Andrii Ivanets spoke about Viktor Tsymbal and his “The Year 1933” at the National Historical Library

An event, held on 15 April at the National Historical Library of Ukraine, was dedicated to the Ukrainian artist Viktor Tsymbal and his famous painting ‘The Year 1933’. The principal speaker at the event was Andrii Ivanets, a research fellow at the Holodomor Museum and a candidate of historical sciences, who has researched the artist’s biography and creative career, as well as the history of the creation of his iconic painting about the Holodomor. The result of this painstaking work was the book “Viktor Tsymbal’s ‘The Year 1933’ – A Pictorial Masterpiece on the Holodomor”, which was published last year.

The researcher shared with the audience the most interesting facts about the artist, including his family, his involvement in the defence of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and later, his forced emigration and his all-around support for Ukraine from across the ocean during its most difficult times. As the historian suggests, it is Viktor Tsymbal’s painting “The Year 1933” that is likely the very first artistic representation of the Holodomor. At a time when the USSR was doing everything in its power to conceal the truth about the Holodomor, this work, depicting a woman with a dead child, served as the voice of millions of tortured Ukrainians.

Andrii Kozytskyi, a senior research fellow at the Museum and reviewer of the study, joined the event online. He noted that the painting is now just as well-known a visual symbol of the Holodomor as the sculpture of a little girl, ‘The Bitter Memory of Childhood’, by Petro Drozdovskyi and Mykola Obeziuk. The painting is still used to illustrate book covers and various publications. Andrii Ivanets’ study provides us with comprehensive information about the history of the work’s creation and its artistic value.

Since 2020, ‘The Year 1933’ has been held in the collections of the Holodomor Museum. And since 2024, the work has been included in the State Register of Ukraine’s National Cultural Heritage. As Olha Melnyk, Deputy Director General of the Holodomor Museum, says, the painting will subsequently be on display in the exposition of the second phase of our Museum, the concept for which is currently being developed.

Bohdana Laiuk, Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine, and Taras Borovskyi, Acting Director General of the National Historical Library of Ukraine, addressed the audience with welcoming remarks.

Alla Novytska, a member of the library staff, spoke about the book exhibition from the collection of the National Historical Library of Ukraine, ‘Viktor Ivanovych Tsymbal – an outstanding artist, defender of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, a man of truth’.

Representatives of the artist Viktor Tsymbal’s family attended the event: the mother and grandmother of Anton Tsymbal, who inherited the family archive. As a reminder, in January 2025, Anton Tsymbal donated part of the archive to our Museum.

We are grateful to the National Historical Library of Ukraine and the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine for organising the event. You can watch a recording of the event on the library’s YouTube channel.