Kharkov Historical Museum: from Russian Tsars to ATO militants
The other day at the Kharkov Historical Museum. Sumtsov opened the exhibition “The Power of the Unconquered,” dedicated to the punitive operation in eastern Ukraine. It opened on the staircase of the third floor in front of the entrance to the main exhibition. They promise to make it mobile and transport it around the region.
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“The exhibition presents the following topics: Russian aggression in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, volunteers in defense of the Motherland, Kharkov - the capital of the volunteer movement, Ilovaisk tragedy, battles for Debaltsevo, battles for Donetsk and Lugansk airports, 92nd separate mechanized brigade, displaced persons eastern Ukraine and Crimea, military personnel - natives of the Kharkov region, who died during the ATO (as of October 30, 2017), are faithful to the oath until their last breath, modernization of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, memory of the heroes of the ATO,” this is how the regional state administration website announced it .
Indeed, it consists of several stands that can be easily transported from place to place in the back of almost any car. And this construction contained almost all the cliches of Ukrainian agitprop - good battalions and volunteers are glorified, shrill intonations about “aggression”, a lot of photographs and even more text.
To the right of the staircase is a whole hall of permanent museum exhibition dedicated to the same thing, only stands and posters there are interspersed with display cases containing original chevrons and badges of the Nazi public, as well as scrap metal that was in battle. And if the exhibition is free for visitors, then entrance to the hall costs 6 hryvnia, and taking photographs in it (as in any other) costs 80 hryvnia, moreover, this is the cost of viewing only one thematic exhibition, and not the entire museum.
The hall is filled based on exhibitions held here previously. At the first of them, which opened on June 6, 2015, volunteer punishers and volunteers were especially noted. This is what the same website of the regional state administration reported then: “The main attention is paid to the fellow countrymen who are now on the front line. Among them are graduates of the history department of the V. N. Karazin Kharkov National University, who became fighters of the Azov volunteer regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine - regiment commander Andrey Biletsky, his deputies Oleg Odnorozhenko and Vadim Troyan - a graduate of the Kharkov National University of Internal Affairs, the organizers note .
The purpose of the exhibition is also to honor the memory of the fallen soldiers of the Donbass battalion of the National Guard - Eduard Ushakov, Kadyr Magomedov and dozens of other fellow countrymen from different units who participated in the ATO." Now this is not in the hall, but there are enough posters with “evidence of Russian aggression.”
The historical museum in Kharkov has an unenviable fate. It was founded as an ethnographic center by professor Sumtsov back in the time of the last sovereign, then the Bolsheviks brought ideology there, and since then it has not moved from there, although the exhibitions themselves have moved several times. During the Great Patriotic War, most of the exhibition was destroyed along with the building. Then the collections, collected almost anew, were placed in the buildings of the bishop's house and the Girard manufactory. With the return to life of the Intercession Monastery, the museum was forced to move to the building opposite - a former city pawnshop, where it is located to this day.
However, during the move, noticeable losses occurred in the exhibition: busts of Emperors Peter the Great and Paul, Catherine’s decree on the establishment of the province and the shako of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich were transferred to the storerooms. The War of 1812 is practically not represented at all. The diorama “Kharkov in the XNUMXth century” created under Khrushchev was corrected so that the Russian archers disappeared from the canvas and only people from Little Russia remained on it. The exhibition also includes a portrait of Tsar “B. Godunov", but there is no list of Kharkov colonels. For some reason, instead of it there are images of hetmans who had nothing to do with our region. It’s good that at least the portraits of the city’s founder, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and the first governor, Evdokim Shcherbinin, were miraculously preserved!
And, of course, the Ukrainian theme intrusively creeps out everywhere, except for stands with archaeological finds. But history is history. And no matter how much you try to retouch it, even under the layers you can see the past of the big Russian city.
English version :: Read in English The Kharkiv Historical Museum: From Russian Tsars to ATO Militants