The Ukrainian postal service starts from the history of Kyiv Rus’ post. The Chronicle of Bygone Years mentions special messengers sent by Kyiv Prince Oleh as early as in 885. This year is accepted as the start of the Ukrainian postal history.
From the days of its founding Kyiv’s postal service has come a long and hard way. Its history begins in 1669. At that time a station for receiving mail and keeping horses was founded in Kyiv. On September 21 (September 3 in the Julian calendar), 1775, postal service director Borys Pestel signed a letter to the Kyiv guberniya (province) office informing about the Foreign Affairs Collegium order on founding the Kyiv post office. In 1782 it was transformed into a guberniya General Post Office. The first city post office was opened on June 1, 1840, in the Pechersk district of the city.
Both the post office and the postmaster have moved more than once. Since 1850 the General Post Office gained a foothold on Khreshchatyk (Kyiv’s main street). Thus, the thing is also about the sesquicentennial of its being situated on this street. A second office was opened on December 2, 1852, affiliated to the City Duma in the Podil district.
The postal service has worked quite regularly. Letters were taken from mailboxes three times a day and were delivered at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Mail for Russian cities and other countries formerly was delivered by couriers. Since 1835 it has been sent by mail-coach, since the 1860s also by steamboat along Dnipro, and since 1870s by train. In 1913 there were 13 post and telegraph organizations in Kyiv, where about 150 mailboxes existed. Kyiv office personnel numbered 460 employees. 138 postmen were delivering correspondence in 1916.
For a long time city postal service has been suffering from difficulties because of lack of space. In 1936-1937 the General Post Office building was constructed on Khreshchatyk, 24/26. In 1940, in addition to the General Post Office, four regional offices, 73 communication service departments, and four package bases, have been active in Kyiv.
During the Second World War, the post did not avoid destruction. After Kyiv’s liberation, the General Post Office was squeezed in the building at the present Khmelnytsky St. 44.
Almost at the same time the former main postal receiving building in Poshtova Ploshcha (Postal Square), which had been functioning from 1865 to 1919, was rebuilt.
Kyiv city’s Ukrposhta (Ukrainian Post) Direction is the biggest city communications hub in Ukraine consisting of the General Post Office with five post and telephone operational halls supplied with computing and receiving/sending equipment, the Left Bank post office, Southern, and Northern communications hubs. 162 communication service departments in 14 administrative regions deliver postal and telegraph service for the three million of Kyiv. The enterprise’s shops and stations are supplied with perfect technical means for the assignment and working up of information as well as for mail transportation. The list of acting equipment includes approximately 700 computer and pay offices used for giving service and production management. Eleven communication service departments and offices offer their services for fax communication, e- mail and hybrid mail.
