New Collections of Urban Media Archive

We are pleased to present two new digitized collections on the page of the Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History.

A real gem among our collections is Marko Zaliznyak, a self-taught photographer from Donetsk region whose photos are known worldwide as a visual embodiment of the dekulakization that led to the Holodomor in the Ukrainian countryside. However, his work also covers other topics, such as Dmytro Yavornytskyi's ethnographic expedition to the villages before they were flooded by the DniproHES (Dnipro Dam) in 1931.

We are grateful to Marko Zaliznyak's grandson Volodymyr Havshchuk for his trust. We also thank Angelina Rozhkova and the Pokrovsk Historical Museum and the Yavornytskyi Dnipro National Historical Museum for their cooperation in digitizing and identifying the materials.

The collection is available on the website of the Urban Media Archive.

The era of the 1990s is becoming a special myth as it moves further and further away in time. Our collections include one that allows us to look at this myth critically. About 50,000 photographic negatives by Mykola Bilokon, which are kept in the Pokrovsk Historical Museum, show literally all aspects of the city's life from the 1980s to the 2000s. Not only potholes on the roads, food lines, and sobering-up stations, but also the emergence of entrepreneurship, new places of consumption, the Ukrainian village hall, and democratic elections. And also the continuity with the previous times — communist rallies, celebrations of Miner's Day.

We invite you to take a closer look at the life of Pokrovsk, a city that we often hear about in the disturbing news today, but know little about its cultural heritage.

The digitization of this collection was made possible with the support of ALIPH (International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas).

You can view the photographs here.

Credits

Cover Image: Marko Zaliznyak with a turtle / collection of Volodymyr Havshchuk / Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History

Gallery 1: Collection of Volodymyr Havshchuk / Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History

Gallery 2: photos by Mykola Bilokon / collection of the Pokrovsk Historical Museum / Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History