Photographs

The photo documents collection is one of the largest in the museum’s holdings and numbers about 90,000 items. The pride of the collection is the many original works of the Kharkiv art photographers Oleksii Mykhailovych Ivanytskyi, Vasyl Serhiiovych Dosiekin, Alfred Kostiantynovych Fedetskyi and others. The earliest photograph in the collection is the portrait of Nadiia Slatina (1869), taken in the photographic studio of Julius Karlovych Bildt. A large body of photographic material belongs to the period of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War. Of particular value are photographs by the war photo-correspondents Yakiv Illich Riumkin and Heorhii Samsonov. A significant part of the collection consists of complexes of photo documents of outstanding people of Kharkiv region: Mykola Fedorovych Sumtsov, Oleksii Mykolaiovych Beketov, Mykola Pavlovych Barabashov, Khrystyna Danylivna Alchevska, Ivan Oleksandrovych Marianenko, Vasyl Yakovych Yuriev and others.

On the basis of a quantitative and qualitative analysis, the collection of photo documents can conventionally be divided into several groups: 1) photo documents of the pre-Soviet period, 2) photographs of 1917–1940, 3) photographs of the Second World War and its component, the Great Patriotic War, 4) photo documents of the post-war years and the period of rebuilding Soviet society, and 5) photographs of the period of Ukraine’s independence, from 1991 to the present.

The most interesting and valuable photo documents in the collection are those of the late 19th and early 20th century, when Kharkiv became a major social, political, economic and cultural centre of Ukraine and of the whole Russian Empire. These are photographs illustrating noble and peasant life, the development of industry, trade, banking, culture and education.

The pride of the collection is the many original works of Kharkiv art photographers (320 items). These photographs are distinguished by clarity of image, high quality, original mounts and photographic value. The earliest photograph in the collection is the portrait of the Kharkiv woman Nadiia Slatina (1869), taken in the photographic studio of Yu. K. Bildt.

The collection presents photographs by 33 local photographers of those times. Among them are O. M. Ivanytskyi, V. S. Dosiekin, Yu. Ye. Glentzner, A. Zanardi, A. Fedetskyi, M. Ya. Leshchynskyi and others. These photographers were visited by such outstanding people of Kharkiv as the ophthalmologist L. L. Hirshman, the physiologist V. Ya. Danylevskyi, the surgeon M. P. Trinkler, the ethnographer M. F. Sumtsov, the architect O. M. Beketov, the singer I. O. Alchevskyi, the artist Ye. H. Voloshynov and the actress Ye. P. Kadmina, as well as well-known figures of Russian culture, the writer A. P. Chekhov and the composer P. I. Tchaikovsky.

Photographs showing representatives of various strata of the population also deserve attention: pupils, students, peasants, workers, office employees, merchants, military men and representatives of the Church. Photographs of the wreck of the imperial train near Borky station in 1888 (by O. M. Ivanytskyi) arouse interest.

Also interesting in this group are photographs of old Kharkiv, namely Mykolaiv Square, St Nicholas Church, Katerynoslav, Sumska and Universytetska streets, the Annunciation Market, the railway station, the church at Saburova Dacha, Rybna Street and the power station during the flood, and many others.

A fairly large (2,174 items) selection of photographs of the Kharkiv Gendarmerie Administration belongs to this period. They show residents of our city who engaged in revolutionary activity and were for that reason on the register of the security department. The photographs are pasted on cards with information about each person, even including their anthropometric measurements.

Photographs from the history of the First World War can also be singled out in this group.

The photographs of the second group record many notable events that became turning points in the history of the country. Thanks to photojournalism, which developed in this period, the stormy events of 1917 were captured: the February Revolution and the October coup, the Civil War and the first years of Soviet power in Ukraine, in particular in Kharkiv. The museum’s collection has a small number of photographs on this subject. The most interesting are the first days of the February Revolution in Kharkiv, the headquarters and a detachment of Makhno’s men, participants of the underground during the Denikin period, victims of Denikin’s troops, the entry of the Red Army into Kharkiv in 1919, and the Red Army’s military operations at the fronts.

But the greater part of this collection consists of photographs of participants in the revolutionary events of 1917 in Kharkiv, participants in the Civil War, and outstanding political figures of that period: F. A. Serhieiev (Artem), S. I. Pokko, B. P. Zhadanovskyi, P. A. Kin, K. Y. Kirkizh, M. O. Rudnev, O. H. Skorokhod, I. H. Petrovskyi and others. And these are not single photographs but whole complexes that illustrate their life path and their public and political activity.

