The history of freedom fighting through human destinies

LVIV – The idea of opening a liberation struggle museum took shape as long back as in 1992 in Kolomyia, during the celebration of the UPA’s 70th anniversary, but took 20 years to ripen. There have been all sorts of reasons for the delay, from a lack of finance to having to fight for a building to house the museum. Until recently the museum premises has included two apartments, and the two families who lived there needed new homes, where they had to be moved. The hand-picking of exhibits was not an easy task either: a lot of them had been destroyed by the Soviets, and many artifacts had been kept by the families of former UPA fighters. However, on October 13 the Museum of Liberation Struggle, a branch of the History Museum, opened its doors to its first visitors.

Its address now is 23A Lysenko Street, in a building with a remarkable history, next to Kniazha Hora (Prince’s Hill). Originally it was used as a training center and belonged to the so-called Rooster Shooting Fraternity (Kurkove Bratstvo), a self-defense guild dating back to the 15th century. In 1868, the shooting society hall housed the constituent assembly of Prosvita, an educational and cultural association. The current building was completed in 1781.

The exhibit comprises 7,000 documents, including photographs, standard acts, and leaflets, and nearly 10,000 household objects and other artifacts (clothes, medical equipment, pictures, and typewriters). According to the Museum’s chief researcher Liubov Koval, there could be a lot more exhibits on display: the families of the former liberation movement activists keep replenishing the storerooms with new items.

The huge numbers of exhibits and the relatively small area of the museum challenged the curators, demanding an ingenious solution for the exhibition rooms. The renowned Lviv painter Orest Skop is the Museum’s chief artist. According to him, “this museum’s main mission is to fully show the face of the people, whom Ukraine does not know.” He thinks of this museum in political terms, because it reveals the history of fighters for independence.

The exposition is based on the chronological principle, unfolding from the moment of the earliest stages of the liberation movement. The first room is dedicated to the foundation and activities of Sokil and Sich associations, the rise of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (USS), the history of the USS in the Carpathians and Podillia, as well as their campaigns in Great Ukraine. Then the exposition relates about the rise of the Central Rada, the Ukrainian state under Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, the Directorate, the declaration of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR), and the hostilities in Lviv in November, 1918.

The second room contains materials about the final stage of the liberation movement: the Chortkiv offensive of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UGA), the unification of the UGA and the UNR Army, a joint march of both troops to Kyiv, and a union with Symon Petliura. There are also some miraculously surviving exhibits from the former Military History Museum: personal UGA men weapons (the saber which belonged to UGA otaman Yaroslav Voievidka and the bayonet of the sotnyk Vasyl Klym). After the liquidation of the Military History Museum by the Soviets in 1940, a part of the exhibits were placed at the just created Lviv History Museum, and the collection of documents was sent to the History Archives. In 1952, a part of the exhibits, dealing with the national liberation movement, were destroyed.

The third room reflects the rise of the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), and the developments in Carpathian Ukraine. The visitors can see Avgustyn Voloshyn’s personal belongings on display, as well as documents, photographs, and maps. A large proportion of the exposition is dedicated to the rise of the UPA: a reconstructed guerrilla hideout, personal items, weapons, and propagandist literature and materials used by the insurgents. A separate place is given to the materials on SS Galicia Division which, according to Orest Krukovsky, staff of the Liberation Struggle department at the Lviv History Museum, were first displayed by their department 10 years ago, and are now part of the new Museum’s more extensive exposition. Among the rarities is the Division military administration’s minute book, propaganda materials, and personal weapons.

The next part of the exposition reflects the Gulag period, the time of exile and repression. A reconstruction of a camp barracks displays the prisoners’ belongings and portraits, as well as a map of the camp network, showing the sites of uprisings in the 1950s and 1960s. The display is arranged in zigzags, so as to show as many exhibits as possible.

The last room, known as Heraldic Room, reflects the period of the 1970s-1990s. The main focus is on the dissident movement, the rise of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, Ukrainian National Front, and the first protest rallies. The exposition is completed with banners and territorial coat of arms of all Ukrainian lands.

The Museum makes an extensive use of multimedia presentation forms. Three displays are used to show the documentary chronicles of the 1920s-1990s. “It is hardly possible to give the exact number of all the people who were associated with the underground, but a lot must be shown to the public,” says Koval. “We have shown the mass character of the underground movement, as well as its individual participants. The displays will show photographs which were not included in the exposition, and the surviving documentaries.” The museum employees were able to collect oral historical evidence, and witness’ memories will also be broadcast in the museum rooms.

It should be mentioned that the museum might have never come in existence, had it not been for the effort of the insurgents’ families and friends. Here the liberation history is shown through the perspective of individual people’s biographies and fates. There were men who first fought as Sich Riflemen, then joined the Ukrainian Galician Army, later the UPA, and eventually ended up in prison camps. Meanwhile, their families and descendants preserved memories about them. Today, these memories are part of the museum’s exposition.

Oleksandra Vovk shows an aluminum spoon, one of the exhibits on the display. Her father, Volodymyr Vovk, was exiled to Karaganda. The spoon carries his initials, VV, and the date, 1953. Ms. Vovk presented the museum with this spoon, a horsehair bracelet, and a piece of Easter-themed embroidery, made by her father in the camp. She said that she finds it important that the memory of her father be preserved in this particular way – at a museum. Visitor Natalia Kyrchiv argues that such artifacts are extremely touching: “The exposition is made in a very nice, up-to-date and touching manner. Especially striking are the minute embroidered ‘postcards.’ The composition of the display is very artful, the color scheme is harmonious. I hope that there will be history teachers who, despite the curriculum imposed on schools today, will bring children here and show them the true history.”

A lot of curiosities have so far remained obscure, due to the lack of room on permanent display. The museum staff promised to include these and all new items in the update displays. So, the museum’s active life is only beginning.