Relics do not burn

The recently opened exhibit at Dormition Cathedral is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical-Cultural Preserve and the 995th anniversary of the founding of the Kyivan Cave Monastery. The exhibit features a collection of rare items that survived the war. In 1941, the Nazis broke into the monastery on the first day of the occupation of Kyiv. They instantly raised their flag with the swastika on the Great Bell Tower, then the tallest building in Ukraine’s capital.

The next day the observation platform was demolished in an explosion that was heard throughout the city. During the war years 32 buildings on the territory of the monastery were partly damaged or completely destroyed. Dormition Cathedral did not escape this fate. “After the explosion fragments of the cathedral were mixed with the museum’s exhibits,” historians recount. It took the Lavra specialists a long time to sift through the debris in search of barely intact rarities. Today, after being thoroughly restored, they have a new lease on life.

“Actually, there are very few items on display. I dream about organizing a complete exhibit one day,” said Serhii Halchenko, the executive director of the All-Ukrainian Museum Association, outlining his plans for the future. All of the 80 items are displayed stage by stage, one might say.

“The goal of this exhibit is to show the scale of the damage that the Lavra suffered during the war. So the exhibit is somewhat schematic,” explains Roman Kachan, the head of the history department at the Kyivan Cave Monastery. Part of the exhibit shows the war breaking out and the evacuation of the museum exhibits. Photographs taken by an unknown German officer from the bridge across the Dnipro River show the final minutes of the cathedral’s existence.

The second part of the exhibit features photographs depicting the excavations of the cathedral’s ruins. The sequence of events may be seen in the photographs, diaries, and copies of historical documents. The most important exhibit items are rare objects that were rescued and restored after the war. Icons and fabrics embroidered with gold thread are among the most valuable. They have been restored by the Kyivan Cave Monastery’s team led by specialist Valentyna Shcherbakova, who has been working for years to preserve the unique textile items.

“When I think that 90 percent of the rarities stored in the repositories are in bad condition and that most of them are in very bad condition, I feel sick,” Shcherbakova sighs.

Liturgical accouterments are displayed separately. The main exhibit item, which inspired the organizers to display these rarities, is the 19th-century icon of the Virgin Odigitria. During the occupation its upper section was seriously burned. The damage to this icon gave rise to the title of the exhibit: Relic Singed by War. The icon has been restored and put on display right in the middle of Dormition Cathedral. “It seems to represent both the tragedy of that difficult time and eternal spiritual values, which nobody can destroy,” the organizers of the exhibition say.