Another picture taken by my papa - 50 years ago, in 1954: the Bessarabka end of Khreshchatyk - and the building I've grown up in.

When my papa took this photo, he was 21.

I was born 20 years later...



The large poplar tree on the left-hand side is still there, much thinner and taller now. The famous Khreshchatyk chestnut trees are barely visible yet; 50 years later, they've grown so gorgeous that in the summers we feel like we live in the forest.

Funny, but just like 50 years ago, there's some construction going on right behind our building... Right now, it's a huge pit and lots of trucks driving back and forth. I wish I could walk inside this photo and see what was being built then? Was it the large building with the star on top of it, where the "Druzhba" ("Friendship") movie theater is? Yes, if you look carefully, you'll see roughly half of it already there, in the narrow gap between our building and the next one, underneath the construction crane. Scary...