One Foot in History

The Kyiv National History Museum (2 Volodymyrska St.) features a new display representing the history of the third presidential elections in Ukraine. The idea of creating a museum of the revolution was first suggested by President of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy Vyacheslav Briukhovetsky, when the “orange events” were still in full swing. The tent city on Khreshchatyk, which has now wound down in anticipation of the new president’s inauguration, looks a bit like a museum exhibition, with numerous bystanders using it as a background for taking photos. On the Maidan Nezalezhnosty the tent city stands next to a tent known as the “business center,” which also claims to be a “field” museum displaying works of art, including paintings and articles made of empty plastic bottles. The entrance fee is 5 hryvnias; and 1 hryvnia for pensioners and schoolchildren.

The museum’s small collection of exhibits was brought here by the residents of the tent city on their own initiative. The “temporary workers” were unable to say anything definite about what will happen to these historic materials. The participants of the recent historic events are also donating various articles to the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, the majority of them paintings, whose quality varies within a rather broad range.

The employees of the Kyiv National History Museum are facing a somewhat different situation with respect to the collecting of artifacts. At present, the museum has no accommodations for displaying its collections, and the awaited transfer of the Ukrainian House building is still at the paperwork stage. So, the whereabouts of its employees are known only to a chosen few. However, they have already collected around 300 exhibits due to be displayed at the Ukrainian House on the “Kyiv Day” this year in May. The acting head of the museum’s “Kyiv in Modern Times” section, Anatoly Zbanatsky (incidentally, the son of renowned Ukrainian writer Yury Zbanatsky) told The Day, “Today it is difficult to determine which exhibits will be significant in terms of historical value in the future. For instance, we collected 1920s china decorated with revolutionary symbols, so-called propaganda porcelain. In terms of artistic value it was awful: it was gray in color and decorated with primitive pictures. For the people living in the times when this porcelain was being produced, these cups and dishes were virtually worthless. For us, however, their importance is defined by the amount of information that they contain about the past.

“We can’t tell now how the events of these days will be judged in the future, and which of the items we collected will be of considerable interest: T-shirts with propaganda slogans, banners, or leaflets? We can’t say whether our descendants will find them interesting.

“If a person aspires to a higher social stratum, s/he naturally seeks ways to certify his or her connection to some well-known significant events. As a result, sometimes museums are created, awards founded, and do-gooders’ movements organized. Meanwhile, the historical uniqueness of the Orange Revolution consists not in the fact that one political leader was replaced by another. This is rather about the strengthening of political culture. The people made the authorities consider them and their opinion. In fact, it is good that the authorities became scared of their people. This will teach them responsibility. All kinds of schemes are possible only when people are silent. Observers from CIS countries recorded a considerable number of violations during the Ukrainian elections. However, they don’t express their objections to the course of elections in their own countries; at least, not as loudly.

“At the same time, these events cannot be called a revolution in the literary sense of the word. What we can say is that this was a revolution in the Ukrainians’ consciousness, for what we call revolution is the norm in democratic Europe.”