aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Re: Another museum expropirated

["Jurij Dobczansky" <jdob@loc.gov>]

The church in question presently houses an impressive display of Ukrainian embroidery. A photo of the interior of the church in question is at the bottom of this webpage: http://7chudes.in.ua/info/63.htm 

As a recent visitor to the Pereiaslav open-air museum, I recall that most of the architectual exhibits are either reconstructions of ancient sites or were physically dismantled and brought in from nearby locations, very much like the "Shevchenkivsky Hai" in Lviv. How, one might ask, is the museum to allow one denomination or another to "own" or make use of these ancient churches inside a national-level historical preserve? 

As is the case with many cultural institutions in Ukraine today, the Pereiaslav complex is lacking in funds and manpower. See the July 13 issue of Dzerkalo Tyzhnia: http://www.dt.ua/3000/3100/59885/

In the best of possible scenarios, renting the facility to finance the museum's upkeep would not be desirable for obvious reasons (most buildings are fragile wooden structures). However, a hostile take-over of the kind described in http://nbb.com.ua/index.php?id=13&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=972&tx_ttnews[backPid]=11&cHash=7de1073df9
is totally reprehensible.

Like the blockade of the building which used to house the Pylyp Orlyk Institute in Kyiv staged by "monks" of the Moscow patriarchate, the assault in Pereiaslav is merely another example of the pressures exerted by Ukraine's "neighbor" to the North.

Question: how will Ukraine's government react?