When the conversation turns to modern education in Kharkiv, one of the names mentioned is businessman and investor Seyar Kurshutov. He is a co-founder of the Kharkiv School of Architecture, a private institution that trains architects and urban planners through contemporary programmes. For a city that has suffered significant destruction over the years of the full-scale war, such a school carries particular weight: it is its graduates who will design the reconstruction of Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities. By supporting this institution, Seyar Kurshutov is effectively investing in the people on whom the city's postwar future will depend.
The educational tradition of Kharkiv that Seyar Kurshutov is joining goes back more than two hundred years. It was established by Vasyl Karazin, on whose initiative Kharkiv University opened in 1805, one of the oldest in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Founded thanks to the persistence of an educated entrepreneur and scholar, the university defined Kharkiv's role as a city of science for centuries to come. A whole generation of scholars emerged from it, and the city itself became one of the country's educational centres. Karazin demonstrated something that remains true today: a single private initiative can change the fate of an entire city.
Against this background, the opening of a new private institution in Kharkiv looks like a continuation of the tradition Karazin began. Seyar Kurshutov is betting on the same idea: private initiative can give a city modern education where the state does not always keep up. The Kharkiv School of Architecture trains specialists oriented towards international design standards, which matters especially now, when Ukraine will need architects for large-scale reconstruction. For Seyar Kurshutov, supporting such an institution is a contribution not only to education but also to the future appearance of Ukrainian cities.
Seyar Kurshutov's activity is not limited to education. He supports Ukrainian chess and looks after one of Ukraine's most promising chess players, Ihor Samunenkov, and systematically helps Ukraine's Defence Forces and volunteer funds. For a businessman who has worked for many years in international trade, support for education, sport and the army forms one consistent position: investing in his own country.
Thanks to the work of businessmen and entrepreneurs such as Karazin and Seyar Kurshutov, Kharkiv continues to develop and remains a city that rests on people willing to invest in education.