On August 18, 2026, the premiere of the documentary film “Industrial Utopia” took place in the “Open Sky” conference hall of the protected space of the National Aerospace University “KhAI”. The project was created by the team of the Central State Scientific and Technical Archive of Ukraine (CSSTUA) with the financial support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
The film, directed by TETYANA BABINA, is dedicated to the history of the construction of the Kharkiv Nuclear Thermal Power Plant (KhNTPP) — an ambitious project of the 1980s, which remained on paper. The authors moved away from a purely chronological presentation: through unique archival drawings, eyewitness accounts, and modern footage of the Kharkiv region, the film comprehends the phenomenon of faith in the total design of the future, the collision of technological optimism with reality, and human destinies behind the scenes of Soviet mega-construction.
KhNTPP was to become one of the major technological projects of the Kharkiv region. Today, the conceived complex is left primarily with documents and drawings that preserve the memory of plans, decisions and people who worked on their implementation.
The combination of archival heritage with a modern perspective is one of the film's features. The documents become a kind of bridge between the past and the present, allowing us to see not only the history of a specific object, but also the ideas about technological development and the future, characteristic of their time.
During the presentation, representatives of the archival, scientific, educational and cultural communities shared their thoughts and experiences. The discussion was joined by the Director General of the Central Archive of Ukraine MARAT BALYSHEV, the Rector of KhAI OLEKSII LYTVYNOV, representatives of Kharkiv universities, the V. Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library, the film director TETYANA BABINA and the artist MYKOLA SOLOMYANIY.
Special attention was paid to how the history of Khatec can be used in the educational process and how archival materials can help young people better understand the technological and industrial history of the Kharkiv region.
For KhAI, the presentation of “Industrial Utopia” is of particular importance. The university, whose history is inextricably linked with aviation, engineering, science and technology, continues to train specialists who will work on the future of Ukraine today.
Watch the documentary “Industrial Utopia”:
KhAI sincerely thanks the organizers and all participants of the presentation for the opportunity to open another page of the technological history of the Kharkiv region together.
