Olga Kleitman an architect and co-foundersthis SBM Studio. Every resident of Kharkiv, and not only, knows her as the author of everyone's favorite park Sarzhyn Yar, the showroom of Ukrainian design SVOERidNe and many other cool projects. But today I want to talk not about Kleitman the architect, but about Olga - the person-with-a-big-heart.
All the time of this terrible war, which is terribly exhausting, Olya is constantly in her hometown, helping its residents and defenders, and is the head of the public organization "Through the War". In our interview, she talked about how her perception of life changed, about the fear of losing her beloved Kharkiv, about warm meetings and unusual people, about the "saint" from Chicago, about being "late" for the bomb, songs by the fire and the "Victory" cocktail .
Prehistory
At the beginning of the war, Olga Kleitman's architectural studio had a lot of work to do. According to her, the architects simultaneously led about 20 projects in different cities. "We had a fairly wide geography," says Olga, "a huge (90 ha) park in Kramatorsk and a hotel and science center there. We won an international competition and received first place for the embankment project in Mariupol. We won the tender for the embankment project in Cherkasy. We made two parks in Kharkiv."
On the day when the first explosions rang out across Ukraine, Olga was at the airport: she had planned a creative trip to Colombia in advance. The dream of seeing the architectural beauty of Bogotá remained at this airport when Olga realized what was happening. "I just saw a message on the phone that my employees were hiding computers: the war had begun," Kleitman recalls. "At that very moment, without thinking, I bought a ticket for some crazy money (1700 euros) and went to Kharkiv, because my husband, my friends and several of my children (four of them in total) were there."
Olya says that at that moment she had no doubts about returning to her hometown ("And who will protect it if everyone leaves?").
"I had no doubts at all that I should return"
The way back was very difficult: first we had to go to Madrid, then from Madrid to Budapest, from Budapest to Uzhhorod, from Uzhhorod to Lviv and from Lviv, finally to Kharkiv. "Already then, while on the train, I began to agree with the conductor that we would hand over some things, in the sense of humanitarian aid," Olga shares, "even then I knew exactly what we would do after returning."
Olga Kleitman, architect, co-founder of SBM Studio, head of the NGO "Through War". In the frame - an interview with Olea during the exhibition in Kharkiv. Photo courtesy of Olga Kleitman
The non-governmental organization "Through War" provides the Ukrainian military with means of observation and communication, power generators and tactical equipment. On the photo is Dmytro Struk, a volunteer of the foundation. Photo courtesy of Olga Kleitman
Instead of being able to secure herself and her activities, Kleitman preferred to stay and take care of the disabled, collect humanitarian aid for the elderly, buy and transfer equipment for the Ukrainian military, and also organize exhibitions, participate in discussions about the reconstruction of Kharkiv, support and inspire her example of colleagues in the shop.
"Through the war": a completely different reality
Upon returning to Kharkiv, from the first day of the full-scale invasion, Olga began helping the Ukrainian military. Together with her husband Vadim and her friend Tatyana Struk, Olya organized and headed the public organization "Through the War".
Olga Kleitman together with her friend, colleague and co-founder of the NGO "Through the War" Tetiana Struk. Photo courtesy of Olga Kleitman
The foundation's primary task was to establish an operational supply of equipment for the military: night vision devices, thermal imagers, helmets, quadcopters. Olga immediately turned to her sister, who works at Microsoft in Seattle, to start collecting funds and already placed the first order. Purchases were made in Europe. The "Through the War" fund helps artillerymen, scouts and, in general, everyone who is actively fighting, defending Kharkiv.
"Every day it seemed to us that the city would be captured today or tomorrow, and we needed to help someone as soon as possible," Olya shares, "and since we understood that the enemy's forces were ten times greater than the Ukrainian army, the only thing we needed to do was to help in all kinds of ways." gadgets" so that our soldiers would be smarter, more cunning, faster... We thought every day that this encirclement would close, and we had to do something else faster, then the guys started to advance and pushed the Russian troops a little further from the district, it became a little easier."
