“Alone”: an exhibition about women who lost their husbands in the war opened at the Holodomor Museum

On Thursday, April 27, the Holodomor Museum presented the photo exhibition “Alone”, initiated and implemented by the Memorial platform. The project aims to support thousands of Ukrainian women and men who lose the most precious thing in the war – their relatives.

“Alone” is the story of five women whose husbands died defending Ukraine. Ksenia Biriukova from Kharkiv did not await for her Mykhailo, Anhelina Popsuy from Dnipro – her Oleksandr, Indira Baranetska from Odesa – her Vyacheslav, Maria Onyshchenko from Kyiv – her Andrii, Yeva Fialka from Lviv – her Dmytro. Photographer Kateryna Moskaliuk had been recording for two months their life after the loss, face to face with their grief.

“Although our photo project is called “Alone”, in fact the Memorial platform is trying to do everything to make the relatives of the dead feel that they are not alone. That we want to know more about their relatives, we want to see their stories and tell people about them not only in Ukraine, but also abroad, so as not to let them forget the price that, regretfully, Ukrainians pay for their freedom.” Diana Zhvinklis, a journalist of the Memorial platform, emphasised.

Ninety years ago, Ukrainians already paid a terrible price for their desire to be free. “Then Moscow used the genocide to break the Ukrainian resistance and spirit. This crime was not punished and was not condemned in time, said Yana Hrynko, head of the exposition and exhibition department of the Holodomor Museum. – And it returned with new strength. Today, Russia seeks to inflict even more pain on Ukraine, trying to destroy us. And neither international organizations nor international law can stop it. Enemies are stopped only by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The main reason why this project is here today in our museum is the human factor. We are all part of society. Our husbands and brothers are also fighting. And we are also familiar with the feeling of loss: our colleague, unfortunately, lost her husband. She is still unable to properly bury his body. And it hurts even more.”

“My photo project is about stories about love and loss, about tenderness and pain. Women talked about their favourite places where they liked spending time with their husbands, showed things that remind them of their loved ones and how they try to live on. My photo project is about women whose husbands did not choose their lives, but our lives,” says journalist and documentary photographer Kateryna Moskaliuk about her work on the exhibition.

The exhibition at the Holodomor Museum will last only four days – from April 27 to 30.

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