Postcards and lithographs

In the Kharkiv Historical Museum the “Postcards” collection numbers up to 7,000 items. Its chronological limits run from the 1880s to the present. By date of production, the postcards are divided into those made before 1917, Soviet postcards and postcards of the time of independent Ukraine. Throughout their history, postcards were issued both as single copies and as part of sets.

Among the variety of postcard types, greeting, informative and educational, propaganda, advertising and souvenir cards stand out. The subjects of the pictures reflect geography, history, ethnography, various kinds of art, technology, sport, portraits and so on. Because the subjects partly repeat, we find it appropriate to describe postcards on related themes without tying them to specific historical periods.

A significant part of the collection consists of view postcards showing cities of the Russian Empire and the USSR, including views of Kharkiv and Kharkiv Governorate. In genre, the postcards present the urban landscape, architecture, sculpture and so on. The first view postcards of Kharkiv in the museum’s collection are considered to be those printed by the Kharkiv publishing house of Adolf Darre (28 Rybna Street).

Analysing the makeup of the collection of postcards issued before 1917, we conclude that alongside the most popular postcards with reproductions of works by such well-known artists as S. Vasylkivskyi, I. Aivazovskyi, Yu. Repin, M. Samokish, H. Semiradskyi, K. Trutovskyi, K. Makovskyi and M. Pymonenko, there are postcards illustrated with works by artists whose creative work is little known today, for example Ye. Kotarbinskyi, Ye. Boehm and I. Bilibin.

In the pre-revolutionary period the “Granberg Joint-Stock Company in Stockholm” issued the series “Types and Views of Little Russia”. A significant part of the titles in this series is kept in the museum’s collection.

Among the postcards in the museum’s collection is a selection of postcards with symbols showing the coats of arms of Russian cities and governorates, noble family coats of arms, Russian and Soviet flags, state awards of the USSR and flags of foreign states.

Statistical data on the development of pre-revolutionary society is reflected in a series of postcards with information on the agrarian question, education, the needs of the population and financial matters, printed from the “Atlas of Diagrams on Economic Questions”.

The development of the army and navy and the conquest of new lands can be illustrated by materials reflecting the expedition of Senior Lieutenant H. Ya. Sedov to the North Pole (photographs by Ya. P. Reshetniak), as well as by the set of postcards “At the Poles of the Earth” with autographs of polar explorers and more.

Some of the postcards characterise the development of medicine and the activity of the Kharkiv branch of the League for the Fight against Tuberculosis.

The theme of the struggle against autocracy can be traced in the museum’s collection beginning with the December uprising of 1825 (portraits of the Decembrists, including a series of 16 postcards printed at K. Fischer’s phototype works in Moscow). The theme is continued by postcards reflecting the revolutionary movement of the popular masses and actions in the army and navy during the revolution of 1905–1907 (photographs from the trial of Lieutenant P. P. Schmidt, the procession at the funeral of M. Bauman). Kharkiv in the period of the February bourgeois revolution of 1917 is reflected in photo postcards with works by the Kharkiv photographer F. I. Tselav.

The events of the October coup of 1917 are reflected in the postcard sets “The Great October in the Works of Ukrainian Soviet Artists” and “From the History of the Russian Revolutionary Postcard”. A selection of satirical postcards, with images of representatives of the political parties that existed at the beginning of the 20th century, also belongs to this theme.

Military subjects are represented in the museum’s collection by individual postcards and sets covering the events of the Patriotic War of 1812 (a portrait of Napoleon, the set “The Field of Borodino Glory”), and the First World War of 1914–1917 by pictorial photographs illustrating events on the Western Front.

The Civil War in Ukraine in 1917–1920 can be illustrated both by photo postcards (a military parade in Kharkiv in 1919, the funeral of victims of the Austro-German occupation on Mykolaiv Square in Kharkiv in 1919) and by the set “Heroes of the Struggle for Soviet Power in Ukraine”.

The events of the Second World War left their mark on the museum’s collection in the postcards “Glory to the Stalin Falcons!” and “Death to the German Occupiers!”, and in postcards with portraits of participants of the Great Patriotic War and more.

The period of the 1920s and 1930s is characterised in the collection by numerous postcards with portraits of political figures and leaders of the Bolshevik party, above all V. I. Lenin; by postcards appealing for help to disabled veterans of the Civil War (“I Defended You, You Must Help Me!”); by postcards issued by the Katerynoslav Council for the Protection of Children, which collected funds to fight the famine of the 1920s; and by postcards illustrating construction in the USSR (a series of postcards on the building of the Dniprohes, a series of views of Kharkiv from the magazine “The USSR on Construction”).

The events of the post-war period in the history of the USSR are characterised by active political life. Postcards devoted to party congresses and campaign postcards for the elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 1947 belong to this time. The USSR’s participation in the struggle for peace is marked by a series of postcards issued for the World Festivals of Youth and Students. The 30th and 40th anniversaries of the October coup fall in this time, and sets were printed to celebrate them: “Russia in Three Revolutions”, “Documents of October”, “The Soviet Political Poster” and “The Voice of the Aurora”. The anniversaries of the Komsomol and Pioneer organisations were marked with reproductions of posters from the history of the Komsomol and the set “Laws of the Young Pioneers”.

The year 1961 became the starting point of humankind’s exploration of outer space. The museum’s postcard collection keeps portraits of the first USSR cosmonauts, among them Yu. O. Haharin, with autographs; the reproduction sets “Man in Space” and “Star Paths”, after original works by the cosmonaut O. Leonov; and postcards devoted to the joint flight of Soviet and American cosmonauts on the space station “Soyuz–Apollo”.

A significant part of the collection is devoted to the holidays of the Russian Empire (New Year, Christmas, Name Day, Easter) and the state holidays of the USSR: the holiday of the Great October, Soviet Army and Navy Day, International Women’s Day on 8 March, May Day, Victory Day on 9 May, and New Year. The collection also holds numerous postcards inviting to the New Year tree celebration and various postcards with children’s themes.

The advertising postcards in the museum’s collection are represented by the postcards “My Master Drinks Only Einem Coffee” (the period of the Russian Empire) and “Buy All This from Gospromtsvet” (the Soviet period).

Today the collection continues to grow, including with postcards showing Ukrainian state symbols of the time of independent Ukraine.