"Every day it seemed that Kharkiv would be captured today or tomorrow, and it was necessary to help someone as soon as possible"
Olya and her associates spent 2 months in this regime. They worked without weekends and holidays. Since the beginning of the war, the "Through the War" fund has grown to 30 people, including fellow architects and people from other professions who came here for various reasons. According to Oli, this activity supported not only the army, but also the volunteers themselves. "This work helped us not to go crazy. We were busy all day. We had a complete sense of necessity, - Olga shares, - when they call me and ask what is going on here, I usually answer that we are sleeping because we are tired. We have a completely different reality."
Real miracles
But at the same time, the volunteers faced another, no less important problem in the city: the fate of people with disabilities who were under the care of social services. They were abandoned in the very first days, and the "Through the War" foundation took care of these people. Currently, Olga Kleitman's public organization supports 137 disabled people, who are helped at home, and 30 of those whose houses were bombed: volunteers found and arranged a dormitory for them, where they now provide round-the-clock care for the sick. "The city services simply abandoned bedridden people and cancer patients," says Olya, "they couldn't leave their apartments, they just lay there and died of pain, without support...".
Christian Bain, a nurse and volunteer from Chicago, worked for 3 months as a rehabilitator in a hostel for people with disabilities, founded by the "Through the War" foundation. Photo courtesy of Olga Kleitman
One of the hostel volunteers is Christian Bain, a nurse from Chicago. After seeing the announcement of the fund, he immediately wrote to the organizers and offered his help. At first, Christian came to Kyiv, but he thought it was "not hot enough" in the capital, and at the end of March he asked to go to Kharkiv. Olya speaks of him as a saintly person who cared for bedridden patients with incredible dedication and sincerity and taught the foundation's employees the basics of rehabilitation. He worked here absolutely free of charge for 3 months, until he received a fine for overstaying on the territory of Ukraine.
"I believe that getting to know this person is another step on the way to an absolute miracle," Olya admits, "this person is a god. He loves people so much, he treats them so well... People have left us. When Christian arrived, we had all the beds in the dorm, and he picked them up. For example, a 94-year-old grandmother, who had been lying down for three years, left. These are absolute miracles...". When Christian was leaving for America, he was asked what things impressed him the most about Ukraine, and he singled out two of the most striking events: visiting Buchi after the retreat of Russian troops and the day this old woman got back on her feet.
"Getting to know this person is another step on the way to an absolute miracle"
Valentina Ivanivna Shevchenko, a 94-year-old resident of the "Through the War" dormitory, a patient of Christian Bain, who got back on her feet after a fracture and 3 years spent in bed. In the frame - the first 10 meters of the woman. Photo courtesy of Olga Kleitman
About Kharkiv, common goals and security
Today Kharkiv is destroyed by rockets. Bell tower of the Dormition Cathedral, Slovo building, Karazin University, Freedom in Scars Square. Here, they don't drink coffee on the steps near the Opera House, they don't organize food festivals or Velodny days. Hamlet does not paint in the courtyards, and Maxim Rosenfeld does not lead crowds of curious tourists.
Instead of Serhiy Zhadan's literary evenings and "Beautiful Flowers" performances, there are video blogs at the site of destruction and words of support. Instead of fireworks, there are "Gradam" shots. But people plant flowers and clear roads, drive cars with humanitarian aid. The thermometer at the corner of Sumska shows that summer continues, and the trams have started running again...
Kharkiv, suspension road, film. Photo: Maria Golubka
From the first day of the full-scale invasion, Olga Kleitman has been constantly in her hometown, with the exception of short trips to find new contacts to ensure the fund's survival. One of her friends wrote on Facebook: "I don't worry about Kharkiv because it is protected by people like Olya." Instead, Olga seems to be protected by God himself, for her kindness and courage. Kleitman herself does not see anything supernatural in her actions and believes that a simple coincidence saved her from death.
"I was fifteen minutes late for my bomb"
Anticipating the war in advance, Olga "pushed the children out of Kharkiv to Lviv." "This is our gene pool, and the youth should stay alive, and we can already fight," Kleitman believes. "I understand that I have fulfilled my biological function, so to speak, and I can afford to resist." When asked whether relatives did not prevent such a decision, fearing for her life and health, Olya calmly answers that she and her husband are like-minded, and therefore there were no contradictions in this matter.
