Paganini of Oak Branches

Friedrich OhmannA native of Lviv who reshaped central Vienna; architect of the Burggarten and the Palm House at the Hofburg.

Feofan ProkopovychRector of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, taken by Peter I from Kyiv to St Petersburg. Prokopovych formulated the ideology of the Russian Empire.

Damaged poster from a Ukrainian march in the British occupation zoneUkrainian political émigré veterans with a poster in the British occupation zone of Germany, second half of the 1940s.

Diana KarennéDiana Karenné was a star of Italian silent cinema, born in Kyiv. She acted, wrote screenplays, and directed films herself.

Jan StykaJan Styka, author of the Racławice Panorama — a 114-metre painting created in Lviv.

Cossack Mamai beside icons on the wall of a village houseCossack Mamai in the sacred corner beside icons during the bridal veiling ceremony: a secular image in the sacred corner of a village house.

Lviv gymnasium students and athletesLviv gymnasium students and athletes in the courtyard of Sokil-Batko. At the top of the human pyramid is Roman Shukhevych; below is Bohdan Kordiuk, and first from the left in the second row is Bohdan Pidhainyi. The photograph was preserved by the Pidhainyi family.

Gold covering of a gorytos from a Scythian burial moundGold covering of a gorytos, the bow-and-arrow case worn by a Scythian warrior on the left side of the belt. 4th century BCE, Melitopol burial mound, excavated in 1954.

Wilhelm Kotarbiński among Kyiv artistsA group photograph from Kyiv’s artistic milieu. Those identified include Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Mark Antokolsky, Pavel Svedomsky, Ivan Seleznyov, Mykola Pymonenko, and Vasily Polenov. More than portraits, it documents the network of people shaping Kyiv’s cultural life.

Embroidered Shirts of Different Ethnographic Groups — from Criminal Case FilesA Ukrainian woman from Zakarpattia. One of the photographs found in investigative case files. The clothing they tried to erase survived in the files of those who tried to erase it. This criminal case existed as an instrument of Soviet ethnic cleansing: Russian imperial and Soviet authorities persecuted Ukrainian identity long before the modern Russo-Ukrainian war.