The exhibition titled “Sincerely, Yevhen Konovalets,” dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the birth of one of the most mysterious and prominent figures in Ukraine’s history of the 20th century, the legendary commander of the Sich Rifle Corps, has opened in Kyiv.
That’s according to the Ukrayinska Literaturna Hazeta referring to the Istorychna Pravda.
The life of Yevhen Konovalets, the Commander of the Ukrainian Military Organization, chairman of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and commander of the most capable unit of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic – the Sich Rifle Corps – was full of struggles, threats, risks, and secrets.
The exhibition offers visitors materials from the collections of the National Museum of History of Ukraine and the Oleh Olzhych Foundation. Here you can find documents and personal belongings of Yevhen Konovalets, his manuscripts, items from his family archive, letters from parents, a passport issued to him by independent Lithuania, and much more.
A separate section of the exposition showcases artifacts related to the terrorist act committed by a special group of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), in which Yevhen Konovalets was murdered.
Among the exhibits is a telegram addressed to Konovalets by NKVD terrorist Pavel Sudoplatov, codename “Valyukh,” who was executor of the assassination targeting the leader of Ukrainian nationalists.
Also on display is a watch worn by the OUN leader at the time of his tragic death, a pen, and a cigarette case, his posthumous mask, documents and photographs related to OUN leader’s funeral in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in May 1938.
During the grand opening of the exhibition, Deputy Director General for Research and Fundamentals of the National Museum of History of Ukraine, Bohdan Patryliak, stressed that the personality of Yevhen Konovalets unites fraternal nations of Ukraine and Lithuania.
“Even back then, the political elite of the two nations realized they must fight together for their independence,” he said.
In turn, the curator of the exhibition, Oleksandr Kucheruk, said the expo shows original items exclusively, with no copies involved. At the same time, most of these items had never been shown to a wide audience before, while researchers were unaware of some of them until recently.
The exhibition will work until October 14, 2021.
