Treasures Not Yet Assessed

Yuriy Kulinych, director of the Central Archival Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine, recently sent a letter to the editorial offices of The Day, requesting free copies of the books Ukraine Incognita, Dvi Rusi, and Wars and Peace. The letter stated that, owing to the museum’s financial straits, they cannot afford to purchase The Day’s Library Series. We always try to answer our readers’ letters. The editors often even pay for subscriptions to this publication out of their own pocket. But in this case we wanted to do more than just offer a few gifts. After all, this letter had just added another vivid brushstroke to the overall picture of archival affairs in Ukraine, which can be described as a strategic sphere. Several weeks ago, The Day published an article by Natalka Dziubenko-Mace (No. 4, February 15) in which she quoted President Yushchenko’s remarks during his meeting with writers, filmmakers, and scholars at the capital’s House of Cinema: “The first thing Western scholars asked me to do was open the Ukrainian archives; they didn’t ask about tourist trips or scholarly developments but first and foremost the archives.” Minister of Culture and Art Oksana Bilozir also broached this subject in an interview (see no. 29, February 18). We therefore decided to pay a visit to some archivists and museum workers.

NO SECURITY MEASURES

The archival museum is located in a building designated as an 18th-century architectural site on the grounds of St. Sophia’s National Preserve in Kyiv. After a brief introduction, museum director Yuriy Kulinych suggested a tour of the premises. The building had once housed a school for boys, run by St. Sophia’s Monastery; the noted Ukrainian composer Kyrylo Stetsenko once studied there. In 1918, during the period of the national-liberation struggle, it housed the Main Archival Administration. The archival museum was founded in 1966. Eventually a branch was opened in Pliuty, a village in Obukhiv district, Kyiv oblast, on the premises of a villa owned by the Soviet playwright Oleksandr Korniychuk. In view of the fact that various neighboring villages and district centers are associated with the writer Hryhory Kosynka and poet Andriy Malyshko, it was decided to combine the heritage of several creative personalities into a single project known as “Literary-Artistic Pliuty.”

At present, part of the museum is undergoing renovations that began last year. Individual rooms were renovated earlier. Occasionally these rooms are used to hold soirees and contemporary art exhibits. “The management should charge rental fees for these events, in principle,” says Yuriy Kulinych, “but I believe that it would be a sin to make money off Ukrainian artists. They’re in the same position as us. Those who can, pay; others simply can’t afford the expense.”

It further transpired that repairs at the museum are financed by the national “Program for the Development of Museum Business for 2005.” It was implemented by the former government’s Ministry of Culture and Art, although the archival museum had never belonged to it but was subordinated to the State Archives Committee of Ukraine, which is directly accountable to the Cabinet of Ministers. Under the new government, the question of which ministry the SAC will belong to is still being decided. Yuriy Kulinych says that two years ago the government failed to allocate UAH 100,000 and last year, over UAH 175,000, for repairs and restoration. This year’s budget envisages adequate appropriations, although it will probably take two or three months to receive the money. The reason is simple: the archives, libraries, and museums are financed by the central budget according to the surplus principle. Among other pressing problems Yuriy Kulinych mentioned security measures for the more than 1,365 archival items: “Our state-financed budget does not envisage any appropriations for upgrading burglar and fire alarms. What we received under the national program was spent on re- equipping our shamefully obsolete fire alarm systems. Our premises are protected by professional office security details, but we can’t pay them a dime. Security guards posted on other premises also watch over ours. In addition, their headquarters are on the premises of the archival museum premises. This explains everything.” Recently, paintings by early 20th-century Ukrainian artists were stolen from the archival museum branch. The reason was predictable: a faulty burglar alarm system that couldn’t be fixed because of lack of funds. Immediately after the burglary the State Archives Committee of Ukraine asked the Cabinet of Ministers to allocate funds for security measures at those two buildings. The government issued an appropriate resolution, and the museums are now waiting for it to be implemented. It looks as though the saying that it takes a tragedy to force action still holds true.

NEW ACQUISITIONS AND ACCESS TO ARCHIVES

After this introduction the director invited us to a room whose walls are covered with signatures of distinguished visitors, including the current president. In 2003 an exhibit of posters by young artists, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Holodomor and organized by Viktor Yushchenko’s foundation, was held here. In gratitude for allowing the exhibit to take place there, the organizers offered the entire exhibit to the archival museum. Yuriy Kulinych took his time browsing the book Ukraine Incognita and focused on The Day’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna’s entry: “There is no full-fledged history without your work.” “Well put,” he said, “I’m grateful for such respect for our profession. I will add copies of Ukraine Incognita, Dvi Rusi, and Wars and Peace to our collections as precious evidence of the times; they will be kept together with the folios.” Promising to show us the folios later, he went on to describe the latest acquisitions. Over the past several years manuscripts and documents have been donated by such literary and artistic figures as Oles Honchar, Kostiantyn Stepankov, Mykola Zhulynsky, Anatoly Solovianenko, Hryhory Veriovka, writer and artist Vira Vovk (Brazil), writer Vitaly Korotych (currently in Russia), and the writer and artist Emma Andievska (Germany). Acquisitions are also frequently forwarded by the customs authorities of Boryspil Airport and Kyiv, who send us artworks confiscated before they are shipped out of the country. The archival museum hasn’t received any funds for acquisitions in the last 10-15 years. Everything is done through personal contacts, as well as book and document exhibits that can attract prospective contributors and sponsors. There is also the factor of the museum’s prestige.

