KYIV – If the fictitious archaeologist Indiana Jones were to descend several meters underground at the Dnipro riverside Poshtova Ploshcha (Postal Square), he would discover an ancient 1,500-square-meter living quarter with two bisecting streets dating to the 11th-12th centuries of the Kyivan Rus’ era.
Unearthed in 2015 when an opaque construction firm started digging to build a two-tier underground shopping center, the magnificent site features an ancient street aligned with deteriorated wooden gates that leads to the historic Podil district and southward, parallel to Ukraine’s main waterway.
Royal diplomatic and customs seals have been unearthed bearing the names of the patron saints to whom the Rus’ princes were matched. Numerous jewelry, icon remnants, arrowheads, crosses, and ceramic and glass items have also been discovered, as well as the small furnaces and tools that produced them.
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Archaeologists dig near wooden fences along what is believed to be an intersection of two streets of ancient Kyiv dating to the Kyivan Rus’ era of the 11th-12th centuries in the historic district of Podil at Poshtova Ploshcha (Postal Square).
Most significant is the fact that it’s near the site that Mykhailo Sahaidak, director of the Archaeological Center of Kyiv at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, says is the cradle of Christianity in lands that now encompass Ukraine, Belarus, the European part of Russia and beyond.
“It’s similar to a spot described in the chronicles, and logic dictates that the ancient layout of the area converges here where Prince Volodymyr the Great ordered people downhill to adopt Christianity,” he told The Ukrainian Weekly near the dig on July 30.
The archaeologist was referring to the place where the funicular now stands opposite the construction site along a hill that is known as Volodymyrsky Uzviz (Descent). From there and perpendicular to where the Podil artery Sahaidachnyi Street runs, pagan idols and other items of worship, as well as local residents were horded in 988 for the mass baptism.
“Closer to the river there was an abundance of [human] life activity,” Mr. Sahaidak said, pointing to a report he co-authored for the city government this year on his findings since the site’s discovery.
Mark Raczkiewycz
Remains of a wooden fence, photographed on July 30, stand along a street that was discovered at Poshtova Ploshcha that dates to the Kyivan Rus’ era in Kyiv.
Some 3,000 square meters in area and at least four more meters in depth remain unexplored, he added. Mr. Sahaidak continued: “Research could last a lifetime, and the light that could be shed is endless.”
Several national and municipal lawmakers, activists and the academic community want to create a museum on the spot they say is sacred and whose significance trumps commercial interests. Their call comes at a time when Ukraine is the closest it’s ever been to gaining autocephaly for a united Ukrainian Orthodox Church that could finally be canonically recognized during the year celebrating the 1,030th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity by Kyivan Rus’.
Now, both construction and digging at the site have stopped based on a Kyiv City Council decision from last year. Work at the site is currently idle. What hasn’t been taken for preservation remains covered, but moisture is settling in. The Ukrainian Weekly saw mushrooms growing where artefacts stand, as well as puddles of water – signs that exposure to humidity and oxygen could start eroding the integrity and composition of the ancient street and its environs.
For this reason, Kyiv City Councilman Sergiy Gusovsky, who heads its Samopomich faction, has been pushing to annul a city contract with the developer and establish a museum at the location where the subterranean mall was planned.
Mark Raczkiewycz
Archaeologist Mykhailo Sahaidak on July 30 points to a book he wrote on the ancient history of the historic Podil district of Kyiv just steps away from an excavation site near Poshtova Ploshcha. In the same area in 2015, just meters away, remnants of Kyivan Rus’ life in the 11th-12th centuries were found, including two intersecting streets, furnaces for making ceramics and glass, as well as customs seals, arrow heads, women’s jewelry and other artifacts.
An established restaurateur, the councilman, who is part of a loosely formed coalition of stakeholder activists, initiated a series of measures to successfully stop construction, designate the area a museum site and grant the land local heritage significance.
“For some [Kyiv’s main thoroughfare of] Khreshchatyk is where downtown starts,” Mr. Gusovsky told The Ukrainian Weekly at his office on July 30. “For others it’s Poshtova [Square]… because it’s where the Dnipro River is, it’s where the funicular is, the river port terminal, a subway station, and the beginning of Podil. So, it’s a natural concentration of all kinds of flows. There was a postal station there for centuries.”
As is the case with most shady construction projects, resistance from the developer ensued.
In a letter to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, citing its London-registered parent company, Hansford Ukraine threatened a lawsuit in England should steps be taken to cancel an investment contract it has with the city that was concluded in late 2013 in the waning days of President Viktor Yanukovych’s corrupt administration.
The firm was registered a month before a tender was announced to alleviate a bottleneck junction near Poshtova Square. The contract was never disclosed and was considered a “trade secret” until Kyiv City Councilman Gusovsky had it disclosed in July.
Mark Raczkiewycz
Archaeologist Mykhailo Sahaidak on July 30 points to layers of rock bed where the upper parts delineate 13th century Kyiv and the lower parts designate 11th-12th century elevation of historic Kyiv. These were unearthed when developers started excavations for a two-floor underground shopping center near the Poshtova Ploshcha subway station in the Podil district of the nation’s capital.
