Ukrainians regain interest in culture

Late at night on May 7, 2022, a Russian missile hit a museum that was once the home of Hryhory Skovoroda, the 18th-century Ukrainian poet and philosopher.

Nastya Ishchenko, deputy director of the Kharkiv Regional Museum in northeastern Ukraine, said: “The roof was completely blown off, the walls were burned, and only the statue of Skvoroda survived. It’s really A miracle.

It is one of 432 cultural sites damaged in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, according to the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO.

The destruction of so much culture not only alienated Ukrainians from the Russian-dominated cultural space they had shared for decades under Soviet rule.

It also awakened people’s desire for their own culture, with one daily describing it as a “Ukrainian cultural boom”.

A total of 139 religious sites, 214 historical or artistic buildings, 31 museums, 32 monuments, 15 libraries and 1 archive were attacked.

Managers at the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Museum knew it could come under attack, and most of its valuable artifacts have been evacuated to safer locations.

There were no other potential targets near the museum, so the Ukrainians believed it was bombed only because of its cultural importance.

Ukrainian museums in Russian-occupied areas face a very different problem. The full-scale looting by Russian troops came to light only in the final days of their capture of the southern city of Kherson.

Truckloads of art and historical artifacts were removed by the Russians – ostensibly for “safekeeping.”

The Kherson Art Museum said it had identified 120 works of art destined for Crimea, another occupied region of Ukraine. But the total number of cultural relics lost in the museum has exceeded 10,000.

In some museums in occupied Ukraine, the Russians dismantled exhibits for propaganda purposes. For example, an exhibition on modern Ukrainian history in Berdyansk has been replaced by an exhibition glorifying “Special Military Operations” (the Kremlin’s official name for its war in Ukraine).

Last May, another aspect of modern Ukrainian culture came under attack with the destruction of the Faktor Druk printing house in Kharkiv, used by nearly all Ukrainian book publishers.

Although the Faktor Druk attack, which killed seven people and destroyed 50,000 books, was widely viewed as a targeted attack, not all cultural buildings were deliberately targeted.

Other buildings were also attacked because they were located near other buildings or were unavailable to Ukrainian officials or forces.

One publisher said the destruction of Faktor Druk’s books had led to a decline in social morale. The disappearance of many cultural sites in Ukraine has put its social fabric under pressure.

Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, head of the UNESCO office in Ukraine, said they were crucial for the cohesion and resilience of communities in times of war.

“What I see is that communities really need culture and cultural centres. They recognize the importance of culture to the community and that culture is needed to build resilience. Culture is very important in healing trauma,” she told the BBC.

Acting Minister of Culture of Ukraine Rostislav Karandeev believes that Russia deliberately targets the country’s spiritual and historical symbols: “Not only military targets and critical infrastructure, but anything that allows Ukrainians to talk about their identity and statehood.” thing.

As part of this policy, Russian troops have been removing and destroying Ukrainian books from schools and libraries in occupied areas, he told the BBC.

But amid all the pessimism, Nastya Ishchenko of the Skvoroda Museum believes Ukrainians are also starting to take things threatened by a Russian invasion more seriously.

“It’s like being in a relationship: To understand what you’ve lost, you have to take it away,” she said. “We are not united around aggression or anger, but around cultural values ​​that each of us will pass on to future generations. It gives us a ray of light.”

Den newspapers described performances by bands, performers and writers, new plays premiered, and theaters were packed.

Numerous volunteers in Ukraine not only provided important supplies and clothing and medicine, but also musical instruments.

British musician Irina Gould told BBC podcast Ukrainecast, “Children said the music helped them emotionally and brought them to a place where they couldn’t hear the bombs. Or where sirens sound.

“For them, this is the best medicine, allowing them to escape reality and live in a world of beauty and happiness.”