Bogdan Khmelnitsky Ploshchad’ is almost as difficult for two semi-Russian-speaking Americans to pronounce correctly asitisto look at. It is the major thoroughfare of Kiev, the Ukrainian city billed by the Soviet tourist bureau as the USSR’s happiest city. It is also called, variously, the most cultural city and the most floral city, by these same people. Soviet hosts traffic in superlatives.
The buildings supporting and surrounding Bogdan Khmelnitsky Square are falling apart. We are told that they were constructed according to the most modern building techniques; that these modern builders used the bravest steel and the finest concrete in all the Soviet Union. But we are betting that they used a compost of chalk and graham cracker. At least, one good rain and these brand-new buildings look ten years old.
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