About the museum
The M. F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum is one of the largest museums in Ukraine with a long history, a leading cultural centre of Sloboda Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine, and the regional scientific and methodological museum centre.
In this section
The museum traces its history to the Sloboda Ukraine Museum named after Hryhorii Skovoroda, founded on 21 January 1920 through the efforts of the outstanding scholar and public figure, Academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Mykola Fedorovych Sumtsov.
Every year the museum receives more than 200,000 visitors.
The unique holdings number more than 330,000 objects.
Mission of the museum
The Kharkiv Historical Museum studies, spreads knowledge of and preserves the history of Kharkiv, Sloboda Ukraine and Ukraine.
Founded in 1920 by Academician Mykola Sumtsov, the Museum serves the public in preserving and researching tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
Guided by the highest professional standards, the Museum shares knowledge of the past with present and future generations.
The mission of the museum is to preserve, expand and promote the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people, so that the museum’s communication space is open and fruitful for personal development in the modern multicultural world, shapes a positive image of the Kharkiv region and of Ukraine as a whole on the world stage, and so that the knowledge and information gained in the museum shape the socio-cultural awareness of Ukrainian citizens for the development of the region and the state.
Main areas of the museum’s work
- research;
- exhibition work;
- cultural and educational work;
- collection management and acquisition of museum collections;
- methodological work;
- publishing;
- conservation and restoration;
- heritage protection.
The museum building
The museum building stands in the historic centre of the city (5 Universytetska Street), next to the place where Kharkiv was founded in the mid-17th century.