The Waste Museum belongs to those lesser-known museums of Kyiv, not listed in most tourist guides, but is an interesting place to visit for almost anybody.
Like most museums, the Waste Museum is all about history, only represented in an extraordinary way, as all of its exhibits are basically garbage, things that people once used and then threw away.
The history of the museum dates back to the early 1950s. Employees of the City Secondary Resources Plant in Kyiv, which collected scrap metal and other waste products, sometimes discovered interesting things in the trash heap like statuettes or old padlocks, which they put aside. As people often throw away many interesting items, the collection grew fast. By now, it counts thousands of exhibits; some of them are more than 200 years old. The museum opened last year and isn’t widely known, partly due to its location in the outskirts of Kyiv, on the territory of the City Secondary Resources Plant. Don’t be afraid of the barbed wire on the high fence and strict-looking security at the entrance. They are proud of the museum and will be pleased to give you a tour.
The exposition of the Waste Museum is built on contrasts. Ancient icons stand next to rusty hand grenades. A huge anchor and a set of scuba diving equipment lie behind a 19th century French piano. Horrifying cow skulls are placed close to paintings of pretty girls. Apparently, this is the museum’s concept: a brief history of life on display.
The museum consists of two parts. The main one is the big open-air exposition that is not provided with a guide. You can come and browse it by yourself free of charge. To visit the smaller one on the plant’s territory you should call and ask for a tour in advance. This part was placed inside a wooden hut to preserve the most delicate items, like paintings and a collection of vyshyvankas (traditional embroidered blouses).
Visitors of the museum often want to purchase the rarities for their antique collections, but the museum holders firmly reject all proposals. A lot of items are very expensive, for example ancient icons, 19th century copper samovars and musical instruments, carved furniture, and paintings. Surprisingly, some of these valuable exhibits are kept outdoors under the little roof, allowing rain and wind to damage them gradually. The problem is that the collection is growing fast and there is not enough space for it. The newest exhibits don’t come only from the garbage heap anymore; many of them are bought.
The shelves are filled with various exotic items related to different spheres of life and historical periods. Military artifacts take us back to the time of World War II. The real highlight of this section is a pilot’s logbook, which managed to survive the war. Its entries start from 1940, ending in 1946 and contain notes about flights and the pilot’s activities during that uneasy time. Different grenades, tank and contact mines, revolvers and other weapons create a hazardous atmosphere.
It may seem amazing, but the old gramophone exhibited at the museum still works. The security (who sometimes serves as guide as well) like to entertain the visitors with it, playing retro tunes. They turn the handle and the antique device comes to life, “singing” love songs of the early ‘30s. This helps to plunge deeper into the historical epoch displayed around you. Old copper samovars make you think of evening tea ceremonies in the dim light of oil lamps. Looking at the elegant carved sideboards with crackled varnish, you imagine how they were filled with candy and pots of raspberry jam. Porcelain plates and dishes with a sweet dedication “To My Cat” stand next to numerous wooden barrels, cribs, woven baskets and farm instruments.
The ordinary life of the past is perfectly reflected by the rows of instruments and out-of-use equipment. Housework at the time was not as easy as it is now with help of all modern devices. For example, a long cogged wooden instrument called a “rubel” (sounds similar to the name of the Russian currency) was used instead of an iron. To iron something, you had to wrap it around a special stick and beat it with the rubel to stretch it. Lots of rubels of various sizes lie in a heap in one of the corners of the museum. More than 50 irons bare their rusty teeth on a separate table. They were used before electricity was invented and were called “zalizkos” (zalizo is Ukrainian for iron). To make it work, the cavity inside was filled with embers. Such irons were incredibly heavy and hot.
In fact, the Waste Museum can be called a museum of technical progress. There are some of the very first models of household appliances such as an ancient vacuum cleaner and hair-dryer. The selection of photo cameras is vey wide, featuring an old Kodak and plenty of Soviet models. There are a few military phones used during World War II with long cables unrolled and stretched across the battlefield. Next to them lies one of the first Motorola models – it is hard to believe that this old portable radio transmitter has anything to do with the ultra-thin phones on sale now.
The exposition also demonstrates its ironic vision of Soviet history. It has a special Lenin’s corner, which was an obligatory attribute of every institution during the communist regime. A range of plaster Lenin busts stand proudly in front of walls decorated with USSR flags and Lenin portraits. One of the sculptures looks really cool, wearing a pair of black glasses.
A rusty sickle crossed with the hammer form the Soviet State Emblem, a red pennant dedicated to “The winner of the socialistic competition for the early execution of the five-year plan” and portraits showing happy faces of youngsters complete the illusion of the communist triumph. The dedication to the Soviet past reaches its peak in a special Lenin’s Alley on the territory of the plant. A seven-meter high statue of the greatest communist leader looks fascinating standing near a fountain surrounded by neatly cropped bushes. Filmmakers like to shoot scenes here; TV journalists also enjoy showing the alley. There is even gossip that the local communists order this statue for their conferences, but each museum has its legends.
Waste Museum (112 Sahaydaka, 517-3963). Take bus No. 95 from Livoberezhna metro station. Open Mon-Fri 9 a.m. till 6 p.m.