In those times the mass media also carried out large-scale propaganda of the Soviet way of life and of the achievements of Soviet science and technology. Landscape and portrait photography were pushed into the background. Therefore the photographs of this period show party congresses, rallies of workers, meetings of leading production workers, the opening of new enterprises, popular festivals, the exploits of pilots, sports competitions, military training and the daily life of Red Army soldiers. The images of the worker of the industrialisation period and the collective farmer of the collectivisation period became the main ones, and finally, in the 1930s–1940s, the cult of the leader became dominant. In the museum’s photographs of this period we see the building of the KhTZ and the first samples of its production, the reconstruction of many Kharkiv enterprises, the building of Dzerzhynskyi Square (now Freedom Square) and of Derzhprom, the unveiling of the monument to T. H. Shevchenko, production processes, shock brigades, rallies of Stakhanovites, party meetings and conferences, festive demonstrations and so on. Among personal photographs, portraits of the leaders, V. I. Lenin and J. V. Stalin, predominate.

The photographic art of this period was very politicised and gradually turned into an instrument for manipulating the masses, so the images in photographs did not always correspond to reality. Thus, in the terrible years of famine in Ukraine, the photographs show us fields sown with wheat, the gathering of a rich harvest, happy faces of collective farmers and abundance in peasant homes.

The collection also has photographs illustrating happy pre-war childhood and the development of secondary and higher education.

A large body of photographic material belongs to the period of the Second World War. The museum’s photo documents cover almost all the significant events of this period: the beginning of the war, combat operations in all directions, the period of the city’s occupation, the actions of the underground and partisan detachments, and the liberation of settlements of our country and of the countries of Europe.

The museum has a great many personal portraits of Kharkiv residents who fought at the fronts, in partisan detachments and in the underground. They make up a significant part of the collection. Among them are photographs of the twice Heroes of the Soviet Union Z. K. Sliusarenko and A. K. Nedbailo, Heroes of the Soviet Union V. P. Myroshnychenko, V. V. Isaiev, K. M. Kuriachyi and P. M. Shyronin, underground fighters O. H. Zubariev, O. M. Shcherbak and I. I. Bakulin, commanders of partisan detachments I. H. Bilokon, Ya. A. Brekhunets and O. P. Kamyshan, and others.

Interesting is the layer of photo documents that tell of the life of Kharkiv during the occupation of 1941–1943. Among them are pictures showing the destroyed city: the buildings of the KhTZ, of the “Svitlo Shakhtaria” and “Serp i Molot” plants, of the university, of Derzhprom, of the Korolenko Library, of the railway station, and city streets and residential buildings.

In addition, the museum keeps photographs of buildings that were not rebuilt after the war. These are the world’s first Palace of Pioneers, the Hotel “Chervonyi”, the Passage, the South Station and the building of the first medical institute.

Of particular military-historical and artistic value are photographs by the war photo-correspondents who during the four years of war recorded everything that happened at the fronts and in the rear. The museum keeps original author’s photographs by two well-known war photo-correspondents: Ya. Riumkin (48 items) and H. Samsonov (6 items). They show the everyday life of Kharkiv residents in the first days after the city’s liberation from the German fascist invaders and individual episodes of the military events in Western Europe.

In the second half of the 1940s and the 1950s, after the hardships of the war, the rebuilding of the national economy began. This very theme came to prevail in the domestic photographic art of this period and is represented in the collection by pictures devoted to the restoration of the KhTZ, the KhPZ, the “Serp i Molot” plant, Electrical Installation Products Plant No. 1, the “Svitlo Shakhtaria” plant, collective and state farms, and the building of transport networks. The revival of the economy in those times was mostly helped by the permanent mobilisation and propaganda measures carried out by the government of the time, namely “socialist competition” and various kinds of “movements of leading workers and innovators of production”. In agriculture, for example, the examples of “leading workers” (chairmen of collective farms, brigade leaders, team leaders, milkmaids and others) were widely used to prove the advantages of the collective-farm system. The same happened in industry.

It is therefore no accident that a significant part of the museum’s collection of photographs of those times consists of portraits of the best workers and brigades of industrial enterprises, leading collective farmers, participants in the development of virgin lands and Heroes of Socialist Labour.

Not the least place among the photo documents of the first post-war years is also taken by photographs reflecting the development of culture, science, education and sport and showing the everyday life of the Soviet people.

Photographs of the period of rebuilding Soviet society (almost 30% of the whole of the museum’s collection of photo documents) cover a fairly long stretch of time, almost three decades, and differ in the variety of their subjects, which characterise all spheres of the country’s life: economic, social and political, ideological, cultural and so on.

A significant event in the life of the country and, in general, of the whole world was the exploration of outer space. The museum collection has interesting and varied photographs that illustrate this theme.

Most of the photographs show the history of the development of Kharkiv and the region, notable events in the life of the city, the activity of industrial enterprises, medical and educational institutions, collective and state farms, cultural institutions and social and political organisations.

