The house was erected in the style of modernized classics at the beginning of the 20th century (now Igor Serdyuk Street, formerly Oktyabrskaya 8/54). In the house of S. Silaev there was a wonderful “coffee house, confectionery, bakery”, where there was always coffee, chocolate, cocoa, tea, ice cream. You could order a light breakfast or dinner. Since 1916, the Second Kremenchuk Mutual Credit Society was located here.
After the October Revolution of 1917, the building housed the city police department. There was a well-equipped sports hall of the Dynamo society, where teenagers and young people from the central regions of the city liked to train. On the second floor, dance evenings were often held, which attracted a lot of people. But this building also had a secret life.
Only the closest and most faithful people believed about her in a whisper. It was said that in the basements of this and the neighbouring house (now Oktyabrskaya St., 10) there were pre-trial detention cells, where interrogations and even executions of “enemies of the people” were conducted. D. Gurinenko recalled:
“… at night, hiding near the building of the printing factory, we watched the “black raven” drive up to these buildings, from which the arrested were taken out, and after a while, after the execution, they were carried out wrapped in a tarpaulin, loaded onto a double wagon and taken away … During executions We heard muffled shots.
Later it turned out that among those arrested were innocent people who were rehabilitated after 1956, unfortunately, many posthumously.
In memory of the innocent victims of Stalin’s repressions, on the initiative of the Memorial society, a memorial sign was erected in the courtyard of the former police station.
In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, destroyer battalions were created in Kremenchuk, whose task was to protect important national economic facilities – factories, factories, a railway junction, and fight against spies and saboteurs. One of them – the First Kremenchuk separate fighter – was located in the building of the city police department. In its ranks, there were up to 300 fighters. The commander was the former head of the 1st police department G. Siryachenko, the commissar was the director of secondary school No. 1 I. Kovalenko, the chief of staff was V. Filshinsky, who worked in Osoaviakhim before the war. When the front approaches the city, the battalion is transferred to the division of the people’s militia, and later it joins the regular units of the Red Army. These events are now reminiscent of a memorial plaque, opened on the eve of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Victory.
During the Nazi occupation, the city police was in the building, and when the Germans retreated from Kremenchuk, it was set on fire. In 1948, the burned-out building was handed over for restoration to the all-Union trust “Kremenchugtransmashstroy”. In 1952, the house was restored and in subsequent years changed its owners several times – mailbox number 5, the city committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the city committee of the Komsomol, the Kremenchugstroy plant, the Kremenchugneftekhimstroy trust.
At the end of the 60s, a monumental and decorative work “Kremenchuk Yesterday and Today” appeared on the end of the building, which in a symbolic form told about the transformation of Kremenchuk from a small fortress into a big city. His composition consisted of two different in size, but equivalent parts: the lower one, depicting ancient Kremenchuk – a fortress wall, a church, a Dnieper wave washing the fortress and the upper one, in which a schematic representation of a person is on top of complex stainless steel structures, on the right – a huge wave, symbolizing the transformed Dnieper. Initially, all this was illuminated by lights, an interesting play of light and shadow, colour spots arose.
The work caused conflicting assessments, and ambiguous judgments, many residents of Kremenchuk did not accept it. And then the “fathers of the city”, not finding proper understanding among the residents, decided to turn off the light and plant trees, which hid the avant-garde work of Muscovites M. Alekseeva and E. Prokhorov from the eyes of Kremenchuk committed to realism.
In the late 1990s, the monumental and decorative composition was quietly removed. Oh right, sorry. There are so few works of art in the city. An extra wouldn’t hurt.
Author: A. Lushakova