This is the first exhibit of such format, where except for the illustrations, real artifacts of today’s war in the east of our country are on display: helmets, personal armor, cartridges, cannon shells, which were brought to the museum from freed Sloviansk.
It will be reminded that the regular exposition of the museum commemorates the heroic deed of the soldiers who were killed in the operation of liberation of Kyiv in November 1943. While presenting a new project, the head of the museum Ivan Vikovan emphasized on the importance of military-patriotic upbringing, glorification, and support of the Ukrainian servicemen in the east. Incidentally, in Novi Petrivtsi (Kyiv oblast), where the museum is located, there is also a training base of the National Guard of Ukraine. Captain Serhii Sidorin, who was wounded in the battles for Sloviansk and awarded with the Order for Courage of 3rd degree, was among the National Guard servicemen invited to the vernissage.
“Moral support is not enough at the frontline,” Sidorin considers, “At the checkpoint we received postcards, letters, and children’s drawings, and this was very moving. Children prepared a greeting to the ‘warrior of the National Guard,’ ‘soldier of the Ukrainian Army,’ painted the peaceful sky, military equipment, they wished us to return, that we are waited for. Such moments were the most touching for everyone. Near a crashed car we organized an exhibit: we pinned all the works there, and everyone in his free time went to look at the paintings, and it gladdened our hearts, and we came back and continued to fulfill our military duty.”
The items of the exhibit are based on the idea of psychological encouragement. For example, posters with the images of women in uniform and national symbolic were developed by photographer Kateryna Kriuchkova.
“We took as the basis the idea of pin-up in support of the soldiers during the World War II, but as the American pin-up seemed too revealing, the models were dressed in Ukrainian army uniform, Kriuchkova told The Day. “We are also looking for poems of young Ukrainian poets to add them to the photos. Incidentally, our posters were transferred to the ATO area with 10,000 copies. Hopefully, the servicemen are pleased with our initiative. At the moment we are working on a social project of series of photos of children from the ATO area. These are children from orphanages, those who were adopted, and usual schoolchildren.”
Interesting posters were created by artist Yurii Neroslik, who today is in the area of military actions in the ranks of the National Guard. On the background of yellow-and-blue flags the visitors of the exhibit can see the slogans: “Our fight continues,” “Glory to the heroes!”, “I am honored to fight for Ukraine,” “Ukraine has a future.” They all are aimed to support morally not only the servicemen, but also the peaceful population from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which is now misguided.
“Our main task is to raise the morale,” Viktor Tryhub, the organizer of the exhibit said, “The servicemen say that they need good propaganda materials which will help them in the struggle in the east of Ukraine. For this moment 15 sets of placards have been made which can be seen at the exhibit. They will go to the 1st Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, some military enlistment offices, and museums. At the moment we are planning to give several sets of the placards to the museums of the liberated towns and are negotiating with Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Horlivka on creation and supply of the exhibition materials, so that they could be added to the exposition.”
Exhibiting of such posters in the museums of the freed towns will help to establish a dialog with the population, which has gone through war on its territory and remained for a long time in the information vacuum of the Russian propaganda.
The exhibit “Ukraine is more than life!” also aims at drawing the attention of other Ukrainian museums and creation of joint projects dedicated to ATO servicemen, commemoration and honoring of the killed.
