Hitler spoke on the balcony of kindergarten No 14 in Poltava in the times of the Great Patriotic War
A building at the crossing of Frunze Street and Parisian Commune Street in Poltava is interesting for not only its architecture but also its background.
Currently, little kids of the educational association are brought up in the brick house No14. It’s just unknown, when exactly it was built. Most likely, it came to be at the end of 19th or at the beginning of 20th century as dwelling house for a pastor of the German colonists.
1808 German artisan masters began to settle in Poltava who made a smooth woolen cloth for militaries and bricks. As Germans were Lutherans, buildings for prayers called kirche were built in the town. One of them was constructed opposite a present-day Gallery of Arts. And at the crossing of the old streets of Kobelyats'ka and of Monastyrs'ka a house for the pastor (late 19th cent.) was build. A subterranean passage was laid to the church under the house.
In 1930s, there was a policlinic in a pastor house according to the old-timers. Then the house became official residence of secretaries of the KPSS regional committee. And in the years of the Great Patriotic War there were the headquarters of 6th and 8th armies by general Paulus in Poltava. When Hitler arrived to Poltava in 1942, he made his speech from the balcony of this house.
After the war, the building again became a domicile of the secretaries of regional committees. The secretary Muzhytskyi lived with his family there last, therefore Poltavites often call this building of the kindergarten a house of Muzhytskyi until now. The first secretary of regional committee of the party Fedir Morhun did not want to live there, so an official apartment near the Birch Public Garden was given to him. Then, in 1966, the pastor house was meant for a kindergarten.
