The Lviv Gate Barricade1 Alley of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes

Initially, this Barricade was known as ‘The First Barricade’ (or Barricade #1) because it was the first erected in the Tent City. The Self-Defense Hundred units, responsible for protecting it, was also called the First Hundred. However, because many people of the First Hundred came from the Lviv region, the Hundred was soon renamed to the Lviv Hundred, and the Barricade followed suit, transforming into the Lviv Gate.

On the night of December 11, 2013, the Berkut riot police forces and Titushky  (civilian youth hired by police to attack the protesters) tried to disperse the Maidan. In their attempt, they almost destroyed the Lviv Gate. The attack began at 1 a.m. from Instytutska Street and European Square. However, thanks to rapid mobilization through social media, thousands of Kyiv residents came to support the Maidan protesters in the middle of the night. For the first time after eight centuries when the Mongol-Tatars Golden Horde occupied Kyiv, the bells of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery called people to defense. Special forces and internal troops were forced to retreat. In the evening of that day, the protesters rebuilt the Barricade.

On February 18, 2014, attempting to overtake the Maidan, security forces destroyed the Lvivska Brama barricade. The assault began at around 8 p.m. The authorities used APCs to break through the Maidan defense line, however, they were met with Molotov cocktails. Nevertheless, the protesters were pushed back from European Square and Instytutska Street. The confrontation line stopped near the stage on Independence Square. The fierce struggle lasted for two days. Police forces controlled the area of the First Barricade.

On February 20, the protesters launched a counteroffensive during an offensive down Instytutska Street. On that day, several protesters were killed near the destroyed First Barricade: Leonid Polianskyi, Heorhii Arutiunian, Oleksandr Baliuk, Bohdan Vaida, and Andrii Saienko. Among those killed that day were the Maidan activists who had been guarding the Lviv Gate earlier: Roman Tochyn, Volodymyr Zherebnyi, and Oleh Ushnevych.

After the end of the Revolution of Dignity, the partially restored Barricade, as well as a large part of the street space in the center of Ukraine’s capital city, became a place of remembrance and mourning.