Nivki Park is divided into 2 parts: western (Lenin Komsomol Park) and eastern (Vasilchikovskaya Dacha). The green zone is conditionally divided by the railway track and the Syrets River. The park is home to about 100 species of ancient trees. The terrain is hilly. Nivki Park was created in 1972 by the decision of the Ukrainian SSR State Committee for Nature Protection on the basis of existing green spaces. Even earlier, before the revolution, the area in the area of the current park was called “Vasilchikovskaya Dacha” and was the possession of the Kiev Governor-General Illarion Vasilchikov (under him, the first chain bridge was built in the city, the Vladimir Cathedral was founded, the road to Zhitomir was laid, the first monument in the city was opened – Prince Vladimir).
“Vasilchikovskaya Dacha” was a large area of 60 hectares with a forest, ponds, hayfields, a city and a garden. Its decoration was a two-story estate. After the death of the Governor-General, his widow Ekaterina Alekseevna, a famous Kiev philanthropist, donated her own estate to the Holy Trinity Monastery on Menagerie, which she founded. “Vasilchikovskaya Dacha” remained in the possession of the monastery until the 1917 revolution, after which these lands were nationalized.
The new life of “Vasilchikovskaya Dacha” began in the 1930s, when party authorities paid attention to this area. The park next to the Syrets River was surrounded by a solid fence and transformed into special office of the senior party leadership of Kyiv.
The area changed its unofficial names depending on the change of owners, transforming into Lyubchenko’s dacha or Kaganovich’s dacha, Khrushchev’s dacha or Korotchenko’s dacha. Then the building changed its purpose several times and fell into disrepair until it was sold to private individuals in the early 90s. They started renovations but never finished them. Currently, the main building of the former party dachas remains abandoned, as it is private property protected by law. Moreover, even the utility rooms of the former dacha complex have today been rebuilt and are successfully used as a restaurant and art school. The fences around the special dacha stood until 1962.
In 1962, its territory was transferred to the city, and the park itself was renamed “Park named after the XXII Congress of the CPSU” and opened to the public. The last high-ranking resident of the special dacha was party and statesman Demyan Korotchenko. In 1974, a monument to him was erected near the entrance to the park. In 2015, on the night of May 27, the monument was demolished, along with the monument to “Komsomol members of the 20s.” In 1972, the park received the status of a monument of landscape art and was renamed “Nivki Park”.
The second part of Nivki Park, the Lenin Komsomol Park, was created in 1954 by the decision of the Zhovtneva administration. Then a large construction project began actively: dams were installed and reservoirs were dug. The park had its own concert hall “Youth” (now Nivki-hall), and in the 1970s the “Green Theater” with 2,700 seats was opened (now abandoned). In 1991, the Park Nivki society leased the Leninsky Komsomol park for 25 years, combining both parks. Nowadays, the park has restaurants and cafes, dance floors, children’s and sports grounds, and 6 picturesque ponds.