A museum in Prague that once held nearly a million artifacts relating to Ukraine’s drive for independence was shut down by Czechoslovakia’s communist rulers in 1948. The contents of the museum were scattered and largely lost, but RFE/RL has sourced remnants of the museum that survive in two Prague archives today.
The cover of an inventory listing the contents of the Ukrainian museum in Prague seen in the Czech Republic's National Archives.
The Museum of the Liberation Struggle of Ukraine was born of the exodus of Ukrainians into Czechoslovakia following the Bolshevik invasion of Ukraine in 1917-21. By the early 1920s, tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians fleeing the Bolshevik takeover sought refuge in Czechoslovakia.
Ukrainians on Prague’s Old Town Square in the 1920s
The young nation of Czechoslovakia was chosen as a safe haven for many due to what Prague called the “Russian Aid Action.” The state initiative was launched in 1921 to financially support around 20,000 Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians fleeing the communist takeover of the former Russian empire.
