Novopokrovka Settlement Community

Historical Events on the Territory of the Community

The area where the settlement of Novopokrovka is located was settled in the Late Paleolithic era (35-10 thousand years ago). Numerous tribes and peoples lived here for many millennia. Their history left its mark. The land has preserved the remains of former civilizations, which are now being studied here by archaeologists.

Excavations of the Novopokrovka barren burial ground were carried out in 1936-1937. The burial ground is located in the Pody tract. During the excavations, an area of 860 m2 was dug and 20 burials and 2 sets of items (shown in the photo) were found. All burials were carried out according to the rite of cremation. Sabres bent in half, knives, sickles, stirrups, fishing rods, buckles, spear tips were found in the sets of items.

During the archaeological excavations, 6 layers of different cultural stages, which have two more settlements in the Kharkiv region, were found.

In 1636, the village of Pokrovka was founded by peasants from the central regions of Russia on the right bank of the Uda River. The emergence of Novopokrovka is connected with the history of Pokrovka, where the majority of inhabitants were relocated to the left bank of the Uda River as military settlers in 1818.

In Novopokrovka itself, a mill was built which produced 1,000 poods of flour per day. Then the Novopokrovka grain processing complex was built on the site of the former mill in 1988.

Residents of Novopokrovka also contributed to the development of the country’s industrialization. A thermal power station was built in the village of Eskhar. As soon as in August 1930, the power station started delivering electricity to Kharkiv. During the Second World War, the village of Eskhar was occupied, but despite this, energy continued to be supplied from the plant until October 1941. On June 28, 1944, the power plant delivered industrial current to Kharkiv, and in 1958, the plant began supplying energy to the unified energy system of the south of the country.

Cultural Heritage

The lands of Sloboda Ukraine began to be actively settled from the mid-17th century. They were immigrants from the central part of the Right Bank and Podillia. It was in the middle of the 17th century that a wooden church was built in the village of Vvdenka, today’s Chuhuyiv District, Kharkiv Region. Perhaps it is the oldest of the currently preserved architectural gems of wooden construction in the Slobozhanshchyna. The first church was built in 1654-1655. But after a fire in 1777, it was dismantled and a new church was erected on the site. The temple has survived to our days like this.

Since 1993, there has been a botanical reserve Kovylovyi Step (Feather Grass Steppe) near the village, created in the area of the village of Zelenyi Kolodyaz. On the territory of the reserve, you can find rare plants – feather grass and cord-rooted sedge. The total area of the reserve is about 78 hectares.

Economy and Welfare

Novopokrovka is a both agricultural and industrial community.

The local economy is based on five leading companies: a grain processing complex, a reinforced concrete structures plant, a thermal power plant, an oil and gas production company, companies that grow mushrooms and an automotive assembly company that assembles Foton cars in Ukraine. 

The Novopokrovka Grain Processing Complex is one of the largest grain processing enterprises in Ukraine, which is engaged in the production of flour and fodder. The company is almost fully automated and uses unique production technologies.

The company started its activity in 2010. Since then, we have expanded significantly and turned from a small local oyster mushroom producer into a modern, automated factory that grows eryngo mushrooms.

The factory has the cutting-edge foreign equipment and its own laboratory, which carries out biological control of raw materials and examines the quality of finished products before sale.

Importantly, production has not been suspended even during war. After all, entrepreneurs are convinced that food production is a strategic task.

Community and War

The war with the aggressor continues. The enemy repeatedly attacked and still attacks the community with missiles and multiple-launch rocket systems. As a result, critical community infrastructure and residential buildings were damaged.

The village of Eskhar suffered the greatest damage. The Russian army destroyed two schools. The central heating and power plant also came under enemy fire. The enterprise used to supply heat to kindergartens, a hospital and 82 residential buildings. It is impossible to restore the equipment of the heat supply organization under martial law. The railway tracks were damaged due to rocket attacks, which made it impossible to deliver coal to the heat-generating enterprise. To date, the residents of the village have remained in a critical situation without heating during the cold seasons.

