Destruction of Identity

The aggressor is doing its best to deprive us of the historical environment, which is recorded in architecture. The more than 370-year history of Kharkiv's urban development has left many monuments: the city is one of the five cities in Ukraine with the richest historical and architectural heritage. Very often, Russian missiles destroy old buildings so that they cannot be restored. And this is a tragedy! The strategy of devaluing our history laid down in the Soviet Union is still working today: it is the destruction of national identity. When historical sites are destroyed, the evidence of our existence in the past is destroyed. That is, the narrative of a "single fraternal people" will be much easier to prove when our historical environment is taken away from us, notes architect-restorer Viktor Dvornikov. The expedition group he leads travels around Kharkiv region to record the loss of cultural heritage and document the extent of the destruction of historical monuments. In our film, we are talking about the destruction of several buildings of the State Biotechnology University: the one at 19 Rozhdestvenska Street and the one at 45 Heroiv Kharkivu Avenue. The shelling of these monuments with S-300 missiles also affected the surrounding cultural heritage sites. Fragments of the central part of the building collapsed, windows, roofs, exterior walls, and engineering systems were damaged. The inability to maintain the temperature regime causes further destruction of interior finishes, walls, and ceilings.

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Supported by the Democracy Commission Small Grants Program of the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine. The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Government.