Draft:Museum of Lesya Ukrainka, Yalta

The Lesya Ukrainka Museum, also known as the Museum of Pre-Revolutionary Progressive Russian and Ukrainian Culture, Memorial Museum of Lesya Ukrainka (Yalta) exhibition “Yalta. Century XIX", is a museum in Yalta, Crimea. It is dedicated to Ukrainian poetess and cultural figure Lesya Ukrainka, who once lived in the building and spent two years of her life in Yalta. In 1977, it was first set up as a branch of the Yalta Museum of Local Lore in the USSR. In Ukraine, since 1993, the museum has the status of a separate, independent cultural institution. In 2014 it was assigned as a department of the Yalta Historical and Literary Museum.

Historical background
Ukrainka first came to Yalta in 1897, staying in the Lishchinskaya mansion, designed by Yalta architect Platon Terebenyev in 1884-1885. She cherished the inexpensive and conveniently located accommodation near the sea. Initially, she was living on the first floor, then later on the second floor. In letters, the writer described her temporary residence as follows:

"“Today I wrote to dad about my new home: right here, only on the second floor. In winter, people au rez-de-chaussée do not live here, and they are right, because here the gardens are green all winter and therefore there is always shade on the lower floors, while very good during summer, it dissipates humidity in winter. With the help of a little 'military strategy' on my part, my mistress gave me this house for 15 rubles, even though I myself see that, according to local customs, it is worth 20 rubles. It has two windows, one to the east, the second to the west, with double but not sealed frames (if anyone wants, they can pack it here too, but, in my opinion, this is unnecessary), a bed with springs, a couch, a large armchair (and not torn at that!), two tables, a wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a washbasin, 'the same as at the station', and a screen. The door opens to a large paned veranda, half of which belongs to me, and half to my neighbor, a lady from Revel with two children, Larisa (15 years old) and Vitya (10 years old).”"

She later visited Crimea again - i.e. Yalta, Alushta, and Sevastopol - in early 1907. In August of that year, she moved to Yalta with her husband, Kliment Kvitka, and stayed there for almost two years. In a newspaper insertion the poetess advertised herself as "Chtytsa, knowing six languages, looking for a job in the city." She found at least two students who came to her Yalta home to take lessons. The relationship with the student Leoni Razumov and her family was particularly warm.

Ukrainka took care of replenishing the city's reading room with Ukrainian books, for example, she asked her mother to send Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar to Stakhanov's librarian, "because people are asking for it a lot." During her stay in Crimea, she created a number of poems and other literary works, e.g. the dramatic poem "Aisha and Mohammed", the poem "Cassandra", and the dramatic poem "On the Ruins".

Founding
An initiative group to create a museum for the poetess in Yalta was formed in the early 1970s on the eve of the centenary of the birth of Ukrainka. In particular, it included one of her students, a researcher in the field of winemaking by the name of Mykola S. Okhrimenko. He was joined by Oleksii Nyrko, Oleksandr Yanush, Ostap Kindrachuk, Tsymbal Tetyana Ivanivna and other Yalta intellectuals, local historians and artists. A concurrent group of activists hailed from Kyiv, led by Yevhen Proniuk.

As a result of their efforts, a monument to the poetess was erected in the city, sculpted by Galina Kalchenko with Anatoly Ignashchenko as the architect, a memorial plaque was installed on the building where she lived in 1897, and the collection of associated exhibits was initiated. On December 23, 1977, a branch of the Yalta Museum of Local Lore was opened in the building with the exhibition "Museum of Pre-Revolutionary Progressive Russian and Ukrainian Culture."

However, generally speaking, the work on creating the Lesya Ukrainka Museum was not completed by then. Due to the persecution of the national intelligentsia in the 1970s up until the late 1980s, work on the museum was temporarily stopped. The house was completely restored in 1990.

Memorial Museum of Lesya Ukrainka (1993—2014)
In 1991, the exhibition "Lesya Ukrainka and Crimea" was opened in the museum to mark the 120th anniversary of the poetess' birth. On September 10, 1993, at the request of the Ukrainian public organization Prosvita ("Enlightenment"), a Yalta branch of the Union of Ukrainian Women, and after persistent public pressure overcame the long-standing resistance of officials, the Yalta City Executive Committee conferred the existing exhibition the status of a museum - as a branch of the Yalta State Historical and Literary Museum - it was henceforth known as the Museum of Lesya Ukrainka.

On the basis of the Lesya Ukrainka Museum in Yalta, the city's first school teaching in Ukrainian was founded. The museum premises serve as additional classrooms for students of the Crimean State Humanitarian Institute. The national amateur theater "Seven Muses" was created in the museum, and a large library on the history and development of Ukrainian culture was cumulated.

For the 10-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, thanks to continued accumulation of the museum's collection, the exhibition "Firestones" was opened with the help of the International Renaissance Foundation. Its main theme was the multifaceted creative personality of Lesya Ukrainka. In a lobby and three diverse exhibition rooms, it presented to visitors the historical and cultural context of Lesya Ukrainka's time in Crimea. It included the living room, typical of a 19th century Yalta resort; Ukrainian magazines in which, in addition to the work of Lesya Ukrainka, other Ukrainian writers of the 19th and early 20th centuries were discussed, whose fate was somehow connected to Crimea; and the "antique" hall, which recreated the spirit of ancient Tauris, which Lesya Ukrainka felt so vividly and wove into her texts, which she worked on in Crimea. The exhibition was on display until the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Until 2014, the director of the museum was Olesya Visich, the scientific curator was Svetlana Kocherga.

Modern exhibition “Yalta. XIX century"
After the occupation of Crimea by Russia and the completion of renovations in the building, it became a department of the Yalta Historical and Literary Museum. The exhibition is called “Yalta. 19th century." Four halls tell about the literary, musical, artistic and philistine life of Yalta. The interior of a typical Yalta mansion of the 19th century has been recreated. Authentic furniture, household items, books, paintings, and historical photos create the atmosphere of Yalta in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On display are F. I. Shaliapin's chairs, a piano from J. Pfeiffer's music store, a gramophone from the American Phonoton Co., a table at which L. N. Tolstoy sat, sheet music with autographs of singers and composers, personal belongings - introducing the musicians and writers whose life and work are connected with Yalta. Particular attention is paid to the Ukrainian writer and playwright Lesya Ukrainka, who rented rooms from Lishchinskaya in 1897.

The architecture of the city, houses, streets and estates are represented by the work of the architect Nikolai Petrovich Krasnov. More than 300 exhibits are presented - rare photographs, documents, drawings.