The "Train of Ukrainian Identity" was launched in the Kiev Metro

20 November 2018

On November 21, 2018, the National Museum “ Holodomor Victims Memorial” presented a scientific and education project “Train of Ukrainian Identity” in one of the trains of the blue branch of the Kiev Metro. A series of information posters tells passengers about unique subjects and phenomena of culture and science, social development and everyday life, about Ukrainians who changed history and determined the nation, which was ready for a sovereign life, about everything that constitutes a Ukrainian identity in the early twentieth century.

The project is dedicated to the 85th anniversary of Holodomor-Genocide. The purpose of the project is to show the potential of Ukraine to be a strong independent state in the center of Europe in the early 20th century and its economic and cultural development, which was the threat for the aggressive plans of Russian Bolsheviks. In order to prevent Ukraine from leaving the Soviet Union, one of the greatest crimes in the history of mankind – the Holodomor-genocide – was committed. The Ukrainian nation became the object of genocide.

The communist regime destroyed the Ukrainian farmers. They were saving the traditions, customs, language and culture. The genocide was directed against the Ukrainian intelligentsia, the Ukrainian church, against every active bearer of Ukrainian identity. It meant to destroy the Ukrainian nation as such through the physical killing of Ukrainians, the humiliation of the Ukrainian language and culture, the falsification of Ukrainian history, the elimination of entire institutions and the eradication of the names of national heroes from the book of existence of Ukraine.

“In 2018, Ukraine commemorates the 85th anniversary of Holodomor, a genocide committed by the Soviet regime in 1932-1933 against the Ukrainian nation. However, for an ordinary citizen who is far from history, one who does not read scientific literature and lives in an information vacuum, created by TV channels, the history of Holodomor is still a story about the famine, which “arose from the outrances at the local level in connection with industrialization”. The fact that the researchers’ works are printed with scanty notes also leads to this situation. Therefore, today there is an urgent need to attract new forms of information that would allow covering the whole Ukrainian society”- Olesia Stasiuk, the museum’s general director told about the relevance of the project.

“Today is the Day of Dignity in Ukraine. Today is the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor. It is important to remember and rethink the lessons of history. Therefore, as a socially responsible enterprise, we support the using of subway capabilities for such an important project “, – said Viktor Brahinskyi, the head of the Public Enterprise “Kyiv Metro”.

The project “Train of Ukrainian Identity” was prepared by the National Museum “Holodomor Victims Memorial” and implemented with the support of Kyiv Metro Enterprise. The designer is Liliia Chavaha.

You can get acquainted with posters in the carriages of one of the trains of the Kiev underground, which runs the blue branch, until December 10, 2018.

Media representatives who request filming of the project in the train please contact the information center of Public Enterprise “Kyiv Metro” 238-54-68.