A game for teenagers and adults, “Word House”

1930 year. Welcome to Kharkiv, the capital of the USSR.

The city, which is being developed every minute, is filled with meanings, people and authorities’ grandiose plans.

The exorbitant prices for housing forced artists to seek shelter in utility rooms, other people’s kitchens, and basements. In the mid-1920s, creators of culture turned to the authorities with a request for a building that would become a cooperative housing for writers.

Built at the end of the 1920s and inhabited in 1930, the “Word” House is located in Kharkiv at 5 Chervonyh Pysmennykiv Street, now — 9 Kultury Street. The place where virtually all the most famous literary figures — writers, critics, editors and illustrators of that time — lived.

Almost all of them became victims of the communist regime, whose names were included in the list of figures of the “Shot Renaissance”.

Arrests of the house residents began almost immediately after it was occupied – in January 1931. By 1938, the majority of residents had already been repressed.

What is the game the “Word” House”?

The game allows you to feel the atmosphere of life in the 1930s when creativity coexisted with censorship and the oppressive fear of arrest. Participants will be able to examine portraits and autographs of the residents of the house, covers and illustrations of their books, learn stories from their private and creative lives, and even try on the role of a secret agent or photojournalist.

The game “Word House” was developed by the Kharkiv Literary Museum.

The authors of the game – Maryna Kutsenko and Olha Cheremska.

We invite adults, teenagers, family and friends — everyone who loves board games and is interested in history — to visit the Holodomor Museum.

WHEN: 8 July;

TIME: 03:00 PM (duration – about 1 hour);

PLACE: the Holodomor Museum, 3 Lavrska street (10 minutes from Arsenalna metro station);

Participation is free, so you only pay for the entrance ticket to the Museum.

The number of seats is limited.