There is no place for the Sixtiers in the modern capital
The process of opening a museum that was going on since 2006 has somewhat moved forward. However, the unique collection of underground press, hundreds of paintings, and huge number of letters is planned to be stored in a basement.
Kyiv municipal authorities again started talking about the opening of the Sixtiers Movement Museum that was initiated over 10 years ago. “By the end of this year it is planned to open the Sixtiers Movement Museum in Kyiv,” promised Oleksandr POPOV, head of the City State Administration in late March. “You know that this topic has long been discussed but there was nearly no activity regarding this. We already have an approved project, there was an expertise made, and next week we will begin renovation of the facilities.” According to Popov, the museum will be a kind of a gift for Kyiv residents for the 1,530th anniversary of Kyiv’s foundation. Will the local authorities finally make the gift they’ve been promising for the past 10 years?
MUSEUM HAD TO FUNCTION SINCE 2006
Let us begin ab ovo with the name of the museum. Obviously, it still has to be named the Sixtiers’ Movement Museum rather than the Sixtiers Museum because it has to present and promote a whole era, the phenomenon of the Sixtiers’ Movement and not individual figures, no matter how outstanding they were. NGO Museum of Sixtiers’ Movement has been involved in the same kind of activity for nearly over 20 years. During this time there were many resolutions of Kyiv City Council passed and even three presidential decrees signed about opening of the museum. But there has never been any progress: the museum practically exists only on paper. Thus, according to the resolution passed by Kyiv City Council on March 9, 2006 “On granting the permission to the Kyiv History Museum to open a branch the Museum of the Sixtiers Movement.” In fact, the museum had to be opened back in 2006.
The same year in the decree of the president of Ukraine from October 31, 2006 “On celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Ukrainian Public Group for Promoting Implementation of the Helsinki Agreements” it was stated: “Facilitate the process of opening the Museum of the Sixtiers’ Movement in Kyiv.” In the decree from August 31, 2007 “On celebrating the 70th anniversary of Viacheslav Chornovil birthday” it was said: “Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Resolve the issue of opening the Museum of the Sixtiers’ Movement in Kyiv and its branches in oblasts of Ukraine, where human rights movement was spread.” Finally, the third presidential decree from September 2, 2009 where in the second part it is clearly stated: “Take steps to complete the renovation works of the premises of the Museum of the Sixtiers’ Movement – branch of the Kyiv History Museum by December 15, 2009.” These decrees were either only partially fulfilled or not fulfilled at all. At the same time during 2008 and 2009 the authorities found a way to, for example, open museums of Partisan Glory. Thus, the question of preserving a unique collection of underground press, hundreds of paintings, great number of letters, and the library (over 6,000 books) depends on whether the authorities in the name of Popov will keep their word and will finally open the Museum of the Sixtiers’ Movement this year.
BASEMENT FOR SUBLEASE
The story with the place for the museum does not add any optimism. The head of Chief Culture Department at Kyiv City State Administration Svitlana Zorina has recently told journalists that the museum will be opened on Oles Honchar Street, 33: “This building belongs to the People’s Movement of Ukraine. The PMU assigned a certain small number of square meters so that we could open the Museum of the Sixtiers’ Movement,” said Zorina. “I think the museum will be opened by the end of this year. Certain amount of money – nearly two million hryvnias, has already been invested and we still need to invest another two million hryvnias. The premises where the museum will be located are nearly 400 square meters.”
However, according to other sources, the building where Zorina plans to open the museum is not the property of the PMU, they only rent it. The room for the Museum of the Sixtiers’ Movement of 310 square meters (somewhat less than the mentioned 400 square meters) is subleased from the PMU by the Kyiv History Museum. The interesting fact is that the term of lease of this room by the PMU will end on December 31, 2012. The local authorities plan to open the museum in there right by the end of this year. It is not hard to guess what is the probable risk of theoretical possibility of that the owner of the building would not renew the PMU lease.
After all, the place mentioned by the officials, to put it mildly, is not quite suitable for a museum: it is about 310 square meters on the ground floor that is in fact in the basement.
However, on March 26 the process of preparing the place of the museum’s location has finally moved forward.
“Only recently, they began to take out construction debris from the room where the museum is planned to be located [by the way, there is no flooring, heating, electricity, ventilation, and plumbing in this room and the ruined walls are all covered with ragged plaster. – Author], they also took special measurements, and made calculations,” said Oleksii ZARETSKY, head of NGO Museum of the Sixtiers’ Movement. “Of course, there is purely human fear that the work might stop. It’s not the first time when funds have been allocated, but before there were cases when workers would come and start doing things and then everything stopped.”
Indeed, in the end of 2007 the allotted budget funds were used approximately like this: plaster was chipped from the walls, two walls were destroyed, and the old communications were destroyed (without ever installing new ones). That was it. Funding stopped at that point because it turned out that the building which had to be renovated did not receive an approval of architectural and construction experts.
This time, according to Zaretsky, the approval of the architectural and construction expertise has been obtained, all the necessary permits have been agreed upon, and estimates have been officially made: “What we need is not just a trivial renovation but special arrangement of the space for serving as a place for a museum. The PMU is now renting these facilities out and will sublease it for the museum. At this point we are clarifying the legal status of the Museum of the Sixtiers’ Movement, which at the present time is the branch of the Kyiv History Museum. Perhaps, we would have to change the status and subordination of our museum so that later on nobody could kick us out from the Oles Honchar Street. If all the arrangements of the facilities for a place of the museum will be successful, we plan to gather all the exhibition items in one place for convenience of our visitors. The most valuable exhibits will be presented in the main exposition and the rest will be kept in the reserve. Currently the precious materials, which will be the basis for the museum, are practically stored in six different places all over the capital.”
“Today all Ukrainian intellectuals know about the allocation of funds and rejoice at the prospect of opening the museum,” said Mykola ZHULYNSKY, director of the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature at the NAS of Ukraine in his comment for The Day. “I was informed that all the necessary documents have been already approved and it seems that the work has been paid for. The authorities have publicly spoken about the museum and promised to finally open it. We really hope it will turn out just like that. However, in my opinion, in the capital of the state there should be a separate building with an exhibition hall, reading hall, venue for roundtable discussions and scientific conferences.”
It would be the case in any European country. But what concerns Ukrainian officials, their system of values is still different.
