The Commercial Court of Kyiv on August 3 ordered the return of the historic October Palace building to the state, according to the court register. The ruling directs the property to be returned to the State Property Fund of Ukraine.
The decision cancels the ownership certificate issued by the Main Department of Communal Property of the City of Kyiv to the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine. It affects the 17,597.7 square meter complex located at 1 Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred Alley, previously listed at 1 Instytutska Street, and cancels the federation's state property registration.
The court decision has not yet taken legal effect and can still be appealed in the appellate court. The Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office said in a statement that the building is a cultural heritage monument of national significance and one of Ukraine's largest concert venues. The State Property Fund estimates the value of the complex at about 1 billion UAH.
History and heritage of the complex
Architect Vikentiy Beretti designed the building, which was constructed between 1838 and 1842 as the Kyiv Institute for Noble Maidens. It is one of the most famous historical structures in the Ukrainian capital.
NKVD officers executed members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia inside the building during Soviet rule. Those killed included Kost Bureviy, Oleksa Blyzko, Hryhoriy Kosynka, Taras Krushelnytskyi, Ivan Krushelnytskyi, and Dmytro Falkivskyi.
The venue received status as a monument of national significance in 1979. It is on the official list of cultural heritage objects that are banned from privatization and reserved exclusively for state ownership.
Trade union ownership dispute
The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine maintains that the October Palace was never state property. The venue was rebuilt in 1958 using funds from the Industrial Cooperation Council and transferred without cost to the Ukrainian Republican Council of Trade Unions when the council was liquidated in 1960.
Ownership was assigned in 1990 to the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Ukraine, which later renamed itself the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine. The Commercial Court of Kyiv previously ordered city authorities to register the federation's property rights to the complex in 2006.
The State Bureau of Investigation has been investigating the circumstances surrounding the privatization of the October Palace since 2022.
