I’m in the Remembrance Hall at the Museum of the “Great Patriotic War” in Kyiv. The Museum, located under the figure of the “Rodina Mat’” (Motherland) statue
south of the city centre, is moving and impressive. Following a
thorough overhaul of its Soviet-era content in the 1990s, it seeks to
portray a measured view of the horrors of war.
The displays begin not in 1941 with the Nazi invasion of the Soviet
Union but in 1939 with the signature of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
between Stalin and Hitler. The exhibits conclude with the symbolic
funeral feast table of the Remembrance Hall, with places set for the
dead.
The Embassy recently undertook a project to help the Museum provide
English-language information sheets for foreign visitors. When I visited
the Museum on 17 June I was pleased to see the information sheets in
huge demand from English, Swedish and German-speaking visitors – indeed,
people were queuing up to get hold of them.
I shall be delighted if this initiative results in more visitors to what is one of Kyiv’s most important sights.