"Why don't I go? - thinks Olga, - because I think that you cannot sit and wait for someone to solve some problems for you, for someone to fight for you, someone to kill for you... If people from Donetsk had not left, then this would not have happened to them. I think Russians are afraid to go to Kharkiv because there are a million people there. What kind of army do you need to have to enter Kharkiv?". According to Oli, more and more people are returning to the city. Recently, there were about 600 people in Kharkiv, but according to the latest statements of the city's mayor, Terekhov, there are already about a million.
Olga Kleitman
Adapting to the new reality, Olya and Vadim adhere to a simple safety rule: move around the city very quickly and efficiently. "We don't walk the streets," Olga explains, "those who have just come to Kharkiv don't quite understand that. I sometimes see girls in heels walking through parks or taking their children out to play classics. This is completely wrong because the probability of something happening is very high."
Once, when Olya went to pick up the cat, she met a friend on the way home and stayed with him to drink a cup of coffee. When she returned, a cluster bomb had already fallen on the Sumy Market. Its explosion covered a good part of Olga's residential building - 2 entrances to a height of 5 floors, and her apartment was simply riddled with debris. "There was no chance to survive there," Olya shares, "I was only a few minutes late for my bomb because I was drinking coffee."
About work and architectural practice
More recently, a month ago, professional activity returned to the SBM Studio team, projects resumed. Currently, the architects are working on the "Wild Left" project on the Left Bank of the Dnieper in Kyiv, continuing the development of the Cherkasy Embankment. On the day of our interview, negotiations were taking place with the city council regarding the reconstruction project of Shevchenkivskyi Grove in Lviv (in collaboration with Oksana Shumelda).
According to Olya, the amount of work in the studio has now decreased compared to pre-war times, but other useful options have appeared. For example, the architects realized that it was necessary to implement the reconstruction project of the same dormitory for the elderly in Kharkiv, where the bedridden patients are located. "We have already raised money for this project in America," says Kleitman, "it will be a large complex that we want to implement according to all European standards and even better."
Kharkiv, Sarzhyn Yar. Photo: Serhiy Sverdelov
"We have one goal and we can go to it in different ways"
Visualization-sketch for the project of reconstruction of a dormitory for people with disabilities, founded by the "Through the War" foundation
Planning for the reconstruction project of a dormitory for people with disabilities, founded by the "Through the War" Foundation
We asked Olga if she feels united with all Ukrainian architects at a time when the whole nation has united, if her colleagues share her professional views, and she answered: "No, everyone thinks differently. But on the other hand, when I congratulate one of my colleagues on his birthday, I write "Victory to you" and he understands me. All the same, we all have one goal now, and we can go to it in different ways, completely different. But the goal unites us."
Frontier city. About discussions on the restoration of Kharkiv
Today, there are many heated discussions surrounding the restoration of Kharkiv, and the opinions of architects regarding the reconstruction differ. And what does Olga Kleitman think about this?
Kharkiv, Derzhprom. Image source: unsplash
Olga admitted that when she heard about these discussions for the first time, she was stunned. This was the period when Kharkiv was attacked again, and the risk of its destruction remained extremely high. "Our team, don't laugh, went and looked at the cellars and basements, similar to Azovstal," Olga recalls, "we had a strategic reserve, we brought our grandmothers everything they needed: a generator, water, crackers, etc. So to me then, the talk of reconstruction just sounded terrible. Do you understand? Perhaps Kharkiv will not be on the map at all. Is that what they do with cities that don't give up? And at this time, someone is trying to use this as a PR tool - that's how I perceived it, to be honest."
Then came three weeks of silence. Then Olga Kleitman was called and offered to take part in negotiations with Foster in order to somehow establish relations and understand in what direction the city's recovery program would move. "At first I thought that it was a useless topic, idiotic," says Olga, "and then I decided that it was wrong. When you are given a chance to influence something, and you refuse, then later you will not have the opportunity to say that something was done wrong. Were you invited? Invited. Why didn't you participate?".
