The Russians put up a new sign without mentioning Lesia Ukrainka. Photo: Voice of Crimea
The Lesia Ukrainka Museum in Yalta, in the temporarily occupied Crimea, has ceased to exist. (Lesia Ukrainka was a prominent Ukrainian writer, poet and activist – editor’s note)
Source: As “Voice of Crimea” reports, its correspondents found this out during an inspection of the cultural institutions of the occupied peninsula.
Details: On the building that housed the museum, there is a Soviet-era security plaque commemorating the Ukrainian writer’s stay here in the late 19th century, but the Russian leadership removed all other references to Lesia Ukrainka.
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The sign in front of the entrance to the building, which indicated that the second floor housed the Lesia Ukrainka Museum and the Lomykamin exhibition associated with her stay in Yalta, has disappeared. Now a new sign has been installed in this place: it says that under the auspices of the Yalta History and Literature Museum, an exhibition “Yalta. 19th century (history, music and literature)” and an exhibition dedicated to the architect Nikolai Krasnov are open.
Lesia Ukrainka is mentioned on the “occupation sign” next to the building.
Photo: Voice of Crimea
Currently, four exhibitions are open to visitors: the history of the building and Yalta, the musical life of Yalta at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the literary life of Yalta and the architect Krasnov, to whom a separate hall is dedicated.
From the exhibition dedicated to Lesia Ukrainka, only small photographs have survived, interspersed with photos of the Russian writers and poets Pushkin, Tolstoy and Tsvetaeva, as well as the desk at which the Ukrainian writer worked.
The Lesia Ukrainka monument in front of the museum building.
Photo: krim.biz.ua
Olha KuryshkoDeputy Permanent Representative of the President to the Republic of Crimea, told Suspilne Crimea that the Russians had rebuilt the Lesia Ukrainka Museum and changed the format of the exhibition.
Quote: “In 2015, the museum was renamed the Yalta Historical Museum. It was no longer mentioned that it was a Lesia Ukrainka Museum. Then it was closed for a very long time, as if it was going to be renovated. And now it has recently been reopened, already under a different name, reconstructed, without the exhibitions that were there before,” Kuryshko said.
Exhibition in the museum before the Russian occupation.
Photo: VS Biletskyi
She said the current location of exhibits related to the Ukrainian poet is unknown.
Quote: “There is no information about where the exhibition is now. It could have been archived somewhere, or at least we hope so. So far there is unconfirmed information about partial destruction. But the occupying state seems to be leaning towards this. That is, they will either move the exhibition somewhere else or destroy it,” Kuryshko said.
Bust of Lesia Ukrainka in the Yaltan Museum.
Photo: VS Biletskyi
How the Russians are destroying Crimea’s museums
The conversion of the Lesia Ukrainka Museum in Yalta is not the only example of the destruction of cultural institutions by representatives of the Russian authorities.
In June it became known that the Russians had completely destroyed the Tauride Chersonese, an authentic monument of world importance in Crimea. A new open-air theater was built at the excavation site. Some archaeological finds were transferred to Russian museums.
A month later, in July, the “inauguration” of a new building took place – a theater built on the site of an authentic landmark.
Last year, the Russians announced plans to open a men’s monastery in the territory of the Tauride Chersonese and to create a complex of artificial reservoirs there.
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