Kharkiv Region in 1917–1940

The museum’s exhibition addresses many questions of Ukrainian history and of events in the Kharkiv region in this period, among them:

• the attempt to create a Ukrainian state in 1917 and the activity of Ukrainian governments;
• the Civil War and the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine;
• the policy of the Bolsheviks and more.

It is through the prism of these events that the exhibition shows every nuance of the difficult life of the ordinary citizen of Kharkiv, caught up in their whirlwind.

The exhibition shows for the first time more than 500 unique exhibits from the museum’s holdings, among them:

• the awards of the St George Cross holder V. M. Hontar;
• banknotes of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the printing plate used to print them;
• a flag and helmet of a German army soldier of the First World War;
• a flag from the workers of Petrograd inscribed “To the Red South from the Red North”;
• documents of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine led by Nestor Makhno;
• a machine-gun cart (tachanka);
• a leather jacket, cap and riding breeches of a Red Guard of the Civil War period;
• an overcoat, budenovka helmet and equipment of a Red Army soldier;
• the “Hungarian” jacket and papakha of S. A. Saienko, commandant of the Kharkiv concentration camp during the “Red Terror”;
• photographs, documents and banknotes of the period of the Denikin occupation;
• samples of products of Kharkiv enterprises of the NEP period bearing Soviet symbols;
• photographs, documents and personal belongings of Kharkiv scientists of the 1930s;
• a costume of Ivan Marianenko, an actor of the Berezil theatre, for the role of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in the play of the same name;
• photographs and documents of servicemen of the Kharkiv garrison who were repressed in the 1930s.

To recreate this short but event-filled period in an organic way, thematic exhibition complexes have been created in the exhibition:

• a historical reconstruction of the study of a Ukrainian official of the early 20th century;
• a symbolic installation on the consequences of the Civil War;
• a reconstruction of part of a NEPman’s apartment.

By presenting original museum exhibits, real “material witnesses” and documents of the era, the exhibition lets visitors plunge into the atmosphere of the first half of the 20th century, feel part of the Ukrainian state-building process, go through the valour and losses of the Civil War, experience the pathos and optimism of industrialisation and, at the same time, grasp the tragedy of the Stalinist repressions.