Documentary film “Slovo House”: “Communist heaven” and “crematorium” for writers

The documentary film “Slovo House” recounts the story of one of the Soviet regime’s most heinous crimes: the destruction of a vibrant artistic movement that flourished in Kharkiv during the 1920s and 1930s.

The “Slovo” building, home to 66 apartments, was a hub for Ukraine’s most renowned cultural figures, including writers, poets, painters, and directors. However, in subsequent years, this assembled intelligentsia faced brutal repression, execution, or coerced conversion into party propagandists.

Initially, the Slovo House in Kharkiv was a residential building constructed in the late 1920s by the Soviet regime to monitor and control Ukrainian writers. Designed in the shape of the letter “C,” the first letter of the Ukrainian word “слово” (slovo) meaning “word,” the building has facades featuring memorial plaques honoring dozens of prominent Ukrainian cultural figures. 

However, the residents, under constant NKVD surveillance, faced persecution; many were executed or coerced into writing propaganda texts conforming to the communist ideology. The Slovo House is a poignant symbol of the “Executed Renaissance” of Ukrainian culture. The documentary is available on YouTube in Ukrainian with English subtitles. 

“Slovo House” is directed by Taras Tomenko, produced by Yulia Chernyavska and Oleg Shcherbyna, and written by poet Lyuba Yakimchuk and screenwriter Taras Tomenko; cinematography is by Taras Tomenko and Oleksandr Yakimchuk; and the score is composed by Alla Zahaikevych. According to the film’s description, the creators used exclusively documentary materials, photographs, and footage from previously inaccessible archives of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine), institutes, and universities. 

The film premiered at the 33rd Warsaw Film Festival in 2017 and won the Golden Dzyga National Film Award for Best Documentary. Following the trending interest in Ukrainian culture under the Soviet regime, the Fresh Production Group made it available online in 2023, and it became an introduction for many other artistic reflections on that period, including Tomenko’s feature film “Slovo House: Unfinished Novel” and the album/musical play “You [Romance] by “MUR” band dedicated to the writers who lived in the Slovo House; both were released in wide distribution this year. 

In 2022, after one of the Russian attacks on Kharkiv that damaged the Slovo House, renowned Ukrainian scholar and literary critic Vira Aheieva wrote an explainer “The two assaults on the Slovo writers’ house in Kharkiv.”

Taras Tomenko is a Ukrainian director and screenwriter, known for the movies “Terykony” (2022), “Slovo House” (2017), and “Slovo House. Unfinished Novel” (2021). Member of the European Film Academy (EFA).

Lyubov Yakimchuk is a Ukrainian poet, writer, and screenwriter. She is known for her work on the documentary film “Slovo House” (2017) and the feature film “Slovo House” (2023). As a poet, Yakimchuk has gained recognition for her collection “Apricots of Donbas,” which was translated into English and French and voiced in French by Catherine Deneuve. She has performed poetry readings at international events, including the 64th Grammy Awards ceremony.

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn, Terra Friedman King