Exposition of the Memory hall of The National Museum
“The Memorial іn Commemoration of Famines' Victims іn Ukraine”
After the Declaration of Independence the Ukrainians started to show great interest to their past and to acknowledge its significance. The National museum “The Memorial іn Commemoration of the Famines' Victims іn Ukraine” didn’t stay away from this process. Many different programs of studying the history of our country have been developed, but the Museum is one of the main centers, which is aimed to draw public’s attention to the most tragic pages of the national history – famines in Ukraine.
Throughout the whole life man faces a variety of things and securities. Such documents as a passport, a birth certificate, ID code are good examples of it. But during the first half of the twentieth century a Ukrainian peasant didn’t have such documents. The authorities were not interested in establishing workflows and even deliberately confiscated and destroyed certain documents. That’s why there is a very small amount of information about the peasants of early 20th century. In most cases only the things that peasants had used in their everyday life came to us. They are the silent witnesses of the material world that shed light on the lifestyle of the Ukrainian peasants of the early twentieth century.The Ukrainians have always been, and still remain, immensely talented, hard-working and skillful people. That’s why there is no surprise that they have left so many different things of everyday use for their descendants. They impress us by their primitiveness on the one hand and by their variety and unique nature on the other hand.
In a course of time peasants’ tools were changed and improved. We can trace their evolution. But at those distant and tragic times farmer used wooden instruments of labor for the cultivation of land, fishing, etc. in order to feed his family. These items were collected and combined into collections. One of such collections is presented at the National Museum “The Memorial іn Commemoration of Famines' Victims іn Ukraine”.
In the Hall of Memory there are tools from Polissya and Slobozhanshchyna mainly. They are divided into such groups as household tools, agriculture, weaving, cooperage, fishing and other implements. All of them are original and were in use of our ancestors at the end of XIXth-the first part of XXth century.
The main occupation of peasants was agriculture, presented by the largest quantity of items such as: spits, beaters, hand mills, winnow, iron plows and others. A farmer could make such tools as hoes, beaters, rakes of different sizes, “kaduby” (hollowed out of solid logs tubs) just with his own hands. Wood as the material was accessible to everybody and it was easy in handling that’s why similar items were produced for the economy. The iron plows, which replaced the wooden ones, gave the opportunity to increase yields, the area sown crops and diversify crops. Among the items of the museum’s Hall of Memory anyone can also see the hand mill. With such a mill the owner could provide with flour more than one family.
An important instrument of labor in the agricultural households was also a winnow which was used to separate wheat from chaff. Each of these items has its own story that helps us to feel the power of generations. Ukrainian peasants valued and kept in the family items that were
" ... of my great-grandfather, great-grandmother" this tradition helps to reveal the life of those days as well.
Another large group of museum’s collections presents peasant’s household utensils. To this group belong “solomianyky”, mortars, tubs, where the corn could be kept, the dough could be prepared and pickles could be preserved; hutches for storing clothes and precious things; blade for bread, rohachi, makitry, pots, baby cradle, woven of twigs, children's furniture; benches of different sizes. No wonder that each thing of home use has several names, depending on its function. For example an ordinary pitcher was called zlyvushnyk, bynchyk, jug, milk jug, hladyshka, hladun, tykvach etc. These names differ from region to region.
Living in constant troubles man tries to bring beauty into his house. The household utensils vividly demonstrate the aesthetic tastes of a peasant. Besides, they demonstrate different traditions, the beauty of national life and national ideals, human relations and elements of communication with nature.
There is also such a group of collection objects that illustrates the development of handicrafts: cooperage, weaving and others. One of the most respected occupations in the village was cooperage. The cooper made various barrels, machines for butter making, flasks and other necessary in the peasants’ life things. His skills were passed only to his son. Therefore, the whole dynasties of that profession lived in the village. There were also nomadic coopers who did the work in the one village and went to another.
A loom, strands, weaving hook, groove with the bottom, beetle, vytushka… It is virtually impossible to imagine peasant house without all these things. They represent weaving, one of the important types of crafts. With the help of loom one could produce a variety of things - from shirts of coarse linen to skillfully ornamented carpets.
An important additional activity of Ukrainians was also fishing, because fish occupied a significant place in Ukrainian cuisine. It is not surprising that farmers had so many tools to catch fish: boat, yatir, bucha, paddles, pidsaky and other implements that can be seen in the Museum’s collection.
The collection of the National museum “The Memorial іn Commemoration of the Famines' Victims іn Ukraine” is not a large one compared with the similar collections of ethnographic museums, but we hope that this collection will be extended with new unique exhibits.