Lesya Ukrainka museum destroyed in occupied Yalta

According to Voice of Crimea, during a monitoring of cultural institutions in occupied Crimea, it was discovered that the Lesya Ukrainka Museum has ceased to exist.

The building still displays Soviet-era security and memorial plaques commemorating Lesya Ukrainka’s stay there in the late 19th century. However, a new plastic plaque in front of the historic building now announces an exhibition under the “Yalta Historical and Literary Museum” banner, featuring “Yalta: 19th Century (History, Music, and Literature)” and a display dedicated to the prominent architect of the time, Nikolai Krasnov. There is no mention of Lesya Ukrainka. At the start of the occupation, a sign by the building indicated that the second floor housed the “Lesya Ukrainka Museum” and an exhibition titled “Lomikamin’,” related to the poetess’s time in Yalta.

Currently, visitors can tour four rooms: the entrance hall details the building’s history and part of Yalta’s, the music salon features exhibits on Yalta’s musical life at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, the next room discusses Yalta’s literary life, and the final room is dedicated to architect Krasnov.

Lesya Ukrainka is mentioned nowhere in the exhibits except for tiny photos mixed with those of Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Tsvetaeva, and a small writing desk she used.

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