When will the «Battle for the Dnipro» end in public consciousness: a discussion around the re-exposition of diorama and the hall of the history of the World War II in the Dmytro Yavornitskiy Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum

Abstract

The article highlights the key issues of the social debate that broke out in the city of Dnipro in 2017‒2022 as part of the modernization of the «Battle for the Dnipro» diorama and the re-exposition of the hall of the history of the WWII in Dmytro Yavornitskiy Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum. The need for re-exposition was caused by the technical condition of the existing museum space and the challenges of de- Sovietization and decolonization. Despite the obvious need for periodic renewal of the museum space, a large part of the city’s public took a confrontational approach to the museum. This social confrontation was caused by nostalgia for the Soviet Union, the mass perception of the museum as an unchanging space, the desire of individual citizens to see the stories of their ancestors in the exposition, that is, a kind of «appropriation of memories». The war for the heroes and symbols of the new exhibition and for the dead lines of implementation of this museum project, which is taking place in the public consciousness of our time, seems to metaphorically continue the «Battle for the Dnipro» of 1943. Currently, due to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, active repair work in the museum has stopped. Despite the social pressure, the group working on the re-exposition, nevertheless, continues to stand on the positions of anthropocentrism, the importance to highlight uncomfortable issues and fill the "blind spots" of history with museum methods. The «Battle for the Dnipro» diorama, the World War II History Hall, and the Museum of the Modern Russian- Ukrainian War, combined in space, will become a complete complex of the military history of the region.