Presentation of the book ‘Darkness Over Kyiv: The City on the Eve of and During the Holodomor’

On 27 May 2026, we invite you to the reading room of the National Historical Library of Ukraine, where a presentation of the book ‘Darkness over Kyiv: The City on the Eve of and During the Holodomor’ will take place.

The author of the book is Ivan Petrenko, PhD in History, Deputy Head of the Department for the Study of Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes at the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide.

The study of life in Ukrainian cities during the Holodomor is more relevant than ever in the current conditions, as Russia is once again attempting to perpetrate genocide against Ukrainians and wipe Ukraine off the world’s political map as a state, inflicting, amongst other things, military strikes on its heart: Kyiv.

At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, Kyiv, like the rest of Soviet Ukraine, was engulfed in the gloom of Stalin’s ‘communist assault’ and, later, the horrific Holodomor organised by the Kremlin. Soviet propaganda of the time did its utmost to portray the era as one of unprecedented social and economic progress and industrial development, particularly in Kyiv. Newspapers were full of headlines about gigantic changes in all spheres of city life, which were in fact exaggerated and dubious, achieved at the expense of a significant deterioration in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Kyiv residents.

It is the real-life experiences of Kyiv residents under those terrible conditions of Soviet ignorance and darkness that became the main subject of the book ‘Darkness over Kyiv: The City on the Eve of and During the Holodomor’. The book includes many eyewitness accounts and archival materials, which paint a true, unvarnished picture of life in Kyiv in the 1930s.

Thanks to the collaboration between the Holodomor Museum and the Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archive, the publication features over 100 photographs of Kyiv and its suburbs in the 1930s. Most of the photographs are little known to the general public. They are a valuable source of visual information, providing an insight into life and the state of the city during that period.

Date and Time: Wednesday, 27 May 2026, at 11:00

Venue: Reading Room of the National Historical Library of Ukraine (21 Ivana Mazepy Street, Building 24).

Admission is free.