Університетські музеї і війна в Україні

Abstract

The article is devoted to a preliminary analysis of the activities of university museums in wartime conditions. Since the beginning of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2014, the system of higher education has undergone significant destruction. In the occupied territories of Luhansk, Donetsk regions and Crimea, the occupation authorities liquidated Ukrainian universities. Our state suffered not only great material losses, but also irreparable losses of a significant part of the cultural heritage accumulated and preserved by university museums. Despite the unfortunate experience of 2014, university museums were not prepared for a full-scale military invasion. No state body takes care of and purposefully does not provide funds for the maintenance and protection of such museums and their collections. Preservation of national heritage in university museums takes on a spontaneous nature and depends only on the conscious position of the university rector. In a situation of martial law, university museums and their collections in many cases were far from the first in line for attention and evacuation. Often, there was simply not enough time, people and logistical capabilities for this. In fact, all the responsibility for their preservation was voluntarily assumed by the museum workers themselves on the ground. The lack of a full-fledged legal status, which ensures standards of protection and financing, was also shown. University museums are often not registered and are not accounted for in any way. Today it is not even possible to count how many and which profiles of museums there are in higher school of Ukraine, how they work, what, how and how much they store. Using the example of the museums of two leading universities in Kyiv, the authors share their own experience of working in wartime conditions and present conclusions regarding the organization of university museology. Key words: armed aggression of the Russian Federation, education, museum, university.