Historical and memorial museum of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi

The cozy manor at Pankivska 9, as it was more than a hundred years ago, will enchant everyone who comes here. The only exhibit — the House of the Hrushevskys — with which the history of the museum began in 1992, remains the most valuable asset even today, and the voice of his memory is a unique key to understanding the mission and concept of a revived historical monument.

The museum exhibition has been open since November 2006 in the memorial house, which was purchased by Mykhailo Hrushevskyi with his wife, brother and sister in 1908. The manor, spread out in the historical Pankivshchyna, in the heart of the well-known "Latin quarter", was also consecrated by a Ukrainian myth. The acquired estate was closed by Pankivska, Mykilsko-Botanichna and Tarasivska streets. There was a legend about their names, they say they come from the names of the Cyril-Methodians — Panteleimon Kulish, Mykola Kostomarov, and Taras Shevchenko. Not officially confirmed, this popular myth gave the manor a special national flavor.

This color was emphasized by the nearby six-story profitable "family house" with an attic, the facade of which was decorated in the Ukrainian style according to the project of the talented architect and artist Vasyl Krychevskyi. It was a kind of challenge - Hrushevsky wanted to emphasize his untamed Ukrainianness in this way. Thus, in the center of Kyiv, from 1909, a unique architectural creation shone with the colors of majolica, which its owners were proud of and called "a gift of the beauty of Kyiv." Having not come to terms with the proclaimed independent Ukraine, during the offensive on Kyiv in January 1918, the Bolshevik army deliberately fired at this handsome man. During the fire, the unique collections of Ukrainian antiquities, the library and archive of the historian burned down.

Only the three-story outbuilding survived, which was enjoyed by brother Oleksandr and sister Hanna since 1908. The older brother Mykhailo also returned from emigration to this only family shelter. And now here, in the three rooms occupied by Mykhailo Hrushevskyi with his wife Maria and only daughter Kateryna in 1924–1931, a memorial apartment has been recreated (the scientist's office, living room, daughter's room). The scientific concept of this unique exposition is based on the famous words of 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 made possible thanks to the photographs taken at the end of 1929, which captured every corner of the historian's home study. The real treasure of the scientist was the library (more than 4,000 books) - already the third book collection during his life. Volumes of the historian's fundamental works, periodicals, gift books with gifts, rare copies with the famous "Mykhailo Hrushevsky" ink stamps, and sometimes entire corpuses of encyclopedias - step by step "return" to their place. The floor clock was not the only decoration of the office - an original creation of the 1830s by the Novgorod-Siver craftsman, former serf Khoma Shot.

The aroma of their favorite coffee, for which the Hrushevskis gathered in the cozy living room with family and friends, brings back those times, to quiet conversations, and sometimes carols. 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 daughter's room - the "stars of the first magnitude" of Hrushevsky's historical school. Two rarities are presented: a photo portrait of the historian, presented to him by his students on the day of his 60th birthday, and a portrait of Kateryna Hrushevska painted by Ivan Trush. These exhibits create a virtual dialogue of kindred souls and equal colleagues: father and daughter, teacher and student, who side by side created great national science — the future of Ukraine.

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

Reviving the traditions of Pankivska 9, the museum has become a venue for conferences, presentations, and seminars, which are combined into a series called "Historical Exercises in the Hrushevskyi House." Exhibition projects are subordinated to the main idea: to revive in a new format the lost collection of Ukrainian antiquities of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi. That is why at all traditional "Vernisages in Hrushevskyi" works of art "in the taste" of an outstanding researcher and admirer of Ukrainian culture are presented. In the summer, guests of the museum gather on the terrace for an exquisite event called "Coffee Stories of the Hrushevskys" - stories about the art and philosophy of communication. Among the new projects are a walk through the Botanical Garden "Romantic Encounters with Mykhailo Hrushevsky", which introduces us to the future professor in love, festivals called "Hrushevsky Garden Party", a theatrical tour-performance "Outside the Eyes", a pedestrian route "Mykhailo Hrushevsky's Volodymyr Path", an excursion -discourse "Myths about Mykhailo Hrushevskyi and reality".

Having celebrated the 10th anniversary of the opening of the exposition (November 2016) and the 25th anniversary of the museum's creation (February 2017), the museum's scientists proudly conclude: the long-standing dream of becoming a center of pear studies in Ukraine has become a reality. Over 25 years, museum employees have written about 200 scientific works, published in respected academic journals and anthologies, encyclopedias and magazines, organized and published 8 book editions. The museum has a library of Hrushev literature and Ukrainian studies, in which every visitor can get acquainted with the latest acquisitions of modern researchers, watch documentaries about the Great Ukrainian and try to understand: "Who is Mykhailo Hrushevsky?"...