has the population over 2,000,000 people.

The city, one of the Ukrainian region centres, is situated in the north-eastern part of Ukraine. Kharkiv is rightfully carrying the title of a Ukrainian megalopolis. It is a giant of the national industry, a big educational and cultural centre, and the biggest transport node of the country. The town sits on five hills and five vales. Its climate is temperate continental. Winter is prolonged but not severe and has characteristic frequent thaws. The coldest months are January (-7.1°C) and February (-6.7°C). The summer is warm, sometimes hot. The hottest months are July (+20.5°C) and August (+19.4°C).

Industry and Transport

Nowadays Kharkiv occupies the sixth position in Ukraine in terms of its industrial output. The basis of the production capacity includes hi-tech enterprises: power engineering, electronic industry, transport and agricultural engineering, instrument engineering, radio-electronics, airspace industry.

Kharkiv turns out 100% of the steam turbines, 62.4% of tractors, 50% of numerically controlled machine tools, and 50% of electric machines. The products of a number of enterprises, including high technology items, such as modern tanks and aircraft are well known in the world.

All kinds of the city’s transport enterprises will meet the transport demands of national economy and population. Well-developed city’s transport network (underground, tram, trolley bus, bus, taxi) makes easily accessible any part of the city. There are bus stations and underground in Kharkiv. It has also an international airport and a large railway junction of international significance. Roads leading to Kyiv, Donbas, the Crimea and the industrial centres of Ukraine and the CIS countries run through our city.

Science

Kharkiv is one of the largest centres of science and education in Ukraine. Kharkivites are not used to be sitting on their hands. They made their contribution to the space exploration program, to the improvement of farming methods and genetic research. They constructed military equipment - the legendary T-34; it is the best tank of World War II which was created in Kharkiv. Investigations of Kharkiv scientists in the field of solid-state physics, cryobiology and cryomedicine, radio-electronics, genetics and selection are known all over the world. Such outstanding people as I.I. Mechnikov ( a microbiologist), A.Ya. Danilevsky (a biochemist), M.V. Lysenko (a composer), G.S. Scovoroda (a philosopher) and others used to live and work in our city.

Specialists in various fields of knowledge are trained at Kharkiv universities, academies and colleges. Kharkiv is the students' centre of Ukraine as well, with more than 188,000 students. The first university in Eastern and Central Ukraine was the University of Kharkiv (now Kharkiv National University, named after V.N. Karazin).

There are more than 60 scientific research institutes, more than 170 secondary education schools, more than 150 educational centres and special secondary education schools, the number of private and state owned higher education institutions has reached 80 now.