Busting the Soviet myth

At the city’s community center the exposition was presented by Jean de Lannoy, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Belgium to Ukraine; Dmytro Pirkl, owner of archive documents and philanthropist; and Leonid Marushchak, arts curator at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center. The exhibit consists of a collection of historical photos, bills of exchange, contracts, and other documents which bust the Soviet myth of the industrialization of eastern Ukraine as the achievement of the USSR alone.

“In the Soviet time everything was done to prevent the general public from seeing the documents proving that the industrialization of Ukraine’s east and south had begun long before the Soviet Union came into existence,” remarks Marushchak. “I would like to commend Dmytro Pirkl, who found those documents and handed them over to the museum: even the Dmytro Yavornytsky National Museum in Dnipropetrovsk does not have any evidence to prove that those plants were actually built by Europeans in the late 19th century.”

The first part of the exhibit shows the Belgian contribution to the creation of Ukrainian urban infrastructure. In particular, Belgian stock holders invested massively in the construction of machine-building, metal-processing and mechanical plants, mining equipment, the construction of roads and tram tracks and the like. For example, a firm belonging to the respectable Chaudoir brothers from Liege, became the pioneer in manufacture. In 1890 the Chaudoirs founded three plants to produce metal pipes for oil and gas industry. In total, in the early 20th century dozens of German, British, French and other joint-stock companies were operating in the cities and towns of eastern Ukraine. The masterminds of the exhibit intend to reveal those countries’ contribution in the subsequent parts of their project. By means of historical documents, the authors of the exhibit prove that Donbas has had old and close economic ties to Europe, despite the imposed Soviet stereotype about Donbas as a Russian territory, saved from the dreadful capitalist West.

“This exhibit reveals a new dynamics in Ukraine’s development… We are seeing more and more Ukrainians who are eager to learn their common history with other European countries and cultures,” says de Lannoy. “In the framework of the exhibit we emphasize that back then Belgium was one of the leaders in factory construction. But Belgium was also a country which was one of the first to start exporting its expertise abroad. Today I am representing the European Union at the EU Days in Ukraine. We see a great exhibition dedicated to our thrilling past. Yet the main thing is that we are speaking about our common present. Ukraine has a long way to go and lots of tasks to carry out transformations in culture and the rule of law. I hope that many will see this exposition, and it will inspire them for new achievements.”