# Kharkiv City Council

Kharkiv City Council (Ukrainian: Харківська міська рада) is the city council for the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and is elected every five years to run the city's local government.

## History

Until 1870, members of the city council were elected according to the estate order, and later according to property.

### 20th Century

In 1905, workers at the city's enterprises established the first councils. On November 14, 1905, during the 1905 Revolution, members of the united Social Democrats (SD) and later by representatives of the workers at Malyshev Factory and Hammer and Sickle factory [ru; uk] established the Kharkov Federal Council, which lasted until January 1906. Initially, the council consisted of 3 people from each of the Social Democratic factions. From November to December 1905, the council published a newspaper called Izvestia Federativnogo Soveta, which ran until the revolution in the city was suppressed.

### Russian Revolution

Following the February Revolution on March 2, 1917, the Kharkov Council of Workers' Deputies was created as an elected local government body. Later on March 8, the Kharkov Council of Soldiers' Deputies was created since WWI was still underway. Both the soldiers and workers councils were then united into the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies on March 20. Until after the October Revolution, the majority of the Kharkov Council were either Mensheviks or Socialist Revolutionaries. In 1917, the Kharkov Council created a workers' militia, and reforms were introduced. These included disarming the Police Department of Russia, introducing an 8-hour work day at all workplaces, creating a food rationing system, regulating labor relations, and regulating municipal economy and its other functions after the liquidation of the city council. The Kharkov Council of Workers' Deputies remained throughout the Soviet era, where the first chairman was Mikhail Lazko (in 1917), and the last was Yevhen Kushnaryov (in 1990–1991).
In 1917, the council existed for some time under conditions of dual power and tri-power: 1) the Russian Provisional Government (late February - early November); 2) the Provincial Public Committee headed by the Commissar and the Central Rada (April 6 - November 10); 3) the Provincial Ukrainian Rada headed by Mr. Rubas. At the same time, the former Kharkov City Duma also worked in 1917. On April 8, 1918, about the time of the 1918 Ukrainian coup d'état, the authorities of the German Empire abolished the councils that were set up in the city.

### World War II

From October 26, 1941, to April 30, 1943, with a short break in February–March 1943, the city was governed by the Nazi military administration, and Kharkov's city council was responsible for some functions of city government, including collecting taxes, organizing a census, regulating schools and businesses, and deporting certain populations (e.g. Jews) to other areas in Nazi Germany. These were largely headed by the Ober-Burgomaster, under the control of the German military administration. The first Ober-Burgomaster was Wehrmacht Colonel Peters-Knotte (until January 1942), the last was Pavel Kozakevich (until April 30, 1943).
Since the end of August 1943, the Kharkiv City Council has been working in the city without interruption.

## Major events
### Status of the Russian language

Since Ukrainian independence in 1991, one major point of contention has been the status of the Russian language.
In 1996, the Kharkiv City Council decided to use Russian as a working language along with the state language of Ukrainian. However, the Supreme Court of Ukraine later declared this decision illegal.
In the summer of 2000, the Kharkiv City Council again adopted a decision on the official use of both Russian and Ukrainian in the city's bodies and institutions.
On March 31, 2002, a consultative referendum was held in Kharkiv, where 87% of voters agreed to give Russian official status in the areas that are within the jurisdiction of the Kharkiv City Council.
On March 6, 2006, the Kharkiv City Council decided to recognize Russian as a regional language. Later, a prosecutor appealed this decision to the regional Court of Appeals. On February 6, 2007, the court rejected the prosecutor's appeal, leaving the city council's decision in force.
On July 4, 2007, the Kharkiv City Council enshrined in the city charter the provision that the Russian language is a regional language in the territory of the city of Kharkiv.
On August 20, 2012, after the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) adopted a new national language law (Law of Ukraine "On the Principles of State Language Policy" [uk; sv; ru]), the city council approved Russian as the regional language of communication and office work. On the territory of the city of Kharkiv, the following areas were allowed to be conducted in Russian: acts of the city council and its executive bodies, officials; names of state authorities and local governments, associations of citizens, enterprises, institutions and organizations are written, inscriptions on their seals and stamps, official forms and plates; documentation of local referendums; Ukrainian and Russian were used in the work and office work of local governments and in correspondence with higher-level state authorities; texts of official announcements and messages were written in the state language (Ukrainian) and distributed in Russian. On April 25, 2019 the Verkhovna Rada replaced the August 2012 language law with the Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language". In February 2018 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine had ruled the 2012 language law unconstitutional.
Since January 16, 2021, all meetings of the city council, in accordance with the language law on the protection of the Ukrainian language, are held exclusively in Ukrainian.

## Latest election

19634997 :
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
| | Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv | 117,470 | 37.95 | 34 | New |
| | Opposition Platform — For Life | 64,892 | 20.96 | 19 | New |
| | European Solidarity | 27,843 | 8.99 | 9 | +2 |
| | Servant of the People | 27,107 | 8.76 | 9 | New |
| | Party of Shariy | 20,266 | 6.55 | 7 | New |
| | Svitlychna Bloc "Together!" | 19,016 | 6.14 | 6 | New |
| | Holos | 6,659 | 2.15 | 0 | New |
| | Our Land | 5,936 | 1.92 | 0 | –7 |
| | Batkivshchyna | 3,911 | 1.26 | 0 | New |
| | Democratic Axe | 3,647 | 1.18 | 0 | New |
| | For the Future | 2,985 | 0.96 | 0 | New |
| | Victory of Palchevskyi | 2,813 | 0.91 | 0 | New |
| | Svoboda | 2,380 | 0.77 | 0 | New |
| | Party of Pensioners of Ukraine | 2,095 | 0.68 | 0 | New |
| | Strength and Honor | 1,500 | 0.48 | 0 | New |
| | Aktsent | 574 | 0.19 | 0 | New |
| | Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform | 485 | 0.16 | 0 | New |
| Total | Total | 309,579 | 100.00 | 84 | 0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 309,579 | 95.83 | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 13,456 | 4.17 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 323,035 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,030,787 | 31.34 | | |
| Source: CEC ||||||

## List of elections

* 4 March 1990
* 26 June 1994
* 29 March 1998
* 31 March 2002
* 26 March 2006
* 31 October 2010
* 25 October 2015
* 25 October 2020
** 31 October 2021 (Kharkiv mayoral election)

## List of chairmen

| No. | Name | Took office | Left office | Political party |
| 1 | Yevhen Kushnaryov | 6 April 1990 | April 1998 | Independent |
| 1 | Yevhen Kushnaryov | 6 April 1990 | April 1998 | People's Democratic Party |
| 2 | Mykhaylo Pylypchuk | April 1998 | 21 March 2002 | Independent |
| 3 | Volodymyr Shumilkin [uk] | 21 March 2002 | 26 March 2006 | Independent |
| 4 | Mykhailo Dobkin | 26 March 2006 | 18 March 2010 | Party of Regions |
| 5 | Hennadiy Kernes | 24 November 2010 | 17 December 2020 | Party of Regions |
| 5 | Hennadiy Kernes | 24 November 2010 | 17 December 2020 | Revival |
| 5 | Hennadiy Kernes | 24 November 2010 | 17 December 2020 | Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv |
| 6 | Ihor Terekhov | 11 November 2021 | Incumbent | Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv |