n 1910�1911 simultaneously with the building of Livadia Palace work began on the construction of the power station, which then provided electricity for the Livadia estate. Gleb Petrovich Guschin, the first court architect, was the author of the project. This building was the first of its kind in Russia. It was built using a method of sliding formwork for pouring monolithic reinforced concrete.
 The equipment of the power station was dismantled in 1927 and the building was used as a club and a canteen. In 1945, at the time as the Yalta Conference, it was temporarily restored as a power station. Following this, from 1945 to 1947, there was a prisoner-of-war camp at this location. At a later stage it was transformed into warehouses and workshops etc. The original building deteriorated and by the end of the 1980-s it was almost falling apart.
 Much work was done during the reconstruction in order to restore the ruined parts of the building, and the new decorative elements were added to it, transforming its general appearance. Besides, thousands of tonnes of soil were removed from the area around the building, and supporting walls and metal protective fences were built. An extra room was built on the north side especially to house the organ. The newly created interior included cornicing and mouldings which consist of tens of thousands of elements, hundreds of square meters of stained glass windows, cast-iron railings and other features. Thus, the building originally conceived as a generating station became an architectural gem.
 The new large organ in Livadia, completed in 1998, is the first instrument of its class made on the territory of the former Soviet Union and is the largest in Ukraine. The organ has more than 4600 pipes. The length of the largest pipe is about six meters and the smallest pipe is only a few millimeters long. The pipes are divided into 69 groups (registers). They are controlled by a console consisting of four manuals and one foot-keyboard (pedals) through a complicated systems of traction. The console also has over 230 buttons and levers. The wood of local trees (cedar, cypress, pine, oak and beech), some tropical woods and non-ferrous metals (tin, lead, copper, brass) were used in the construction of the instrument�s mechanical part. The traditional organ�s mechanics work alongside the latest achievements in electronics. The register action is electric, with an extensive electronic memory regarding combinations. This creates an opportunity for further development of artistic and technical capabilities of the instrument.
 Vladimir Anatolievich Khromchenko was the author and co-ordinator of this project. He worked both on the design and construction of the organ and on the restoring of the building. Currently he is the manager and the art director at the Livadia Organ Music Centre. Mr Khromchenko is an organist and an organ-builder, he is a graduate of Tallinn Conservatoire where he was a pupil of a renowned Estonian organist and composer Hugo Lepnurm.
 At present the Livadia Organ Music Centre is the only such enterprise on the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which constructs instruments of this kind. The enterprise works as a closed cycle industry. Apart from the organ in Livadia, Yalta houses two other organs constructed by Vladimir Khromchenko: the first one is in the local School of Music, and the second is in the Armenian Church.
 This enterprise also carries out restoration work and reconstructs organs on the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and it has a full-time staff of musicians who perform on various instruments.

LIVADIA ORGAN DISPOSITION