23 August 2017, 09:15
The exposition “The Way of the State. Symbols of the Renaissance” was opened in the Verkhovna Rada on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the transfer the powers of the State Center of the UNR in exile to the Ukrainian authorities
The exposition “The Way of the State. Symbols of the Renaissance” was opened in the Verkhovna Rada on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the transfer the powers of the State Center of the UNR in exile to the Ukrainian authorities.
The exposition is initiated by the Museum of Ukrainian Parliamentarism. Among the exhibits are unique documents and artifacts of Ukrainian history, which testify to the many years of aspiration towards an independent free state, carried by several generations of Ukrainians - from the period of the Ukrainian People's Republic to independent Ukraine. The UNR authorities in 1920 were forced to leave their homeland and for more than 70 years they continued to operate in exile. On November 12, 1920, the Council of People's Ministers approved the Law “On Provisional Supreme Governance and the Procedure of Legislation in the Ukrainian People's Republic”, which became the basis of the activities of the State Center of the UNR. The State Center united all parts of Ukrainian power structures in exile - for a long time it was the Ukrainian National Council and the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic. President was the head of the DP UPR, the first was Symon Petliura, and the last one, the fifth, - Mykola Plaviuk.
The Ukrainian People's Republic in exile, the Ukrainian National Council, the World Congress of Free Ukrainians - the history of these and other authorities and collegial associations of Ukrainian emigration testify to the personal responsibility of Ukrainians for the fate of their own country and the restoration of its independence.
The process of state-building continuity from the Ukrainian People's Republic to independent Ukraine was completed by the symbolic transfer of power by the last president of the UNR in the exile to the first President of the independent Ukraine on August 22, 1992. On this day at the solemn sitting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the palace “Ukraine” solemnly proclaimed the completion of the activities of the State Center of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the emigration. The next day in the Mariinskyi Palace, the delegation of the DC UNR solemnly passed the symbols of the authorities of the DC UNR to the Ukrainian authorities - the Flag, the Seal and the President Kleynod.
In addition to these unique exhibits, an original letter signed by Symon Petliura, the first President of the UNR in exile, as well as a letter of authority issued by the State Center of the UNR, documents of 1917-1921, archival materials, periodicals of those times, photographs, and sculptural images were presented at the exhibition.
A separate accent of the exposition is the documents of the Soviet secret services, such as the report “On the meeting of Petliura youth in Poland” classified as “top secret”. The declassified materials indicate how closely the political and social life of Ukrainian emigrants was carefully monitored.
During the
exhibition “The Way of the State. Symbols of the Renaissance” the visitors are
shown a documentary based on the original newsreel of the key moments of the
Ukrainian history of the 20th century and video citations from the memoirs of
the direct participants of the events of August 22, 1992 - Leonid Kravchuk and
Levko Lukianenko.
Materials for the exhibition were provided by: O. Olzhych, State Archives Service of Ukraine, Central State Archive of Higher Authorities and Governments of Ukraine, Central State Archive of Foreign Ucrainics, Central State Cinophotophone Archives of Ukraine named after H.S. Pshenychnyi, Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine, Sectoral State Archive of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, National History Museum of Ukraine, Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, Research Center of the Liberation Movement, Museum-Archive of the press, IA “Ukrinform”.