Kharkov is the center of Ukrainian culture, but for a long time its exposition included historical monuments and the Russian state. In the current political situation in many countries, including Ukraine, the history of relations with Russia is being rewritten to please the new government. But the history of Ukraine, including Kharkov, reflected in synchronous sources, contains the true essence of events. Therefore, the Kharkov Historical Museum is of great interest to amateurs and connoisseurs of history.
History of the Kharkov Museum
The date of birth of the historical museum of Kharkov can be considered 1920. Now its main exposition is located at Universitetskaya street, house 5. This is not far from the Kharkov Historical Museum metro station. And from the post-war time until the end of the 20th century, it was located on Proletarskaya Square in the building of the diocese of the Orthodox Church.
In 2011, a project was developed to improve the museum building. The project has been implemented. As a result of restoration and construction work on the historic house, a glass cover on a metal frame was installed, the arches of which support concrete supports in the form of trees. And during the restoration of the building itself, a new front facade was created instead of the rear. And the house was returned to a golden color.
A bit about the founder
The Kharkov Historical Museum is named after the native of the city - Nikolai Fedorovich Sumtsov. He was a famous person for Kharkov citizens - a professor at Kharkov University and the chairman of the historical and philological society under him, a folklorist scientist, and also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kharkov teacher society. N.F. Sumtsov was the author of several works on pedagogy, and was also repeatedly invited by the Academy of Sciences to verify the scientific works of applicants for the Makaryevskaya and Uvarov Prizes. In addition to history and Russian literature, Sumtsov was involved in ethnography and literary criticism.
Born in 1854 in the family of a nobleman and landowner on a farm in the village of Boromlya, Sumy Region, he left his homeland immediately after his father's death - the family moved to Kharkov. Nikolai received a good education, graduating from the Second Kharkov Grammar School, and then - Kharkov University in the direction of “History and Philology”. He received the title of master, and then the doctor of historical and philological sciences.
Historical building
The building, which housed the Kharkov Historical Museum, was built back in 1908 according to the project of architect B.N. Kornienko especially for the pawnshop that moved there right after the construction was completed. Until that time, a pawnshop opened in 1891 was located in the house of the merchant Kuzin on Yekaterinoslavskaya Street, and then in the house of the merchant Serikov on Rybnaya.
The front facade of the house overlooked Universitetskaya Street, and the rear was turned towards the then existing, and later destroyed building of the Noble Assembly. Now, on this side is a spacious area of the Constitution. The image of the building is made in the style of old Russian architecture of red brick. The front facade is low - only three floors, but more elegant than the rear, having five floors.
To get to this building is not difficult: it is located in Kharkov at the station "Historical Museum".
Exposure Features
The exposition is based on rare documents of different periods:
- exhibits - archaeological rarities telling about the distant past of the territory of Kharkov;
- sources: documents, household items, tools, etc., historical monuments of "Sloboda" Ukraine;
- exhibits of the period of the Second World War;
- collection of unique coins and medals;
- ancient weapons;
- collection of household appliances from the period of the Soviet Union;
- documents and photographs of different historical stages of life in Ukraine and Kharkov land.
One of the highlights of the archaeological exhibition is a 12th-century stone statue of the Polovtsian woman, extracted from the river bottom in the Lozovsky district. No less interesting are the ancient objects of the pagan cult of the Scythians found in Kharkov land: swords, a cauldron for expressing sacrificial blood, as well as wonderful female jewelry made of amber and precious metals. The history of Ancient Russia is narrated not only by household items of residents of Kharkiv region, but also by hryvnia. These are small hexagonal planes or wand-shaped blocks of silver, which were used here in those days instead of money.
The hetman flag and the gospel tell about the historical era of Peter I. The latter was created at the expense of the associate of Petr Hetman of Ukraine Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa, a participant in the Northern War on the side of the Russian army until 1707. After the betrayal of Mazepa, who sided with the Swedes and tried to separate Ukraine from Russia, the name of the hetman was erased from the Gospel. As for the flag, Mazepa owned it after the founder Ivan Samoilovich, and then it belonged to two more hetmans, successively replaced in this post: Ivan Skoropadsky and Daniil Apostol.
The most important and significant exhibit during World War II is considered to be the marshal uniform of military pilot Ivan Kozhedub, three times Hero of the Soviet Union, having made 330 sorties and personally shot down 62 enemy aircraft. And the most terrible are the instruments of torture used by the Nazis against the Kharkovites, and the model of the murder machine.
And the overcoat and cap of the famous cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, who made his first exit into open space, reminds of the development of space by Soviet people.