“We immediately understood that it’s not a public-private partnership,” he said. “Yet it is secretive. It’s a wishy-washy deal. They’re not building ballistic missiles there.”
When The Ukrainian Weekly called the publicly listed telephone number for Hansford Ukraine to speak with company director Maryna Tkachenko, a male answered who said a wrong number had been reached.
The address listed at 16 Mechnykova is a five-floor, Stalin-era residential building in Kyiv, and when The Ukrainian Weekly visited the place on August 1, it couldn’t locate the premises. After being the successful bidder in 2013, the company has changed addresses three times, according to public records seen by The Ukrainian Weekly.
Its parent company, Hansford Impex, registered on London’s Bedford Street as of March, was initially domiciled in 2014 in London at a location that public procurement watchdog Nashi Groshi said was used by “more than 520 companies that originate in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, including those that are affiliated with prominent Ukrainian politicians, officials and businessmen.”
According to the watchdog, Mr. Yanukovych’s former head of the State Affairs Department – Andriy Kravets – is behind the parent company through his former wife Maryna Pelykh. The whereabouts of both are unknown and calls placed to the London office were unsuccessful.
Mark Raczkiewycz
Clay items inside what used to be an oven dating to the 12th century that was unearthed at the Poshtova Ploshcha in Kyiv.
Mayor Klitschko has promised that a museum will be established at the site, but additional steps must be taken.
In an interview he gave to Novoye Vremya magazine (published on July 15), he said that any deeper digging could harm the infrastructure of the Poshtova Square area.
“The money for the museum will be there. The problem lies in that we lack the professionals who could preserve the findings that have been underground for about a thousand years,” he said. “Our task is to do everything possible to preserve everything. But the issue is that any rash deeper works could lead to ruining the current state of Poshtova Ploshcha.”
National lawmakers have also reinforced the effort to preserve the area. On July 5, a parliamentary resolution that is not legally binding says the area should be transformed into a museum and that construction should stop.
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An aerial view from April 2017 of two intersecting streets aligned with wooden fences and plots behind them that date to the 11th-12th centuries in the historic Podil district of Kyiv. The remains were discovered when developers started building a two-tier underground shopping mall beneath a crucial road junction in the city in 2015.
An amendment to the resolution directs that the “Cabinet of Ministers and Kyiv City Administration create a national museum”; it was included by Svoboda party National Deputies Yuriy Levchenko and Andriy Ilyenko.
City Councilman Gusovsky is also pushing for land ownership rights to be transferred from the city to the state and to have the site attain national heritage status – it currently carries local status – to lessen the risk of the developer taking it over.
To do that the Samopomich city councilman wants to cancel the contract that was labelled a trade secret for nearly five years; his party hopes to move on the matter when Kyiv’s City Council reconvenes after the summer break in September.
“It’s a national heritage site that the state should take care of,” he said, voicing his hope that the Verkhovna Rada elevates its status.
The party’s lawyers are currently assessing the disclosed contract and are verifying whether Hansford Ukraine has adhered to the document’s requirements. If not, Mr. Gusovsky is prepared to use that as grounds for annulment.
Given the opaque nature of the infrastructure project, currently “nobody will be able to tell you who did what, what they paid for and how much money was spent,” he said.
Three outcomes are envisioned.
Either the contract is invalidated, or the land is nationalized – which would involve the Ministry of Culture, or a force majeure or an act of god clause can be invoked within the contract.
Asked whether a middle ground can be found with the company to have the underground mall built while saving the discovered space as an exposition, Mr. Gusovsky said: “This is not a compromise that makes sense… it’s not a private museum, what’s important isn’t what was found there… It can be a turning point to prove that money, connections and influence don’t rule anymore. It’s a small thing on a national scale, but it’s in the heart of the city.”
Some activists are prepared to see this through to the end.
Anna Honcharenko, founder of the Pochaina civic group named after the ancient river that once converged with the Dnipro where the supposed Kyivan Rus’ baptism site is located, had gone on a 15-day hunger strike in June when a crucial Kyiv City Council decision was being considered.
“Kyivans need this. This is an ancient spot in Kyiv from which all Slavic people take holy inspiration,” she told The Ukrainian Weekly on August 1 at her office in Kyiv. “The [Dnipro River] was also a historic trade route for the Vikings to trade with the Greeks [in the Black Sea].”
She praised Parliament for finding the “political will” to pass its recommendatory resolution and said she also wants to see the area granted national status as a heritage site.
“I want the West, for UNESCO, for the diaspora community to get involved… We need to preserve this site,” she added.
Common ground is still sought.
When asked whether he believes Kyiv’s mayor is earnest about creating the museum, Mr. Gusovsky said: “I believe that we need to use all available instruments to apply pressure on all officials who are responsible for concrete steps that would lead to the creation of the museum.”
Regarding the murky developer, he said “it’s time for them to strategically reconsider their role and that they could be a founding partner” of the museum, and “convert their investment – after you proved that you invested whatever amount of money – …and change the situation.”
As long as the frozen excavation site lacks national status, it’s under risk from development, the Kyiv city councilman said.
“The developers aren’t just any kids on the block,” he said. “Until the investor agreement is cancelled, it’s a problem. Until we have national recognition, it’s a problem. Until excavation is halted for good, there’s a risk.”