Recording Ukraine’s contemporary history

The Dnipropetrovsk National Dmytro Yavornytsky Historical Museum is called a treasury of history and culture monuments.

It is no secret that the global community has been focusing its attention lately on the events in Ukraine. According to the staff, the museum began to receive leaflets, photographs, and memorabilia about this difficult period of our history in the very first days of Euromaidan protests. Important objects have been furnished thanks to the museum’s caring friends, including the collector and art patron Dmytro Pirkl who has been cooperating with the museum for many years. Last Wednesday Euromaidan activists solemnly handed over battle flags, the protective gear, documents and other belongings of the Maidan Self-Defense 4th Sotnia (Cossack Redoubt) to the Dmytro Yavornystky Historical Museum in Dnipropetrovsk. The objects were handed over by those who had been on Kyiv’s Maidan for many months and supported it in Dnipropetrovsk by means of local forces – to be more exact, representatives of the Dnipropetrovsk Maidan Self-Defense under the leadership of Acting Otaman Serhii Ivanchenko. As long ago as December 2, 2013, the council of the Kodak Palanka of the Zaporozhian Lower Cossack Host resolved to support the revolutionary events in Kyiv. Vladyslav Ladyhin, chairman of the foundation Kish Otaman of the Zaporozhian Lower Cossack Host Ivan Sirko Memorial, and some Cossacks went to the capital. On arriving in Kyiv, this group began to form the Maidan self-defense administrative setup in line with Zaporozhian Sich traditions. Among the objects handed over to the museum director are a blood-stained shield and the flags that underwent a test of fire on the Maidan – a Dnipropetrovsk oblast flag and the national flag of Ukraine with the inscription “Sicheslav,” which had been hoisted in the barricades.

Russian citizen Maksim Goshovsky, who had heard about the events on Kyiv’s Bankova St., could not stand aside. He took part in the Hrushevsky St. battles as part of two Cossack sotnias. Maksim gave the museum a bullet-riddled improvised shield, a metal-tipped stick by means of which the Maidan militants climbed the barricades, and leg guards. The museum has also received a helmet, brochures, and leaflets that had been given out on the Euromaidan. The donors signed the necessary documents in the presence of journalists.

According to museum director Nadia Kapustina, the staff continues to collect Euromaidan-related items and is preparing a thematic exposition on the contemporary history of Ukraine.