On May 17, 2026, on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions, the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts honours the memory of millions of Ukrainians who fell victim to the Soviet totalitarian regime.

We remember those taken away by “Black Marias” (prison vans) in the dead of night, those who died in the Gulag camps from hunger and exhaustion, and those whose names were erased from history and buried under lime in unmarked mass graves of Bykivnia, Dem’ianiv Laz, and other execution sites.

A special place in this collective memory belongs to the tragedy of Ukrainian kobzars — bearers of folk culture and spirituality. In the 1930s, a congress of kobzars was held in Kharkiv, after which they, along with their guides, were executed. The Soviet authorities even spread a cynical slogan: “Keep the kobzars under close control!”, as they were the living voice of the people and their history. The persecution of kobzars became a symbol of the regime’s attempt to erase the very soul of Ukrainian culture.

During those same years, the creative elite of the Ukrainian nation was destroyed: artist Mykhailo Boychuk and his art school, theatre director Les Kurbas, and writer Mykola Khvylovy.

The residents of the famous “Slovo” (Word) building in Kharkiv also suffered tragic fates — Valerian Pidmohylny, Maik Yohansen, Yevhen Pluzhnyk, Hryhorii Kosynka, Mykhailo Yalovy, Mykola Kulish, and many others.

Later, even during the “Thaw” period, artist Alla Horska — a symbol of the resilience of the Sixtiers (Shistdesiatnyky) movement — was brutally murdered.

Today, as Ukraine fights for its independence once more, we witness the direct continuity between the crimes of the Soviet totalitarian regime and modern Russian aggression.

We honour the memory of the soldiers and civilians who have lost their lives in this war. The Ukrainian spirit lives on in our memory, in our culture, and in our struggle.

The Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts reaffirms the continuity of resistance through the preservation of national memory. We are the descendants of those who survived to tell the truth, and it is this memory that gives us the strength to endure and stand firm today.

Anastasiia Shmihol

Не зійти з місця (Stay in place). Linocut. 2025