Early history and Tsarist Russia Until the 10th century, the future square's site, as well as the rest of Khreshchatyk, was called
Perevisyshche. It was located just to the south of the Kyiv City, beyond which were located territories of the Cave Monastery (Kyiv-Pechersky) along the
Dnipro River. At the lower end of Sofiivska vulytsia (Sofia Street), which led to the High City, stood one of the three main gates of
Old Kyiv (Yaroslav's City), the Lyadski Gates; the other two were the
Golden Gates and Zhydivski Gates. Those gates are also mentioned in 1151, and around them lived the Polish population of the city, Lacka Sloboda. The Lyadski Gates were destroyed during the storm of city by the Mongol army of
Batu Khan in 1240. Sometime during the 18th century, the new Pecherski Gates were erected; they stood until 1833. Until the early 19th century, the area was a low-lying vacant ground known as
Goat Swamp (
Kozyne Boloto). In the 1830s, the first wooden dwellings were built on the site, and in the 1850s stone buildings appeared. The most famous Ukrainian writer,
Taras Shevchenko lived in that area in 1859, in a building between Mala Zhytomyrska (Little Zhytomyr) and Mykhailivska vulytsia (Michael's Street). Development rapidly intensified after the mid-19th century, when the territory gradually became the commercial center of Kyiv, which underwent an immense boom during the Russian
Industrial Revolution, becoming the third most important city in the
Russian Empire. Until 1871, it was called the
Khreshchatitskaya Ploshchad (Khreshchatyk Square); it was a location for the local market and folk entertainment. In 1876, the
Kyiv City Duma building was built here, and the area became known as the Dumskaya Ploshchad (
Duma Square). A line from the
Kyiv tram, the first electric tram built in the Russian Empire (opened 1892) reached the square in 1894. In 1913, in front of the City Duma, a monument of
Pyotr Stolypin (who was assassinated in Kyiv in 1911) was constructed, and it stood there until March 1917 at the dawn of the Revolutionary war within the Empire.
Soviet prewar years In 1919, the square was renamed
Soviet Square. From 1935, it was called
Kalinin Square, after
Mikhail Kalinin, the first chairman of the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Soviet postwar years During the first couple of years after the war, the square was completely rebuilt from scratch. It was architecturally integrated with the newly constructed Khreshchatyk in the typical (for the time)
neo-classical Stalinist architecture. The newly constructed Kyiv
Central Post Office and
Trade-Union House with its high-rise clock located in the square, is very well known and frequently appears in pictures of the center of the city. In 1976–77, as a part of metro construction, much of the square was again rebuilt, and it was renamed
October Revolution Square (Ploshcha Zhovtnevoyi revolyutsii). During the reconstruction, the massive
cubist monument to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the
October Revolution was put up as was the complex ensemble of fountains. During the Soviet period, the square was used for demonstrations and parades in honor of
May 1 (until 1969),
Victory Day and the October Revolution.
Independent Ukraine After
Ukraine's independence in 1991, the square was given its current name. The competing proposal of
Liberty Square (Ploshcha Svobody) was raised at the time as well as in the years to follow, but the current name commemorating the Ukrainian independence is now firmly associated with the square (
see the section below). and the glass domes of the shopping center Globus 1 In 2001, as the square was the major center of the "
Ukraine without Kuchma" mass protest campaign, the new extensive construction of the area was abruptly ordered by the Kyiv mayor of the time,
Oleksandr Omelchenko. The square was fenced off for construction and became inaccessible for the protesters and many observers claimed that the main goal of the project ordered by the city mayor was to disrupt the protests, especially since similar tactics were commonly used by local authorities throughout Ukraine. Following the construction, the old familiar look of the square, with its many fountains, was significantly altered and the public reaction to the new look of the square was mixed at first. However, by now the square's monument to
Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv and Lybid, the legendary founders of Kyiv, the folklore hero
Cossack Mamay, the city's historic protector
Archangel Michael as well as a more modern invention, the protecting goddess
Berehynia surmounting the
Independence Monument victory column commemorating the
independence of Ukraine, and the many glass domes are easily recognisable as parts of the modern city centre. A mostly underground shopping mall called
Globus was built under the square to replace the old and shabby giant underpass formerly dubbed by Kyivans as "Truba" (the Tube). Trade-Unions House was severely damaged during the fire in February 2014, so later it went through a reconstruction. Future developments of the square include the demolition of the old "Ukrayina" hotel (formerly hotel "Moskva"), and building a new 68-floor building instead. During the
Russo-Ukrainian war, a drone fell on the square during a Russian attack on 16 March 2026. ==Symbol of political activity==