“Bolshevik-style requisition”, or how a boarding house of Countess Levashova became the property of the Ukrainian academy of sciences

Abstract

The three-storey mansion on Volodymyrska Street, 54 is well known in Kyiv. The walls of its light mustard with white inserts Empire-style facades are decorated with rust and profiled trim. Because the house has been owned by the Academy since February 1919 and it houses the Presidium of NAS of Ukraine, between the windows of the first floor on the facade overlooking Volodymyrska, as a tribute to the memory of seven previous Presidents of the Academy (V. Vernadsky, O. Levitsky, N. Vasilenko, V. Lipsky, D. Zabolotny, A. Bogomolets, and A. Palladin) there are white marble memorial plaques with gilt inscription. The history of the building, who exactly and why made hundred years ago the decision to transfer it to the Academy, how the transfer process took place, as well as the difficult, sometimes dramatic, first months of the Academy within these walls, are discussed in this article.