The cozy estate at 9 Pankivska Street, just like over a hundred years ago, will enchant everyone who visits it. The only exhibit — the Hrushevsky House — from which the history of the museum began in 1992, remains the most valuable asset today, and the voice of its memory — a unique key to understanding the mission and concept of the revived historical monument.

The museum’s exposition has been open since November 2006 in the memorial house, which Mykhailo Hrushevsky purchased in 1908 with his wife, brother and sister. The estate, located in the historical Pankivshchyna, in the heart of the famous “Latin Quarter”, was also consecrated by Ukrainian myth. The acquired estate was enclosed by Pankivska, Mykilsko-Botanichna and Tarasivska streets. There was a legend about their names, supposedly they came from the names of the Cyril and Methodius monks – Panteleimon Kulish, Mykola Kostomarov and Taras Shevchenko. Officially not confirmed, this popular myth gave the estate a special national flavor.

This flavor was emphasized by the six-story, with an attic, profitable “family house” built next to it, the facade of which was decorated in the Ukrainian style according to the project of the talented architect and artist Vasyl Krychevsky. It was a kind of challenge – Hrushevsky preferred to emphasize his unbridled Ukrainianness in this way. Thus, in the center of Kyiv, since 1909, a unique architectural creation shone with the colors of majolica, which its owners were proud of and called “a gift of beauty to Kyiv.” Not accepting the proclaimed independent Ukraine, independent of anyone, during the offensive on Kyiv in January 1918, the Bolshevik army deliberately shelled this handsome man. During the fire, the unique collections of Ukrainian antiquities, the historian’s library and archive burned down.

Only the three-story outbuilding survived, which brother Oleksandr and sister Anna had loved since 1908. The elder brother Mykhailo also returned from emigration to this only family shelter. And now here, in the three rooms that Mykhailo Hrushevsky occupied with his wife Maria and only daughter Kateryna in 1924–1931, a memorial apartment has been recreated (the scientist’s study, living room, daughter’s room). The scientific concept of this unique exhibition is based on the famous words of the Kobzar: “We do not have a grain of untruth behind us.” And that is why in the memorial apartment you can see only the furniture and household items of the Hrushevskys.

The study is a unique museum reconstruction, which was possible thanks to photographs taken at the end of 1929, which captured every corner of the historian’s home study. The scientist’s real treasure was his library (over 4 thousand books) – the third book collection in his life. Volumes of the historian’s fundamental works, periodicals, gift books with donors, rare copies with the famous ink stamps “Mykhailo Hrushevsky”, and sometimes entire volumes of encyclopedias – are gradually “returning” to their place. Almost the only decoration of the study was a floor clock – an original work of the 1830s by the Novgorod-Siversky master, a former serf Khomy Shot.

The aroma of their favorite coffee, which the Hrushevskys would gather for in a cozy living room with their family and friends, takes us back to those times, to quiet conversations, and sometimes even carols. Here, three generations of a friendly family, whose hope and support was Mykhailo Serhiyovych, look out from old photos.

The emotional dominant of the memorial exhibition was the room of his daughter — the “star of the first magnitude” of the Hrushevsky historical school. Two rarities are presented — a photo portrait of the historian, presented to him by his students on his 60th birthday, and a picturesque portrait of Kateryna Hrushevskaya by Ivan Trush. These exhibits create a virtual dialogue of kindred spirits and equal colleagues: father and daughter, teacher and student, who side by side created a great national science — the future of Ukraine.

It was at Pankivska 9 in 1926 that Mykhailo Hrushevsky wrote his short autobiography, the plots of which are concisely reproduced in the historical and biographical exposition. The architectural and artistic solution of this section is based on the so-called “Krychevsky line”, which unites the museum into a holistic ensemble. Here you can get acquainted with personal documents, manuscripts, letters of the historian and his relatives, the most complete collection of works by M. Hrushevsky in Ukraine and publications edited by him, a unique iconographic collection.