Because the starting of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 1000’s of buildings throughout the nation have been destroyed by cruise missiles, aerial bombs and shells. Complete cities — Mariupol, Izium and Volnovakha — are nearly demolished. In Kharkiv, among the most necessary architectural monuments of the Soviet period and the prerevolutionary interval have suffered intensive harm. A variety of UNESCO World Heritage websites and architectural treasures are beneath menace.
If, within the first days of the invasion, the Russians declared that they have been concentrating on solely navy infrastructure, it rapidly turned clear that they have been hitting buildings suffused with the reminiscence and historical past of the individuals who lived in them: residential buildings, kindergartens, workplace facilities, theaters. There are literally thousands of open wounds throughout the nation. The worst factor is that you just by no means know the place the subsequent Russian bomb will land.
After Russia launched its assault on Ukraine, many Ukrainians I do know who have been concerned in defending cultural heritage stepped as much as defend the nation as troopers and volunteers as a result of that they had discovered in peacetime how you can shield what belonged to them — not simply territory but in addition thousands and thousands of small reminiscences of walks house beneath a peaceable sky, good neighborliness and mutual assist.
Earlier than 2014, we not often noticed public shows of curiosity in cultural heritage in Ukraine. The Maidan revolution that 12 months, by which mass protests led to the ouster of a pro-Russian president, kick-started the event of civil society based mostly on Western values, like freedom of expression and self-determination. In defending these values, Ukrainians discovered to be answerable for public areas.
Younger Ukrainian intellectuals — artists, researchers, filmmakers, cultural managers — turned concerned in documenting artwork and tradition all through the nation. After Russia annexed Crimea and helped occupy a part of the Donbas after the Maidan revolution, citing fictitious “fascism” and the necessity to shield the Russian-speaking inhabitants of Ukraine, the processes of decolonization of the nation’s tradition intensified.
Preservation activists felt that this was their new function: to reclaim the historical past of Ukraine and its legacy, to destroy the colonial patterns of the Soviet Union.
One hanging instance of this newfound mission sits on a busy road in considered one of Kyiv’s hottest neighborhoods: a gorgeous constructing lined with useless vines. Items of the facade are mendacity round it, and elements of iron ceilings are protruding of the columns. This constructing was broken not by a Russian bomb however by actual property builders months earlier than the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The modernist constructing, with the intense identify Flowers of Ukraine, was inbuilt Kyiv within the Nineteen Eighties for an establishment finding out flowers. Grapevines have been planted on its facade and grew throughout the constructing over three many years. In the summertime of 2021, a Kyiv development firm obtained permission to rework a lot of the constructing and substitute it with a shopping mall and workplaces; the corporate began by chopping off the grapevines and destroying the facade with excavator buckets. This got here as a shock to the residents of Kyiv.
Dozens of Kyivans took to the streets to guard the constructing, and in a short while, the protesters managed to halt its full destruction. However the damaged facade of the constructing, which sits in the course of town heart, continued to grimly remind us that Ukrainian cultural heritage is fragile.
The Flowers of Ukraine episode left a miserable impression. Passing by, I typically thought that it jogged my memory of a home destroyed by conflict, which I noticed greater than as soon as within the Donbas and Iraq.
Every bit of Kyiv’s area is stuffed with reminiscences that type a residing historical past, handed from hand handy by generations, that’s necessary to protect and shield. Earlier than the conflict, as quickly because it turned recognized {that a} Ukrainian constructing of historic significance was threatened with destruction, residents instantly ran to it and stood up for its protection. And the combat for each single constructing taught us to combat for our houses, cities and nation.
Trying on the information in regards to the destruction of Mariupol, Kharkiv and Kyiv, we hear many voices and the identical mantra: After the conflict, we’ll rebuild all of it; we’ll take again our cities and restore what can’t be destroyed — our tradition.
Katerina Sergatskova is the editor in chief of Zaborona Media and a co-founder of the 2402 Basis, which helps journalists in Ukraine. She has reported from occupied territories in Ukraine and Iraq. She is the creator of “Goodbye, ISIS: What Stays Is Future.”