Museum of the liberation struggle Ukraine

About

The Museum of the Struggle for Liberation of Ukraine was a Ukrainian museum of diplomatic documents from the times of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian State (1917–1921). It existed from May 1925 to 1948 in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

The museum was created in May 1925 by the efforts of famous Ukrainian diplomats: Dmytro Antonovych (former head of the UNR mission in Rome), Dmytro Doroshenko (Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian State), Stepan Smal-Stotsky ( West Ukrainian People's Republic ambassador to Czechoslovakia) and Andrii Yakovliv (Director of the Foreign Affairs Department liaison officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of the UNR diplomatic mission in Belgium and the Netherlands).

Czechoslovakia was one of the centres of Ukrainian emigration in Western Europe after the defeat of the struggle for liberation of Ukrainian people during 1917–1921. Prague hosted a large number of Ukrainian scientific societies, research institutions, and various nongovernmental organizations: the Ukrainian Historical and Philological Society in Prague, Ukrainian Law Society in Prague, Ukrainian Society of Book Admirers in Prague, Ukrainian Pedagogical Society in Prague and others. As a result, geographical proximity to Ukraine, a great number of the autochthonous Ukrainian population, liberal policy of the authorities concerning Ukrainian emigrants became a major premise for the significant concentration of the Ukrainian political and scientific elite and its active national life in Czechoslovakia. One of the results of this activity was the creation of the Society «Museum of the Ukrainian Liberation Struggle». The reason for the creation of the Society was the idea of establishing a museum with the same name. On January 16, 1925, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia with the support of Tomáš Masaryk approved the statute of the «Museum of the Ukrainian Liberation Struggle» Society, whose task was defined as «the scientific study of everything that touches upon the struggle for liberation by collecting, hiding, and describing all the items and materials related to these goals to enable the realization of the scientific work on their basis». To achieve this goal, the Society had to organize and maintain a museum and archive, where it was planned to collect the reminder signs of the Ukrainian struggle for liberation — books, magazines, pictures, military clothing, weapons, and documentary materials of historical and scientific value. Moreover, it was foreseen to organize exhibitions, promote scientific elaboration and investigation of the reminder signs, organize academic and popular readings, and publish catalogues, magazines, books, and reproductions.

The first general meeting of the Society was held on May 28, 1925. The Board was elected and composed of Academician Ivan Horbachevsky (the chairman of the Society), professor Lototskyy (deputy chairman), and other members: M. Omelyanovych-Pavlenko, A. Kolessa, V. Bidnov, V. Starosolskyy, M. Korduba and others. Therefore, the Board of the Society consisted of prominent figures of science and culture, and this fact greatly enhanced the status of the Society and made a positive impact on the elaboration of the principles of its work.

From the very first days, the Society launched the active work of the establishment of the museum, where it would be possible to keep all the historical documents related to the history of the struggle for the liberation of the Ukrainian people. The museum was inaugurated in May 1925; Professor Dmytro Antonovych became its director. The creation of the Museum of the Ukrainian Liberation Struggle united everyone who was fighting for the ideals of the state and defended them, as well as those, who were to come afterwards and find the documents of the true story. Each founder could consider himself to be a patriot and a representative of the supreme idea of the state.

The active process of completing its collection started right after the founding of the Museum. As it was stated in the document:

«There was not a single day that Section 4. History 36 the museum did not receive new materials, sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes they were brought by carts or trolleys…»

In April 1926 the Society faced the problem of closing the museum. Czech authorities insisted that the building allocated to the museum had to be vacated and all the documents had to be passed to the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia. At the meeting of June 17, 1929, the Board of the Society decided:

«Until the Society still has its strength to hold an independent work, it should conduct it on its authority, enjoying the confidence of the citizens, who many times donated all their treasures to the museum for free just to preserve them, very often converting those into a gift to the museum».

As a result of the meeting, the Society assumed responsibility for finding a building for the museum and carrying out its activity without any help from the authorities.

In this situation, an American businessman of Ukrainian descent Lysyuk assisted. He visited Prague on his own business in 1929. He was surprised by the number of documents and understood their importance for the history of Ukraine. When he became acquainted with the nature of the collected materials and, concurrently, with the poor financial condition of the Museum, Lysyuk agreed to finance it. The maintenance of the Museum at the time cost about 350 dollars annually. This regular financial support helped encourage the activity carried out by the society and museum.

