COURAGE

connecting collections

The permanent exhibition at the National Art Museum includes Aleksandra Ekster’s Cubo-Futurist landscape “Bridge at Sèvres.” It was painted during a dynamic time in Ekster’s life, when she was actively collaborating with Picasso, Braque, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob and with the Italian Futurists Filippo Marinetti, Giovanni Papini and Ardengo Soffici (with whom she shared a studio in 1914). In 1952, this painting was slated for destruction as too formalist and unrealistic, but survived partly because curators designated this a work by an unknown artist. 

In 1947, given the new political situation, the followers of Petar Danov organized the printing of The Testament of the Colour Rays of Light in 1000 copies in the fraternal printing house "Zhitno zarno [Wheat grain]." Due to the harsh economic and political conditions, this printing was not as opulent as previous editions – the paper was almost newspaper quality, stapled together with a cover made from cardboard, but the internal orthographic layout and content are identical.

In 1950 the printing house was closed, the printing machine and other publishing tools were confiscated. At the end of the 1950s, "over 50 tons of reactionary literature by author P. Danov from throughout the country was seized", part of which was sent to the Central State Archive, but part of which was destroyed.

In the period from 1947 until the political changes in 1989, there is no information on any new editions of The Testament of the Colour Rays of Light. The lectures of Peter Danov were not published, and his texts were distributed via samizdat only. It was not until 1994 that the book was re-published. Since then, the book has over 10 printings, translated into English, Spanish, German, Russian and Greek.

http://zaveta.bg/istoria/izdania

The events that transpired alongside the fall of the Romanov monarchy in February 1917, the takeover of the Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks in October 1917, and the dissolution of the Constitutional Assembly in January 1918 are immensely significant for understanding Ukrainian history and cultural opposition to communism. During that year of upheaval, many divergent visions for the future were articulated throughout the Russian Empire. In the Imperial Southwest, the Bolsheviks battled monarchists, nationalists, socialists, greens and anarchists over how to move forward during and after the collapse of empire.

The Ukrainian Museum-Archives has in its possession an original broadside of the Third Universal, issued by the Central Rada on November 20, 1917, in the four major languages used in the Imperial Southwest—Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and Yiddish. This document is reflective of efforts by the Central Rada to appeal to various communities living on the territory, while negotiating with the Provisional Government for greater autonomy. As historian George Liber notes, the first two proclamations of Rada did not define the borders of Ukraine, but the Third Universal asserted that the nine provinces in the Imperial Southwest with Ukrainian majorities belonged to the Ukrainian National (or People’s) Republic. The document also claimed parts of Kursk, Kholm/Chelm and Voronezh provinces, where Ukrainians also constituted the majority. The Central Rada also pledged to defend the interests of all national groups living in these territories and articulated a law protecting personal and national autonomy for Russians, Poles, Jews and others.

Shortly after this, the UNR established diplomatic ties with a number of European countries and even the United States. Britain and France tried to persuade the UNR leadership to side with them against the Central Powers, which they refused as they were determined to stay neutral. The Soviet Russian Republic initially recognized the UNR, but this was short-lived as the Red Army soon moved in from the north and east. This prompted the Rada to issue the Fourth Universal on January 25, 1918, which declared independence of the UNR as defined by the Third Universal. This made the push for greater autonomy within the context of empire a war of nationalist secession. (Liber, 62-63)

This 12-page meeting protocol of the Ukrainian National Council is an important historical artifact. it was signed in 1919 by Ivan Horbachevsky, a renowned chemist and professor, who was born in the Galician province of Ternopil, but spent most of his adult life outside Ukraine. This document was produced by the Ukrainian government-in-exile, which was comprised of individuals who fled from the Bolshevik revolution and lobbied for Ukrainian independence from the outside. It predates the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922 and is a byproduct of the tumultuous period most often referred to as the Russian Civil War. Former imperial subjects articulated many differing political projects and visions of the future in the wake of the Russian Empire’s collapse. Among them were the Central Rada and the Ukrainian National (or People's) Republic, which after the fall of the Romanov dynasty lobbied for greater autonomy within the framework established by the Provisional Government. Once it became clear that the Bolsheviks had no intention of honoring that arrangement, they declared the independence of the nine southwestern most provinces, which they referred to as Ukraine. 

This piece hints at the breadth, depth and variety of materials found in the Zina Genyk-Berezovska Collection at the T.H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature in Kyiv. As with most private archives, her collection developed organically and is comprised mostly of her own work as a literary scholar. However, Genyk-Berezovska and her husband were also integrated into a vibrant Ukrainian émigré community in Prague.  Therefore, Genyk-Berezovska’s collection extends beyond personal papers to include materials from the larger community. There is a subsection in her archive with the title “Documents relating to the cultural life of the Ukrainian community in Prague,” as well as material relating to a number of prominent community leaders from the early 20^th Century, like Ivan Horbachevsky. As a result, many surprises await scholars and researchers who plan to work with this collection. Among the materials are a list of interned officers, officials and Cossacks from the archive of Petro Krytskyi, a former colonel in the Ukrainian National Republican army. His papers also have documents relating to humanitarian work of Ukrainian organizations in Czechoslovakia from 1939, and his own personal documents--IDs, passport, directives--from 1914-1919. In the files labeled as the Ivan Horbachevsky Archive, one can find photographs of Horbachevsky himself as well as the Ukrainian community in Prague from 1924, letters written to Professor Horbachevsky in the years 1920-1945, as well as an appeal to Ukrainian "brothers and sisters across the ocean" drafted by the UNR government-in-exile in 1919.