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Virtual exhibition "This can not be forgotten" to the Day of Tribulation and commemorating war victims in Ukraine

June 22, 2016 Kirovohrad Regional Art Museum will present the virtual exhibition "This can not be forgotten" to the Day of Tribulation  and commemorating victims of World War II in Ukraine.

Unfortunately, today part of Ukrainian society is inclined to think that in times of a hybrid war with Moscow Horde theme of the Second World War has lost its relevance and therefore we should not recollect it. Adequate and well educated in matters of human history person can not agree with this. In fact, it’s on the contrary - the military aggression of the ambitious neighbor neo-fascist makes it more relevant than ever such notions as love to Motherland and willingness to defend it even at the cost of own life, self-sacrifice for the sake of high ideals, active citizenship, holy hatred of the enemy and so on. Moreover, the events of the present war resonates with the events of that war creating certain associations:

Ilovaisk - Minsk boiler 1941, Mariupol - heroic defense of Odessa and Sevastopol, Donetsk airport – Stalinрrad, Debaltseve - Kursk arch, "New Order"  of Third Reich - "Russian world" etc.

A true reflection of the events of World War II, among them - heroic "Battle for Britain" at the time when Hitler and Stalin were active friends and cooperated active economic assistance to the Soviet Union by the United States and the UK, significant contribution of Ukrainians in the victory over Nazism in Europe is needed today and in view of the frenzied informational war of Moscow Horde against Western civilization as oblivion of the true history is the basis for many Soviet myths that still entertain the Asia-fascist "Russian world".

Therefore, the purpose of the presented exhibition  is highlighting heroic and at the same time tragic pages of our history since the Second World War and  cannibalistic nature of fascism and nazism, patriotic education of the youth as the future of our country on the example of heroism of those who saved humanity from the "brown plague". The other aim is to make people think about the consequences of excessive ambitions of some politicians, able to donate millions of lives for the realization of their aggressive plans.

The event, which we now celebrate as the day of mourning and commemorating war victims in Ukraine took place exactly 75 years ago. June 22, 1941, without declaring war, the Third Reich put an unexpected blow to its former ally and the main rival for supremacy in Europe - the Soviet Union putting "Father of all people" Yosyp Stalin in stupor. Thus a new phase of that time’s war began. It lasted 1418 days and nights. It was an uncompromising battle of two titans, two sworn friends, two terrible emperors, which was to identify the owner of Europe. Nazi Germany and its allies brought down onto the USSR a terrible blow: 190 divisions - 5,5 mln people, more than 4 thousand tanks, 47,000 guns and mortars, 4,500 aircrafts and 200 ships. The Soviet army could oppose about 3 million soldiers and commanders, 1800 heavy and medium tanks, 1540 planes of the new design.

Before the war with Stalin, Hitler carefully prepared, relying on data of highly professional German intelligence service. December 18, 1940, he signed a directive number 21, codenamed "Barbarossa", which was the basis of strategic theory Blitzkrieg - lightning war against the Soviet Union. According to this document, the defeat of the Red Army was planned during 1.5-2 months, the longest - during five months, and coming of German troops on the line Arhangelsk-Astrakhan-Kuibyshev. Later on it was planned to complete elimination of the Soviet state and the creation on its territory of 4 German provinces. A terrible fate awaited for Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv and several other Soviet cities that were decided to blow up, or to flood.

The mass destruction of entire folks was planned, whom Hitler contemptuously called "inferior nations" that have no right to exist. Thus, at a large meeting of March 30, 1941, he openly declared that there was need to eliminate 30 million of Slavs, and then the population will be regulated in an amount necessary to service the Aryan race. In May 1940 a directive on the development of plan "Ost" was adopted, according to which the territory of Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine and the European part of Russia was supposed to settle with the Germans and after colonization to include into Germany and the inhabitants of these regions, after appropriate filtration to evict to Western Siberia.

The beginning of war of Hitler against Red Empire became triumphant for Germany and disastrous for the Soviet Union. At the beginning of August 1941 the Soviet Union lost almost all its army, and it seemed that nothing could stop the Wehrmacht on the way to Moscow, Leningrad and Kyiv. But further development of events received an unexpected turn for the German plans significantly reducing the degree of the previous euphoria. After broken defense new Soviet divisions appeared. It became clear that Germany had underestimated its opponents, its military and industrial potential, inexhaustible human resources. The problem for the Nazis became a vast territory of the USSR, which, first of all created conditions for the removal of industrial plants to the east of the country followed by adjusting the production of military weapons, and secondly - enabled Soviet forces to retreat constantly, tearing plans of Germans regarding the implementation of Polish or French options. In addition, the Red Army gradually leaving coma, was doing a decent resistance, reducing the attack rate of the enemy.