“Who has access to your collections?” we asked and were told that there were no restrictions on access. An application form has to be filled in and sent to the director. Until recently the procedure was more complicated and required a letter of reference specifying the organization requesting such access. Four years ago the Verkhovna Rada resolved to amend the existing law, making all such archives accessible to the general public. Under the Soviets, they were controlled by the KGB and access was very limited.

To prove his point, Yuriy Kulinych asked his deputy Mykhailo Khodorovsky to show us the reading hall, where an American researcher was working. Information about the archival museum is available on a Web site, and the museum is collaborating with Harvard University and the Ukrainian Studies Fund in the US.

Joshua Ferst is a young historian, who is writing a dissertation on Ukrainian cinematography. He is most interested in the problem of national identity in the Soviet Union and is convinced that cinematography can shed much light on this subject.

SHEVCHENKO’S LETTERS, TYCHYNA’S MANUSCRIPTS, DOVZHENKO’S FILMS

Then the deputy director showed us some of the treasures that people fly from overseas to study.

Among the standing exhibits is a display of the personal effects of Ukrainian artists. “In fact, the idea to arrange such rooms as studies of 20th-century Ukrainian men of arts was initiated by their relatives; they would bring the personal effects of writers, film and stage directors, and actors,” Mykhailo Khodorovsky told us, adding, “After the devastating attacks on his film Ukraine in Flames, Oleksandr Dovzhenko was forbidden to live in Ukraine. He had to move to Moscow, but he would visit his sister every summer (he had a room of his own in her home on Volodymyrska St. in Kyiv). From the celebrated film director’s nephews we received pieces of furniture, an old clock, and the large home library from that room. Later we learned that Dovzhenko’s archives were stored in Sosnytsia, where he was born in Chernihiv oblast, also at the Dovzhenko Film Studios in Kyiv, and we now have some of them at our museum. Materials relating to his final years are mostly stored at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow.

The studies of the poet Andriy Malyshko and composer Platon Maiboroda also boast a number of rare items, including refined china tea-sets, pictures, and embroideries that are several decades old. The grand piano that the composer used to write his famous songs, such as Ridna maty moya [My Beloved Mother], Bili kashtany [White Chestnuts], My pidem, de travy pokhyli [We’ll Go Where the Leaves of Grass Sway] is a special treasure.

Slated for opening soon is the Levko Revutsky Music Center, where concerts of Ukrainian music will be held. A newly renovated hall has been allocated for the center. The museum’s management recently acquired the composer’s concert piano from his son, along with a miniature cabinet to store the composer’s LPs. New and past acquisitions to the museum collections will be arranged as a standing exhibit. So far, they are kept in the museum storehouse.

According to Mykhailo Khodorovsky, the storehouse contains monuments ranging from the mid- 18th century to the present. Searching through some of the hundreds of files, he finds the right one and shows us the manuscripts of Taras Shevchenko’s poems “Banduryste! Orle syzyi,” “Dream,” “To Mykola Ivanovych Kostomarov,” his letters to the actor Mikhail Shchepkin, illustrations for the original 1840 edition of the Kobzar, and a copy of the poet’s death certificate issued by St. Catherine’s Church at the Academy of Art in St. Petersburg.

The archival museum also has collections of works by the playwright, actor, and stage director Marko Kropyvnytsky; Vikentiy and Alexander Beretti, architects and builders of Kyiv University and St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral painters Ivan Izhakevych and Fotiy Kosytsky; singer Borys Hmyria; sculptor and film director Ivan Kavaleridze; Orientalist and Slavist Ahatanhel Krymsky; and composers Kyrylo Stetsenko and Borys Liatoshynsky. There are collections of the writers of the “Executed Renaissance,” among them Yevhen Pluzhnyk, Mykola Zerov, Hryhoriy Kosynka, as well as the writers known as the “Sixtyers,” including Mykola Vinhranovsky, Borys Antonenko-Davydovych, Ivan Drach, and Ivan Svitlychny.

At the book depository we were shown a huge book (80 cm in length and 1.5 meter in width, weighing some 60 kg). This was the first volume of a two-volume set, and the second one was about the same size. Both books contain the blueprints for the walls, columns, cupolas, and belfries of St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv. Legend has it that this set of books was presented to the architect Pavlo Alioshyn, who created the architectural designs of the Pedagogical Museum (currently the Teacher’s House) which houses the current Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There is a unique edition of Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar, which was published during the poet’s lifetime by Panteleymon Kulish’s printing shop, a copy of whose novel Chorna Rada [Black Council, 1857] is also stored there. We asked about the value of this edition of the Kobzar and were told that expert valuation of such rare documents and editions is only beginning in Ukraine.

“How can I surprise you further?” asked the deputy director. He then showed us the first collection of poems by Pavlo Tychyna entitled Soniachni klarnety [Solar Clarinets] published in 1918. He said the museum has all of Tychyna’s works (a total of 17,243 items).

The book depository workers, all of whom are obviously dedicated professionals, kept thrilling us with rare editions and unique documents. Museum workers are paid an average of 400 hryvnias a month [less than $50], and junior archivists are paid less. However, not all of them would accept higher- paid jobs at privately owned art galleries, where you can find a lot of kitsch. They believe that the notion of “Ukrainian culture” should simply be filled with new content, which is precisely what they are doing. They expect that the new government will lend them a hand. Incidentally, a recent meeting of the SACU Board determined that 50 million hryvnias are needed to stabilize the archival network in Ukraine, including the purchase of equipment, repair and restoration works, security measures, and so on. Ukrainian archivists have been asking for this sum for a number of years, but every year they have been allocated only half.