Remembrance is the responsibility of every Ukrainian: documentary project Diaries of the Civilians: Voices of those who survived and those who did not was presented in Kyiv
On October 30, 2024, the documentary project Diaries of the Civilians: Voices of those who survived and those who did not was presented in Kyiv space of the Museum of Civilian Voices of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. The space is located on the first floor of the Kyiv City History Museum and is dedicated to the importance of personal documentation and remembrance of the experiences during the war.
"We all live in a war. The truth about it is made up of our stories and will remain. That is why I urge each of you to write and preserve your stories - for yourself and for your children. The Ukrainian skill of remembering is a muscle, and it is the responsibility of each of us to train it. Every story is important. A story may be small today and be gigantic tomorrow, it may be small for you, but it will be priceless for your children, grandchildren, and so on. Therefore, train your memory muscle, keep diaries, create family archives," said Nataliia Yemchenko, member of the Supervisory Board of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.
Part of the opening programme was a reading of excerpts from the diaries of the Museum of Civilian Voices' heroes. The thoughts of these people, written down by themselves, were heard in the voices of actress and TV presenter Rymma Ziubina and actor and presenter Oleksiy Sukhanov, who read the diaries live in the museum space.
The presentation included a panel discussion entitled Diaries as Ego Documents of War, with speakers Anatoliy Khromov, Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine, Diana Popova, Director General of the Kyiv City History Museum, and Nataliia Yemchenko, Member of the Supervisory Board of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. The event was moderated by Oleksiy Ananov, a journalist, presenter and theatre producer. They talked about the significance of the ego-document in the context of war and its role as a document created by professionals and ordinary people who record wartime events.
The museum space is based on two true stories from Mariupol, which were donated to the Museum of Civilian Voices by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. These are the stories of Kateryna Savenko and Volodymyr Velychko. Stories of tragedy and salvation. Stories with different endings - they tell everything exactly as it happened, from firsthand accounts.
Since 2014, the Museum of Civilian Voices has been collecting, storing and sharing testimonies of civilians about their experiences during the war in Ukraine, making it the largest such archive in the world and a valuable source of truth about the war. The museum already has more than 120,000 stories and is updated with new ones every day.
The space of the Museum of Civilian Voices is open for free entry from 12:00 to 19:00 from Wednesday to Sunday at the following address: 7 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street, Kyiv, first floor of the Kyiv City History Museum.