But for being able to stop for breath and even win some time the Red Army paid a great price. Already in the first month of the war it lost about 1 million people, including 300,000 dead and 700,000 prisoners. And in the period from June to December 1941, the Soviet military losses totaled 3 mln. 138 thousand soldiers, 6 million small arms, 20,000 tanks, 10,000 planes. The territory of USSR invaded by the Wehrmacht, exaggerated 1.5 million sq. M. kilometers - three times more than France. For comparison in the same period German army lost about 750 thousand people, in aviation - several thousand aircrafts.

 1941 was "distinguished" with the large number of Soviet prisoners of war, victims of unprecedented scale captivities (so-called "boilers"). So in the Belarusian "boiler" (June-July) 328 thousand of Soviet soldiers and commanders were got in captivity, in Smolensk (July-August) - 310 thousand, near Uman (August) - 103 thousand, near Kyiv (September) - 665 thousand, at Vyazma and Bryansk (October) - 663 thousand. The massive captivities of Soviet troops, unfortunately, continued in 1942, the year, in particular - in Kerch (May) - 150 thousand, and in Kharkiv (May) - 240 thousand.

Precise data on the total number of Soviet prisoners is still unknown. Western and our country researchers can still be called in only approximate figures - around 5 million in 1941-1945, of which - about 3 million for the first two years of war.

Unfortunately, the feature of the geographical location of Ukraine, which was the scene of two dictators Hitler and Stalin battle and its almost colonial status within the Soviet empire had for it, without exaggeration, catastrophic consequences. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the "battle for Ukraine" began long before the Second World War, which was particularly manifested in the genocide against the Ukrainian peasantry, destroying of Ukrainian intelligentsia, military experts and others.

Suffering of red fascists Ukrainian people got the opportunity to verify the fact of horrible sense of brown fascism. During the occupation, the Germans created in Ukraine more than 230 concentration camps and ghettos, destroyed 3.8 million civilians and 1.5 million military prisoners, nearly 2.4 million people were taken to forced labor in Germany. More than 250 Ukrainian villages were burned to the ground.

But the Wehrmacht hope that all Ukrainians will immediately rush to revenge the commissioners and will accept "New Order" with joy did not turn into reality. The proof of this is in particular the fact that in the Soviet Army and Navy fought over 7 million of Ukrainian soldiers. Half of them perished on the front, and every second of those left alive, returned home disabled.

The total number of dead Ukrainians is calculated according to various sources, from 8 to 10 million, and this is one in six Ukrainians.

So the scale of the tragedy of Ukraine in that war and the contribution made by our people in the common matter of peace is difficult to exaggerate. Therefore, an insult to those who dare today call Ukrainians fascists is quite adequate, understandable and justified.

 

As for the presented exhibition an extremely symbolic meaning is in the picture of Petro Kodiev "Alarm" (1954), as it reflects the alarm of storks, birds of peace and serenity, because of gunfire and explosions of fierce battle that symbolizes the end of a peaceful time and the beginning of war.

Nobody can stay indifferent after another work of the artist - "Occupation" (1954), which vividly illustrates the terrible condition of civilians, victims of the Nazi occupation.

The tragedy of the war first months, the critical situation in which Red Army soldiers found themselves, and their overwhelming desire to stop with any price offensive operations of fascists is transferred in the works of Volodymyr Parchevskyi "Onto the vultures - Fire" (1965), Oleksandr Foinytskyi "The Sinking Ship" ( 1962) and Leonid Kornieiev "Height" (1995).

Particular attention is drawn to the work of Fedir Bochkov "Frontline Night" (1943), because it is the only painting in the exhibition, which was created directly during the war. It reflects the atmosphere of a brief period of rest, silence and preparation for the following fight. True reflection of those events was the work of Olha Titova "Front. 1942. "(1969), dedicated to the tireless toilers of the rear, whose heroic round the clock work helped Soviet soldiers to approximate the victory.

Another painting of the exhibition by above-mentioned Kodiev Petro - "Field of combat glory" (1956) picks up the theme of the memory of those who first took the blow of formidable enemy in 1941 and laid the foundations for stability of far victory.

 

Oleh Yurchenko - Senior Research Associate of

Kirovohrad Regional Art Museum