The house was built between 1910–1912. It was used as a
revenue house. The skyscraper had 94 flats with 500 rooms in all, the largest of which had 11 rooms, and the building had lifts by the American company
Otis Worldwide. The building stood on hilly terrain and therefore had varying numbers of storeys (8–12 storeys). Because the skyscraper was well planned, the contractor was asked to build skyscrapers in
Chicago, but he declined for unknown reasons. A
shopping center was located on the first floors of Ginzburg's building. The building had a tower offering a
panorama of Kyiv. In the autumn of 1913, the artist
Oleksandr Murashko opened the "Art Studio of Oleksandr Murashko" on the 12th floor of the skyscraper, in which almost 100 people studied at the same time. In addition to drawing and painting, lectures were given on the history and philosophy of art. The studio existed until 1917. In April 1918, the
French Military mission of the
Ukrainian People's Republic, consisting of 6 officers, was housed in this building. The building was used in the filming of the experimental Soviet film
Man with a Movie Camera in 1929, in which the tower and the inner courtyard of the skyscraper were shot. The building was blown up by retreating
NKVD forces on 24 September 1941, in the aftermath of
Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union. This was part of the Soviet military's
scorched earth strategy, as commanders believed German soldiers would be quartered in central Kyiv. In addition to this building, around 100 houses on
Khreshchatyk Street and adjacent streets were blown up. In 1953, the foundations of the building were finally demolished. In 1954–1961, the Moscow Hotel (since 2001, the
Hotel Ukraine) was built on the site of the Ginzburg House. == Gallery ==