By V.E.K.Madhushani, Jadetimes News
Cultural Revival Initiatives in War Torn Regions
Late at night on 7 May 2022, a Russian missile struck a museum dedicated to Ukraine’s 18th century poet and philosopher, Hryhory Skovoroda. "The roof was completely blown off, the walls are burnt, and only Skovoroda's statue survived. It's a miracle that it did," says Nastya Ishchenko, the museum's deputy director in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.
This museum is just one of the 432 cultural sites damaged since the start of the full scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to UNESCO. The destruction of cultural landmarks has not only distanced Ukrainians from the Russian dominated cultural space they once shared under Soviet rule, but it has also sparked a renewed hunger for their own cultural heritage. This resurgence has been described as a “Ukrainian cultural boom.”
The extensive damage includes 139 religious sites, 214 buildings of historical or artistic significance, 31 museums, 32 monuments, 15 libraries, and one archive. The management at the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Museum had anticipated the possibility of an attack and evacuated most of its valuable artifacts to a safer location. The museum, however, had no military significance.
In Russian occupied areas of Ukraine, museums have faced the additional threat of looting. The full extent of this plundering became clear in the final days of the occupation of the southern city of Kherson, where entire truckloads of artworks and historical artifacts were removed by Russian forces, ostensibly for "safekeeping." The Kherson Art Museum has identified 120 artworks taken to Crimea, another occupied part of Ukraine, though the total number of artifacts lost exceeds 10,000.
In some occupied regions, Russian forces have altered museum exhibits for propaganda purposes. For instance, an exhibition on Ukraine's modern history in Berdyansk was replaced with one glorifying the "special military operation" the Kremlin's official term for the war against Ukraine.
In May of last year, another facet of modern Ukrainian culture came under attack when the Faktor Druk printing house in Kharkiv was destroyed. This facility was used by nearly all Ukrainian book publishers. The attack, which killed seven people and destroyed 50,000 books, was widely viewed as a targeted strike.
While some cultural buildings have been incidentally damaged due to their proximity to other targets, the deliberate destruction of sites like Faktor Druk has led to a decline in societal morale. The loss of cultural landmarks in Ukraine has strained the nation’s social fabric, which is vital for the cohesion and resilience of communities during wartime. According to the head of UNESCO’s office in Ukraine, communities recognize the importance of their cultural centers and seek to preserve them as a means of healing trauma.
Ukraine's acting culture minister, Rostyslav Karandeyev, believes that Russia is deliberately targeting the country’s spiritual and historical symbols not just military and critical infrastructure, but also the elements that affirm Ukrainian identity and statehood. Russian forces have reportedly been removing and destroying Ukrainian books from schools and libraries in occupied areas.
Amidst the devastation, there is also a renewed appreciation for Ukrainian culture. "It's like in a relationship: to understand what you've lost, it has to be taken away," says Nastya Ishchenko. "We're uniting not around aggression or anger, but around cultural values which each of us will hand down to future generations. It gives us a ray of light."
This cultural renaissance has been marked by the emergence of new bands, performers, and writers, as well as the premiere of new plays and sold out theaters. Volunteers across Ukraine have not only provided essential supplies like clothing and medicines but also musical instruments. "Children said that music helped them emotionally; it took them to a place where they don't hear bombs or sirens. It helps them enormously," says UK-based musician Irina Gould. For many, music has become the best medicine, offering a temporary escape from the harsh realities of war and a way to experience beauty and happiness.