The holdings include portraits of leading production workers, veterans of labour, of the party and of the Komsomol, participants of the Great Patriotic War and distinguished residents of the city. Among them are the brigade leaders V. S. Plakhotin and M. K. Saulov, the Doctor of Medical Sciences L. T. Mala, the collective-farm chairman H. S. Mohylchenko, the team leader K. H. Tverdokhlib, the Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR B. O. Shubenko-Shubin, the sculptor M. F. Ovsiankin and the plant breeder V. Ya. Yuriev, among others.

Many photographs are devoted to strengthening international ties between countries and twin cities and to the struggle for peace; they show conferences and international festivals, exchanges of delegations, the signing of agreements between enterprises, and solemn events involving foreign citizens (friendship evenings, meeting evenings and so on).

The photographs of this period also record the architecture of the city, but there are few such pictures.

Ukraine’s attainment of independence in the early 1990s had a positive effect on the development of domestic photojournalism. The constant Soviet ideological pressure on photographic art disappeared. In these conditions the main thing became an objective presentation of the state’s historical development and the study of unknown pages of its history and culture.

The photographs belonging to the last group vividly illustrate the development of Kharkiv region in the years of Ukraine’s independence.

The museum’s collection has many photo documents that reveal the following themes: the political and public spheres, domestic and foreign trade, light and food industry, education and science, culture and sport, the transport complex, pharmaceutical production and medicine, and religion and the Church.

A significant place is taken by photographs connected with the activity of industrial enterprises of Kharkiv region. The most fully represented in the museum’s collection are the Saltivskyi Bakery (CJSC), the Biscuit-Chocolate corporation (JSC), the Rohan Brewery (OJSC), the Kharkiv Meat Processing Plant (LLC), Efekt (JSC), the Pivdenkabel Plant (CJSC) and the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Enterprise.

The changes in social life and culture that are taking place in Ukraine today contribute to the revival of folk crafts. The holdings have begun to receive photographic materials of folk masters of pysanka painting, embroidery and wood carving.

The present day is also represented by photographs of the reconstruction of the Southern Railway, of ground transport and so on. Photographs of the armed forces of independent Ukraine are of some interest.

Photographs devoted to the higher educational institutions of Kharkiv attract attention: the Ivan Kozhedub Air Force University, NTU “KhPI”, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, the Institute of Ecology and Social Protection and the Kharkiv Military University; and to cultural institutions, namely the O. S. Pushkin Kharkiv State Academic Russian Drama Theatre, the regional musical comedy theatre, the planetarium and the historical museum.

The sporting life of Kharkiv region is represented by several complexes of photographs of outstanding Kharkiv athletes: Kateryna Serdiuk, a medallist of the 27th Olympic Games; Yana Klochkova, a four-time Olympic champion in individual medley swimming; Anton Popov, European champion in model car racing; Liudmyla Dzhyhalova, a two-time Olympic champion in athletics; and Rustam Sharipov, a medallist of the 1996 Olympic Games in artistic gymnastics.

In recent years the collection has been supplemented with photographs of our countrymen who survived the famine of 1932–1933; earlier this was impossible.

The museum’s collection includes more than 19,000 pictures of the “TASS Photo Chronicle”, printed and issued in sets for all the outstanding events in the life of Soviet society.

A comprehensive study of the collection of photo documents has shown that the main body consists of materials of Soviet times. The most interesting photographs belong to the period of the late 19th and early 20th century. A significant part of the collection consists of complexes devoted to outstanding people of Kharkiv region of all times and of different fields: science and education (M. F. Sumtsov, M. P. Barabashov, H. F. Proskura, M. M. Synelnykov, Kh. D. Alchevska, V. Ya. Yuriev), medicine (V. Ya. Danylevskyi, L. L. Hirshman, M. P. Trinkler, V. P. Vorobiov, M. S. Bokarius, L. T. Mala), art and architecture (S. I. Vasylkivskyi, O. M. Beketov, M. S. Samokish, Ye. H. Voloshynov, H. I. Mehmedov), theatre art and literature (I. O. Marianenko, I. O. Alchevskyi, P. K. Saksahanskyi, L. Kurbas, P. A. Hrabovskyi) and so on.

The volume of materials for the period of 1917–1918, the times of the famine of 1932–1933 and the political repressions of the 1930s–1950s is very limited, and photographs on agriculture of the period of independence are practically absent. Nevertheless, today we can say with confidence that this is a unique museum collection, the largest in number, which can be used in display work to illustrate almost all periods of the history of our region and to show the social, political, economic and cultural life of Sloboda Ukraine and of the country as a whole.

It should be noted that a certain number of photo documents in the museum collection have not only historical but also artistic significance. This applies to photographs of the late 19th and early 20th century and of the period of the Great Patriotic War, since their authors are well-known photographers who made a significant contribution to the development of photographic art. Such photographs are the basis for arranging collection displays that illuminate the work of well-known domestic photographic artists.