Vyshyvanka Day at the Holodomor Museum

On Vyshyvanka Day, May 16, our sculpture “Bitter Memory of Childhood” will once again wear an embroidered shirt.

This year, with our symbolic action, we are honouring Sumy Oblast – one of the most affected regions of Ukraine during the Holodomor, which is still suffering from Russian aggression today, as it is under intense enemy fire. It resulted in the destruction of entire villages, the death and forced evacuation of residents, and the destruction of civil infrastructure and the cultural heritage of the region.

The prototype for making clothes for our “girl” was a shirt, which we can see in one of the pictures of a unique collection of photo negatives on glass. The photos were taken in the Romny district in the 1930s, some during the Holodomor. These photo negatives were discovered by our employees during the expedition in 2020. Later, the Charity Organisation ”The Progress of Posullia” donated them to the museum.

We can see the shirt that ours is based on in two photos: a young girl and an older woman. The photos were obviously taken before the Holodomor. We do not know who these people are and how their fate turned out, but we hope for your help: will someone suddenly recognise their relatives in the photos?

We invite the media to the Holodomor Museum on May 16 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to take photos, make stories, and receive comments from Museum employees. If you have any questions, please write to us: [email protected] 

or phone:+380677255241.

Reference. We started the tradition of dressing our “girl with ears of grain” in an embroidered shirt on Vyshyvanka Day in May 2023. At that time, our action was dedicated to children whose childhood was taken away 90 years ago by the Holodomor perpetrated by the Stalinist regime. And today, Putin’s new dictatorial regime continues to steal childhood from Ukrainian children. Each year, our next actions will be dedicated to a separate region where the Holodomor genocide was committed. Each of these regions still suffers from the criminal actions of the aggressor country or is under occupation. Regional features will be reflected in a shirt made according to a traditional pattern characteristic of that region, or based on a sample of a shirt from that region. This campaign aimed at reminding the world of the genocide that Ukraine experienced 90 years ago (it was in the spring and summer of 1933 that the death rate from the Holodomor was the highest), to focus attention on the criminal actions of the aggressor state on Ukrainian territories, to emphasise the need to preserve historical and family heritage in the inhabited points that suffer from hostilities, encourage Ukrainian citizens to hand over family heirlooms to museums.