Kharkiv was the capital of the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 19 December 1919 to 24 June 1934, and the city became the center of the
Ukrainian economy. Its population grew rapidly from 285,000 in 1920 to 423,000 in 1927, and housing shortages became a major problem. This affected the literary community, which had moved to Kharkiv from
Kyiv because of the
Ukrainization policy. Writers who could not afford the higher cost of housing lived in their offices or improvised homes: some poorly-housed writers stored their manuscripts in pots to keep
mice from nibbling at the paper. In the mid-1920s,
Ostap Vyshnya, at that time part of a writers' organization called
плуг, meaning the "
Plough", asked the Soviet government to build an apartment complex to accommodate the most important Ukrainian
intellectuals. The idea was almost immediately approved by the Soviet authorities, who saw it as a way to keep tabs on the Ukrainian intellectuals, who would all live in the same building. As the building still lacked funds to complete its construction, Vyshnya went to
Moscow in February 1929 and asked
Joseph Stalin to fund the construction. Stalin agreed and gave the money the same day (on the condition that the residents paid it back within 15 years). It was built in lavish fashion by contemporary standards. Each apartment had 3–5 rooms, which was luxurious for the
interwar Soviet Union. Five storeys high, the Slovo Building contained 66 apartments made of the best materials then available. A
solarium and a
shower were built on the
roof, After the "
Great Patriotic War", an
elevator was installed, providing access only to the ground and fifth floors. == Executed Renaissance ==