Kharkiv, South Railway Station. Image source: unsplash
A round table was held in Kharkiv, where various architects gathered. The organizer of the event was Dima Fomenko. He asked everyone to sketch some ideas, from which they then "fished" the main theses and weeded out the unnecessary. In this way, they derived nine points of how Kharkiv architects wanted to see their city and what they wanted to change in it. Completely different people, each with their own ambitions, made their wishes. For example, Maxim Rosenfeld wrote a concept of the city's development called "Kharkiv — a frontier city." Olya considers her "absolutely stunning, brilliant."
"When you are given a chance to influence something, and you refuse, then later you will not have the opportunity to say that something was done wrong"
There were no unequivocal statements in the offer to Foster, they were only wishes, Olga calls them a "voice from the inside". Kleitman talked about some of the ideas that the majority of the round table participants voted for. One of them is to leave the center intact. We wrote a concept about the green frame of the city. They unanimously decided that there is no need to destroy the cemeteries in the city center, because every city should have a memory. "As Kvitka-Osnovyanenko lay, let it lie in its place, and there is no need to build a road there," comments Olga.
Kharkiv, fountain near Khatob. Image source: unsplash
Olga Kleitman's studio also announced its ideas for reconstruction. The architects proposed to create a new network on the site of the burned-out Barabashovo market, like in Paris, so that the Saltivka district would be a million-strong one, and the residents of Rogani and HTZ could not go to the center for work, but stay in local office centers. In this way, it is possible to save the historical core of the city from point building with monstrous glass offices and relieve it, make life in remote sleeping areas more comfortable, because residents spend part of their lives moving.
But it is, of course, too early to talk about global reconstruction plans, Olga believes. "What can be planned now? If yesterday there was a sports palace of KhPI, but today it is not. Myronosytska Street was systematically destroyed... We don't have a zero point of reference, an initial condition, as in physics problems... first we need to win back the city."
Second wind
When Kharkiv was not bombed for several weeks, members of the "Through the War" foundation organized an exhibition dedicated to two areas: the city's defense and the humanitarian situation. One part of the space was occupied by metal beds, on the headboards of which were hung photographs of elderly and disabled people, illustrating their life stories. In the other part, "the Ukrainian land lay with all the abominations that had flown there." The soldiers, who were helped by the volunteers of the foundation, brought their trophies and various artifacts to the exhibition: a tower from a crane weighing 20 tons, fragments of shells and missiles, Russian hats with earflaps and boots...
The military, helped by the volunteers of the foundation, brought various artifacts for the exhibition: a tower from a crane, fragments of shells and missiles, things left by the Russian military
"It wasn't a holiday, but it was a great moment of unity"
Participants of the "Through the War" foundation organized an exhibition in Kharkiv, dedicated to two areas: the defense of the city and the humanitarian situation during the war
It was not just an exhibition, but a warm meeting, where volunteers and all those who deal with humanitarian issues, the military, with whom the foundation cooperates, gathered. And although people came who were not familiar with it, everyone understood each other without words.
As it should be at any cultural event, there should be a buffet at the exhibition. "When we sent the invitations," says Olga, "they wrote everywhere that we won't have food, eat two loaves each and come... We had nothing but the Victory cocktail, but everyone had a good time and fun." We had a bonfire, there were songs. It wasn't a holiday, but it was such a cool moment of unity...".
One part of the exhibition space was occupied by metal beds, on the headboards of which were placed photos of people sheltered by the "Through the War" fund
The bonfire after the official part of the event brought together the military, volunteers, and public figures
Ukrainian fighters who recently lost their comrades during the offensive on Kharkiv came to the exhibition. "They had such black faces," recalls Olga. Volunteers of the foundation communicated with them a lot. And when they said that they were going to wind down their activities because there was silence in Kharkiv, they replied: "Don't think about it, keep working." These words became a second breath for Olga. "It really impressed me and gave me strength," says Olya, "we have to continue, because someone really, really needs it."
