In February and March the audiences of Macedonia, Serbia, and Croatia will see a series of authorial photo exhibits by the Ukrainian journalist, The Day’s special reporter Mykola KHRIIENKO. The series is called “Ukrainians Abroad: Beyond the Urals.” A total of 112 photographs out of 12,000 shots taken in the course of the project “Ukrainians beyond the Urals” (by the way, Khriienko covered 118,000 kilometers finding out about the life of the Ukrainian Diaspora in remote areas of Russia) will be displayed in Belgrade, Skopje, and Zagreb. The photo exhibit is dedicated to Unification Day, since in January Ukraine celebrated the 49th anniversary of the Unification Act of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Ukrainian People’s Republic.
“Thus we create a kind of information bridge between our fellow Ukrainians beyond the Urals and the Ukrainian emigrants in the Balkans,” said Khriienko about the new project and its mission. “In a way, this is a celebration of the Unification of the Ukrainian Diaspora.”
The project was initiated by the Ukrainian embassies in the capitals of the Balkan countries. This initiative looks quite logical, since the Ukrainian Diaspora in the Balkans is one of the most ancient, albeit one of the least researched. It began to take shape back in the mid-18th century. For instance, in Croatia there are compact ethnic Ukrainian areas. Thus, alongside with the presentation of the photo exhibit “Ukrainians beyond the Urals,” Khriienko will start a pilot project “Ukrainians in the Balkans.” First, Ukrainians will meet Ukrainians in Skopje, where the photo exhibit “Ukrainians Abroad: Beyond the Urals” will be on display for two weeks.
