<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/jul/13/ukraine-in-depth-war-culture-museums-curators-historical-buildings-eastern-frontline-ilium-sviatohirsk>
"The museum of local history in the eastern Ukrainian town of Izium has, like
the community around it, endured much since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the
country.
When Izium was bitterly fought over in early 2022 at the start of the Russian
assault, the 19th-century building suffered two direct hits from missiles that
blew out the roof and led to flood damage. Under occupation from March to
September 2022, a Russian guard was posted on the door – but invaders never
transported its collection any deeper behind Russian lines, or found the rare
early 18th-century volume of the gospels – one of only three of its type – that
museum workers had spirited away and hidden.
The museum is now back in Ukrainian hands but remains in a fragile, vulnerable
state, uncomfortably close to the frontline and the threat of reoccupation. The
roof is repaired, says the director, Halyna Ivanova, but there is no point
re-glazing the windows while the city is hit night after night by missiles.
The bulk of the collection has now been safely evacuated and its precious
volume of the gospels, which was also concealed from German invaders during the
second world war when the museum and its collection were almost completely
destroyed, is being conserved after its time in hiding.
At the moment, the institution is a kind of ghost museum. Its collection is
absent; its doors are closed to the public because of the danger of attacks;
and its community, whose collective memory it holds, has shrunk to half of its
40,000 pre-invasion number.
But there is still much work to do, says Ivanova. The museum staff now run
walking tours of the city’s shattered historical buildings. They host temporary
exhibitions inside damaged rooms (“loft style”, she jokes, of the rough walls
and improvised feel), even if its visitors are now confined to local military
personnel and invited guests.
“We are trying preserve memories, to fix them,” she says. “To show people how
the city was before the war, what has happened to it – and how it looks now.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