The Museum of the Struggle for Liberation of Ukraine Society declared a national holiday of the reunion of Ukrainian lands — January 22 — as a Day of the Museum of the Ukrainian Liberation Struggle at the general meeting on June 27, 1933. Addressing the Ukrainians on the occasion of the creation of this holiday, Professor Ivan Horbachevsky wrote:

- «The day of the holiday of the proclamation of two major historical acts — of January 22, 1918, and January 22, 1919 — is the day of the MULS. Let on this day every Ukrainian male and female serve the national Ukrainian cause by donating according to their abilities …By doing this work Ukrainian citizens will do their best to guarantee the existence of the Museum, whose collections not only prove the evidence of the difficult path passed by the Ukrainian people but also call them for the further struggle for independence of Ukraine. Let us all fully execute this duty as a respect to the memory of unforgettable fighters for the freedom and independence of Ukraine».

Therefore, according to the documents, the main goal of the Society and its members was to preserve the idea of Ukrainian statehood and national unity. All the leaflets with such appeals were sent to various institutions and organizations, uniting in this way a great circle of like-minded people and fighters for independence.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday anniversary On April 21, 1934, the Museum of the Struggle for Liberation of Ukraine library was named after its most outstanding patron Professor Ivan Horbachevsky. In 1935 the Board of the Society solemnly celebrated its tenth anniversary by organizing a jubilee exhibition in the center of Prague — at the Industrial Museum with the Ukrainian yellow-blue flag wavering on its roof. The exhibition presented photographs of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen 's life, works of Ukrainians, captured during the First World War, as well as many other showpieces. The Solemn Academy on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Museum of the Struggle for Liberation of Ukraine was held at the Great Hall of the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University in the presence of the representatives of 35 Ukrainian institutions and organizations.

At the general meeting of the Museum of the Struggle for Liberation of Ukraine Society on June 9, 1927, Vladimir Starosolsky, Professor of State Law at UVU and the Ukrainian Academy of Commerce in Poděbrady, proposed the idea of constructing a separate building for the Museum. This proposal passed to an active phase at the general meeting of the Society on October 7, 1932, when Ukrainian philanthropist Jacob Makogin agreed to cover half of the cost of its construction. Subsequently, it was decided to build a whole complex — a Ukrainian house, with the Museum having to become a part of it. A lot of Ukrainians send their donations to Prague responding to the call of the board of the Society. The greatest contribution was made by the Ukrainian Bureau in London, which was headed by Makogin and Kysilewskyj.

The announcement about the creation of the Ukrainian house and calls for financial donations for the construction of the building were published in almost every Ukrainian emigrant newspaper. These appeals often contained calls for unity and the creation of an independent Ukrainian state.

However, the construction of a new house the Ukrainian House could be delayed for many years, while the storage of the Museum's funds was urgent. In 1937, the society decided not to build, but to buy a finished house for the Museum. The main initiators of buying a house for the museum were Dmytro and Stepan Smal-Stocki. On March 16, 1938, the Board of the Museum Society bought a three-storey building on 6 Horymírova Street in the Nusle district. During 1938– 1939 it was reconstructed for the museum. A new exhibition at the Museum in the new building was inaugurated on June 29, 1939

In 1939, after the collapse of Czechoslovakia as a result of the Treaty of Munich and the proclamation of the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Nazi German authorities abolished all public organizations in the occupied territories, including the Society of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, Antonovych, Narizny and others managed to convince the protectorate authorities that the Museum of the Struggle for Liberation of Ukraine Society has never been involved and does not plan to engage in politics. On July 6, 1940, the occupying authorities approved the charter of the MVBU Society and allowed it to resume operations. In 1940 there was a celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Museum. The society decided to celebrate this anniversary not with loud speeches and toasts, but with a series of eight thematic exhibitions on museum materials. Almost every exhibition was arranged in a large exhibition hall and five smaller rooms in the new building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The most significant was the exhibition of the 100th anniversary of the publication of "Kobzar" by Taras Shevchenko, arranged from the materials of the Shevchenko department of the Museum in the summer of 1940. Further exhibitions were devoted to the following topics: Ukrainian periodicals, Ukrainian calendars, Ukrainian publications in Asia, Statutes and regulations of Ukrainian institutions and organizations, Attractions of the Ukrainian Academic Community in Prague, Ukrainian klepsiders and other funeral messages, Postal cards of Ukrainian institutions.

The museum was constantly under the supervision of the German Gestapo, with several searches taking place, and in 1943, the director of the Museum, Dmytro Antonovych was arrested. The war completely severed the Museum's ties with the United States, Canada, and Britain, where its main financial base was located. Instead, several scholars from Ukraine came to Prague and allowed the Museum to distribute footage of its permanent staff to museum specialists. Professors Vladimir Miyakovsky and Lev Okinshevich came from Eastern Ukraine. Professor Vladimir Doroshenko also arrived in Prague. They all became long-term scientific collaborators of the Museum and Society.