During the Nazi occupation of 1941-1943, parts of Kyiv would have been unrecognizable. Many buildings were destroyed, including those on the main Khreshchatyk Street.
The
World War II years – and
the city’s stunning revival afterwards – are commemorated in a
new photographic
album “Kyiv: The City that Outlived the War.” Although the main
focus is the war
era, there are older pictures as well as contemporary shots of
Kyiv by Viktor
Zilberberg. All in all, there are about 250 photos, annotated in
Russian and, conveniently,
English.
The
project began with
an earlier album on Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. While working on
it, the
authors kept coming across pictures of Kyiv and decided to
devote a separate
album to the capital. Often, just identifying the city in a
photo was difficult
– unless it showed an obvious landmark like the Pecherska Lavra
monastery in
Kyiv.
Many
of the photos came from
archives in Germany. In occupied Kyiv, most of the German
soldiers carried
small photo cameras with them, unlike the locals.
“It
is unfortunate that we now
have to pay Germans for photos of our ruined cities,” said
Volodymyr Bysov, one
of the authors. Others came from private collections in Ukraine
and abroad, although
people were usually reluctant to share. In rare cases, someone
heard about the
project and contributed photos. For the Kharkiv book, a young
Italian sent
photos taken by his grandfather, an engineer whom Benito
Mussolini’s regime had
sent east to work on bridges during the war.
There
are almost no
people in the pictures. This is deliberate. Photos from the
Kharkiv album were
displayed in outdoor exhibitions and reached a large audience.
There were
uncomfortable cases where someone recognized themselves or a
relative among the
victims or in scenes that brought back unpleasant memories, the
authors
explain. Instead, they focused on cityscapes, leaving people in
the background.
The
album, which is not
for sale, will be presented to museums, libraries and schools.
It received
support from a presidential grant. A representative from
Ukraine’s state body
for family and youth said he hoped that the album would
encourage patriotism in
young people. The
organizers are
planning a major exhibition for Victory Day on May 9 to run in
one of Kyiv’s
parks. They also hope to publish an album covering all Ukraine,
which would
include other cities such as Odesa and Lviv.
“Киев: Город,
переживший войну,” by Gabriel
Mykhailov, Volodymyr Bysov and
Viktor Zilberman (2012)
Story
by Annabelle Chapman
