Kharkiv Oblast

Kharkiv embroidery has two layers: the older Slobozhanshchyna white-on-white work with pale and ochre tones, and the later Brocard style of red and black floral cross-stitch that arrived at the turn of the 20th century. Its typical symbol is the tree of life, combining geometric and floral ornament.

Honoured Master of Folk Art Hryhorii Hryn describes Slobozhanshchyna embroidery in words that will surely surprise: the "white on white" technique, straw-coloured shades, no contrasting black and red.

This is not about the Poltava region. It is about Slobozhanshchyna - and about a tradition that existed here long before the Kharkiv vyshyvanka came to be associated with the red-and-black pair.

Two layers of one tradition

The original Slobozhanshchyna embroidery keeps to white, sometimes with yellow or ochre touches - a delicate colour scheme closer to Poltava than to what is usually imagined as "eastern" embroidery.

Blue also occurred, but because the indigo dyes of the time were unstable, it faded after washing and gradually gave way to black even before aniline dyes appeared.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries everything was changed by the Kharkiv fairs and the growth of trade. The region quickly adopted the Brocard style - lush red-and-black plant motifs in cross-stitch, the same ones that came from the Kyiv region. This later layer is what most sources describe when they speak of the typical Slobozhanshchyna vyshyvanka.

The tree of life and the hourglass

Olha Soshnikova, curator of the digitisation project, gives the example of the "tree of life" symbol - shared by all of Ukraine but always depicted in its own way in each region. In Slobozhanshchyna it combines geometric and plant ornament, and over time it leaned more towards the plant form. By such a tree you can recognise a vyshyvanka of the Kharkiv region among other Sloboda variants.

Among the less obvious symbols is a stylised hourglass: two triangles joined at a narrow point of contact. According to tradition, it recalls the eternity of being and the passage between worlds. There is no documentary evidence for this reading.

Slobozhanskyi Kod: the museum online

The Slobozhanskyi Kod. Ukrainian Embroidery project is a partnership between the Mykola Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum and the NGO KLIO HUB, supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. It digitises embroidered rushnyky, shirts, napkins and other items from the museum's holdings and shows them in an online catalogue and a virtual 3D exhibition. As of September 2025, according to Olha Soshnikova, about 100 objects had been digitised, including items found on the expeditions of the folklorist and ethnographer Mykola Sumtsov.

This is the same source we rely on in describing the region, and the digitised material shows both layers of the tradition at once - the white one and the later red-and-black one. Without this archive, Kharkiv embroidery ornament would be known only through its later, simplified version.

Slobozhanshchyna - four regions, four traditions

Yet the Sumy region preserved the original white character of the embroidery more clearly than the Kharkiv region itself, where the later style almost pushed it out.

Birds, animals and people on rushnyky

According to Olha Soshnikova, Slobozhanshchyna embroidery has many images of birds, animals, flowers and people. Animals were embroidered in a few other regions too, but here they are very common, while images of people are rare in Ukrainian embroidery as a whole - and this sets Kharkiv embroidery apart.

The tree of life has its own local feature too. On Sloboda rushnyky its roots often grow out of a painted vase. Researchers call this image "woman - vase": a symbol of the mother and the continuation of the family. Trees of life differ even within the region - those from Balakliia differ from those from Chuhuiv.

Kharkiv embroidery: the Sloboda stitch and cutwork

Besides cross-stitch, Kharkiv region embroidery has its own Sloboda stitch. There is also cutwork: the fabric is cut out between embroidered bands, making the shirt look almost airy. White-on-white embroidery occurs too - the older layer of the tradition described above.

The ethnographic collection of the Kharkiv Historical Museum holds more than five thousand items of various kinds, and most of the embroidered pieces date from the end of the 19th century.

The openwork hem below the plakhta

In her article "Ukrainian Women's Clothing of Slobozhanshchyna at the Beginning of the 20th Century", Tetiana Popova draws attention to merezhka, drawn-thread openwork. It was widely used on the sleeves, collars and hem of the shirt, and an openwork hem showing from under the plakhta was a special point of pride for Sloboda women. So the Kharkiv vyshyvanka often stood out for its openwork rather than its colour.

According to Popova, the colours were mostly non-contrasting, except on festive shirts, and plant motifs prevailed. Alongside white-on-white embroidery, cut-and-punch work and lyshtva were used. The researcher reads the tree on the sleeve as an image of the family line: the roots are the ancestors, the trunk is the present and the crown is the future and the spiritual world. From the beginning of the 20th century, urban fashion and factory goods changed the dress of Slobozhanshchyna.

Vyshyvankas carried out under fire

When Ukrainian forces were liberating the Kharkiv region, one unit entered a village in late autumn where a shell had hit the school. The school had an ethnographic museum, and its vyshyvankas, rushnyky and tablecloths were getting soaked by rain and snow through the broken roof. One of the soldiers carried them out in sacks under shelling and sent them to a safe place, Ukrinform reported in 2023.

A local teacher had collected these items for years, and some of the vyshyvankas and rushnyky are more than a hundred years old. On 18 May 2023, Vyshyvanka Day, the rescued Sloboda embroidery was shown at a separate exhibition in Chernivtsi. The Kharkiv region is also among the regions of the Ivan Honchar Museum project "Occupied Heritage", in which reconstruction craftspeople recreated the traditional dress of the temporarily occupied territories, so Kharkiv embroidery lives on both in museums and in reconstructions.

Frequently asked questions

So which is genuine Sloboda embroidery: white or red and black?

Both, just from different periods. The older tradition is white, with fawn, yellow or ochre touches. The red-and-black Brocard style arrived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with the Kharkiv fairs and trade, and it is this style that is most often considered the typical Kharkiv vyshyvanka today.

What does the hourglass symbolise in embroidery?

It is two triangles joined at their tips. According to legend, the sign recalls the eternity of being and the passage between worlds. This is an oral interpretation, not a documented academic fact.

Where can I see digitised samples?

In the archive of the "Sloboda Code" project, created by the Mykola Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum together with the non-profit KLIO HUB. Its online catalogue and 3D exhibition show towels, shirts and napkins from the museum's holdings.

What makes Sloboda embroidery different?

Its own Sloboda stitch, the cutwork technique and many images of birds, animals and people. People were rarely depicted in the embroidery of other Ukrainian regions.

What is an openwork hem?

A shirt hem decorated with merezhka, an openwork drawn-thread stitch. According to the researcher Tetiana Popova, an openwork hem showing from under the plakhta was a special point of pride for Sloboda women.

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