The buildings of the Eskhar Lyceum were destroyed by rocket strikes. 5,396 permanent residents as well as 1,055 internally displaced persons who live in Eskhar are left without a general secondary education institution. This educational institution was a model for the communities of Chuhuyiv region. The lyceum is included in Ukraine’s 200 best schools. Its pupils show a high level of knowledge of the Ukrainian Language, Literature and other subjects.

The educational institutions of the community suffered the most damage during the military operations in Ukraine: 2 buildings of the Eskhar Lyceum were destroyed, there are no windows or doors in the Novopokrovka Base Lyceum, the Eskhar Preschool (nursery and kindergarten) and the Stara Pokrovka Lyceum have no windows.

The dispensary of Novopokrovka needs special attention. During the autumn-winter period, the morbidity of the population increases, in particular, with COVID-19. Therefore, it is extremely important to ensure the provision of medical services to the population of the settlement in comfortable conditions. Today, the windows of the dispensary are broken and the roof is damaged which is a result of rocket fire. Medical workers are working against all odds; the reception of citizens has not been suspended. They have covered the windows with film and continue to treat people.

People of the Community

Olena Slabinska was elected Head of the Novopokrovka settlement territorial community. Under her leadership, 10 villages and settlements of the community, which were part of 4 different settlement councils before the decentralization reform, were united for the first time.

Olena Slabinska was born on July 15, 1975 in the settlement of Eskhar, Chuhuyiv district, Kharkiv region. Before being elected Settlement Head, she worked as the Director of the Eskhar preschool educational institution.

The community is only 2 years old and it already shows an example of resilience during active hostilities! Work in the community did not stop for a minute. Almost 20,000 people live in the community and there are already more than 7,500 internally displaced persons who need support every day.

The delivery of bread to the villages and settlements of the community was organized  on the first days of the war. People were not left alone with their problems – issues of providing humanitarian aid were resolved every day.

Almost all residents of the community stayed here and met the war cohesively. About 8,000 internally displaced persons were received. Our medical workers work against all odds. Even though our dispensaries and first-aid stations suffered enemy attacks, roofs were damaged and windows were broken, and there is no heating, the reception of patients has not been suspended.

Development Strategy

After Ukraine’s victory in the war, the community plans to return to pre-war strategic plans. In particular, they dream of implementing new cluster development projects. This includes the creation of

• an agricultural cooperative
• a processing enterprise,

which will receive the products grown by the peasants and release them to the market in the form of frozen, dried or canned food products. In order to survive in the difficult post-war conditions, the residents of the community must unite to resist the middlemen and provide themselves with work. From time immemorial, ecologically clean vegetables have been grown in open and covered soils in every household of the Novopokrovka community. Our people know the cultivation technology perfectly, keep it a secret and, like a great treasure, pass the knowledge from generation to generation. The eating qualities of fresh and salted vegetables grown on the territory of the community villages and settlements are known far beyond the borders of Ukraine.

The Novopokrovka grain processing plant has been operating in the community for many years, producing high-class flour, but only during the war did we feel the need for our own bakery. Because it was very difficult to find and deliver bread to the people, this process of giving out bread under shelling and explosions was actually heroic. Therefore, we well understand how important it is to have not only a flour producer on our territory, but also a bakery that could meet the needs of local residents. And, of course, in addition to development plans, we have to rebuild damaged and destroyed infrastructure facilities on the territory of the community.

We hope to restore the operations of the power plant in the settlement of Eskhar, because it is a township of power men – almost the entire settlement worked at the plant providing heat to social and residential facilities, producing electricity for the entire country.

A lot of expectations are placed on the development of sports. The construction of a physical culture and health complex was started in the settlement of Novopokrovka before the war and it is planned to be completed in post-war times.

Also we have great hopes for the development of ecotourism. The future creation of tourist routes in a combination with industrial, spiritual, wildlife and ecological tourism will attract the attention of tourists as the large metropolis of Kharkiv is only 20 kilometres away.

The Novopokrovka community will gladly establish long-term partnerships with international partners.

List of Sources 

• Wikipedia
• Official website of the Novopokrovka community
• Official Facebook page of the Novopokrovka settlement council
• Website of Hrybna Sprava LLC
• Website of Novopokrovka Grain Processing Complex
• Website of DV Oil and Gas Production Company LLC