The Tsymbal family

The Mykhailo Hrushevsky Historical Memorial Museum, in collaboration with the Sixtiers Museum, organized an exhibit entitled “The Ukrainian World of the Tsymbal Family.” This project is dedicated to outstanding Ukrainian intellectuals. The opening ceremony was attended by a number of noted personalities who came to pay homage to the people’s teachers, Ivan and Lidia Tsymbal, champions of the Ukrainian language, as well as to their children, the artists Viktor and Oleksandr, and the actress Tetiana. Family archives (photos, documents, works of art, memorabilia, personal belongings) illustrate the hard, at times tragic, lot of this family, which stood firm in their convictions and never acted against their conscience.

The first stand displays Ivan and Lidia’s wedding rushnyk embroidered with red thread and their marriage certificate dated 1901.

The young couple were enthusiastic schoolteachers and public activists. Before long, their children Viktor, Oleksandr, and Olha were born. They were a happy family, but in 1907 Ivan Tsymbal was suddenly arrested. Giving his fellow villagers expert recommendations had landed him on a political blacklist. Among the items on display are his letters from a prison in Ostroh, addressed to his family. There is also a letter from his children to the authorities begging to release him from jail… There is also a photo with four clear-eyed children: Viktor, Oleksandr, Olha, and Tetiana.

After 1917, Ivan and Lidia took part in the opening of a grade school; they toured what is now Kyiv oblast, urging parents to send their children to Ukrainian schools. Then the Bolsheviks started persecuting the intelligentsia. The Tsymbals’ home was searched [by the Cheka – Ed.] and Lidia was arrested because she had been among those who greeted Symon Petliura and presented him with the traditional bread and salt. Ivan (then a schoolteacher) was arrested again in 1920. He found himself among the hostages of the Bolsheviks and miraculously escaped death (as evidenced by an expert verdict from a “tribunal of three’s,” dated March 7, 1921, and signed by the Cheka’s master hangman Balytsky). Next on display is Ivan’s diary and letters from a prison camp in Russia.

The exposition includes a small sketch made by Ivan’s son Oleksandr, the future artist whose life would be cut short by WW II. A whole room is dedicated to Viktor Tsymbal, an artist of singular talent and international acclaim. Among the photos is one with Viktor and his mates at St. Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood Gymnasium No. 2. Their class teacher was Mykola Zerov, a prominent Ukrainian who taught the talented youth Ukrainian literature and practical life. Viktor Tsymbal was spared death at Kruty and enlisted in the UNR army. He took part in all pitched battles, again avoided death, but in the end found himself in a Polish internment camp. Eventually, he escaped, stole across the border and reached Prague where he studied art and made excellent progress. Proof of this is the certificate of a graduate of the Ukrainian Plastic Art Studio where he studied in 1923-28 under the able guidance of professors Mako, Mozolevsky, and Karel. The document reads that he showed spectacular progress. There is also a graduation certificate of the Art Industrial School where Viktor mastered in various graphic techniques. There are copies of children’s books illustrated by him, including The Adventures of a Hungry Wolf (Lviv, 1937), Petro Kulish’s A Golden Egg and Chumak Children, Borys Hrinchenko’s Olesia, etc. There is a notebook with his sketches of illustrations for publications on Ukrainian history, another one with copies of Ukrainian folk ornaments (both dated 1920). Then there are items relating to his life in Argentina and the US. One’s heart aches looking at his famous picture Famine. 1933 with a famished woman flying to the Lord among the stars, hugging her dead little son. It became the symbol of the genocidal Holodomor.

The exposition includes a letter, dated 1935, in which the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine requests that Viktor Tsymbal paint a portrait of Symon Petliura and decorate the audience in which “the November anniversary will be celebrated.” Nothing coincidental about this, considering that the items on display are graphic proof that he devoted a lot of time to public activities (e.g., playbills for Natalka Poltavka and The Outwitted — in which he also played).

There are pages from the burlesque album Lukomoria [the title is borrowed from Pushkin’s Ruslan and Ludmila, with a paraphrased line: “There’s Muscovite spirit… Muscovite scent!” In the original text: “There’s Russia’s spirit... Russian scent!” — Ed.]. There is also The Angel of Peace-1950; A New Amnesty in the USSR-1955; Reflections from Nuremberg. The Trial to Follow, with Stalin and Politburo members in the dock, etc. The artist sharply responded to everything relating to his distant Fatherland. Viktor Tsymbal died in the US and his memory has never been honored in his native land.

Numerous items are linked to the life and career of the legendary actress Tetiana Tsymbal who worked with Les Kurbas’ drama company Berezil. A variety of posters are proof of her profound devotion to Ukrainian literary classics. She was their talented interpreter in those cruel times. Among these posters are ones commemorating Taras Shevchenko’s 150th anniversary, the 100th anniversary of Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Olha Kobylianska, and one, dated July, 1963, that commemorates the 50th anniversary of death of the “Daughter of Prometheus.” It was before that soiree that Tetiana Tsymbal performed during an improvised “concert on a bench” that would go down in the Sixtiers’ history. Ivan Dziuba was outraged to see that the open-air theater in Pershotravnevy Park was closed by authorities, who proposed to hold it in a side alley. Tetiana Tsymbal forgot all about the official soiree where she was supposed to appear and recited Lesia Ukrainka’s poems, among them To a Friend of Mine, in that alley. The following day her name would be crossed out from the list of participants in all official events. She was made to retire and practically forbidden to perform. But at that moment, in that side ally, nothing could be further from her mind. Among those pesent were Oleksandr Ponomariov and Yevhen Sverstiuk — they spoke about this event in Tetiana’s life during the opening ceremony.

Her concert costumes, workbooks, props for the one-man show “The Daughter of Prometheus” give you the impression that you are in her dressing room.

Samizdat publications, the typewriter used for copying works by the Sixtiers. One can almost hear Tetiana sing Christmas carrols at the home of Ivan Honchar, the spiritual father of those young intrepid people. There is a letter from Pavlo Tychyna. One can almost see her pay homage to Ivan Franko in Kryvorivnia.

One of the photos shows a young fellow by the name of Bohdan, Ivan and Lidia’s grandson. Raised in the family’s patriotic spirit, he asserted his public stand and took part in the first march “Along the Roads of Cossack Glory” in 1991. His mother, Viktoria Tsymbal, was a public figure.

Mykola Plakhotniuk, director of the Sixtiers Museum, launched the exhibit and acted as emcee. Among those who shared their memories were Bohdan Horyn, Yaroslav Hevrych, Vasyl Perevalsky, and Serhii Bilokin. The Vydubychy Choir performed religious songs. This project is the brainchild of Svitlana Pankova, director of the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Historical Memeorial Museum, and her colleagues at the museum. The exhibit will be open until January 30.