At 9 Desyatynna Street stands a beautiful mansion in a gentle green color. In 1899, it was built by architect Vladimir Nikolaev for Vasily Simirenko and his wife Sofia in the "neoclassical" style. Vasily Simirenko was nicknamed "The Great Khors" by his friends in honor of the pagan sun god Khors, and it is hard to find a family in Ukrainian history that has done as much for the country as the Simirenko family.

Vasily Simirenko came from an ancient Cossack lineage. The family recounted that their Cossack ancestor was so brave that he was nicknamed Semiruk, and the Poles called him Simirenko. After the collapse of the Sich, Vasily's grandfather became a chumak, and his father, Fyodor Simirenko, was recorded as a serf and lived in Mliyev in Cherkasy. Thanks to his entrepreneurial skills, he managed to accumulate capital and buy his freedom from serfdom. After marrying, he, along with his wife's brothers, who were also former serfs, founded the firm "Brothers Yakhnenko and Simirenko," which became one of the largest in the Russian Empire for the production and sale of sugar. At their factories, the firm produced not only sugar but also built the first iron ships on the Dnieper, "Ukrainets" and "Yaroslav," for transporting sugar to European ports. The former serfs provided their children with a European education.

Vasily Simirenko studied in Paris, spoke several European languages, and married Sofia, the daughter of French emigrant Albrand. Sofia's father opposed the marriage to the son of a former serf and did not bless it. By the time of his marriage, Vasily had inherited his father's nearly bankrupt firm, as his father, his partners, and Vasily's older brother Platon, who tried to save the firm from bankruptcy, had all died almost simultaneously. Vasily had to start from scratch: he bought a small sugar factory and within a few years turned it into a large enterprise that generated significant income. His marriage to Sofia turned out to be successful; they loved each other, although they had no children.

From the very beginning of his entrepreneurial activities, Vasily promised to donate 10% of his profits to support Ukrainian science and culture, and he always adhered to this rule. For 25 years, he financed the magazine "Kyivska Starina," and his money was used to publish works by Shevchenko, Chubynsky, and Dragomanov. In Lviv, with Simirenko's funds, the House of the Ukrainian Scientific Society was built under the leadership of Hrushevsky. He was friends with Mykola Lysenko and sponsored his choir. Therefore, his friends called him "The Great Khors."

In this mansion, Vasily Simirenko lived until his death in 1915. On his deathbed, he bequeathed all his fortune, estimated at 10 million rubles, to the needs of the Ukrainian Scientific Society, leaving the mansion to his wife. After the revolution, the mansion was confiscated from Sofia Simirenko and housed various institutions, and now it is the location of the British Embassy.

The gentle green color of the mansion always reminds me of the famous "Renet Simirenko" apples, a variety developed by Vasily's nephew Levko Simirenko, but that is another story. Such an amazing family owned this mansion.