Dear Kharkiv

Kharkiv, with a population of 1.4 million people, is Ukraine’s second largest city. It’s known as a “smart city” of education, because it is home to 13 national universities and many famous research institutes and other places of higher learning.

Dr. Yuliya Snyder agreed to sit down and share with us some memories of growing up in her hometown:

I grew up in what was considered to be a spacious three-room flat (in Ukraine they count the total room number – not the bedrooms) in one of the generic 16-story multi-apartment buildings. There were several in our complex and they all looked similar – I bet it would be easy for someone to get lost with them looking so much alike. As kids we got pretty good at spotting the windows of our flats out of a hundred of the same-looking ones: in case it was our mother who was yelling out of the window to go inside and have dinner. There was a playground in front of it with 2 swings and a metal slide. I don’t think it would have passed the US inspection standards lol I don’t remember spending too much time at that playground – we were always running around and playing games created by us. When I went back in 2013, the building looked the same, but the swings were upgraded. I’m really hoping that that neighborhood will not get hit by heavy shelling. My mom moved, but my best childhood friend still lives there.

I went to Kharkiv State Medical University – now it has a prestigious status as a National University. It is one of the oldest med schools in Ukraine, and it celebrated its 200th birthday when I was graduating. Kharkiv is known for a large number of universities – several dozen – that attract students from all over the world.

Volunteering at a surgical ward and being allowed to scrub in for surgeries in the middle of the night as a school of nursing student (getting RN before MD was a common pathway) was so cool that it prompted me to continue my endeavor of studying medicine.

Performing on the major city stages in 2003 and 2004 as a part of the dance group called Jocker is also one of my brightest memories. The performance photo below is from Freedom Square – the one that got bombed early in the invasion.

Above is Shevchenko monument and my husband and I in Shevchenko Park in 2013. Ukraine is beautiful. Spending time outside of the city to reunite with nature was one of my favorite ways to spend summer days. But it is the people who touched my life and made me who I am today who I remember the most. And I keep praying that they’ll be alright.

Photographs of Kharkiv landmarks in this post courtesy of Dr. Anton Shklyar.

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We are a non-profit organized under the Rochester Regional Health Foundations.