Museum of Soviet Occupation, Kiev

Museum of Soviet Occupation

The entrance to the Museum of Soviet occupation in 2007.
Established	November 2001
Location	Kiev, Ukraine
Website	http://memorial.kiev.ua/expo/eng/second.html

The Museum of Soviet occupation (Ukrainian: Музей радянської окупації, Muzei radianskoi okupatsii) in Kiev, Ukraine, is devoted to portraying the crimes of the Soviet regime in Ukraine from 1917 to 1991. It was established in November 2001 by the Vasyl Stus branch of Memorial Society as an exhibition "Not to be forgotten: The Chronicle of Communist inquisition." Between 2001 and 2007, the exposition grew into a full fledged museum. On May 30, 2007, it received its current name.

In November 2001, the Vasyl Stus branch of Memorial Society established on its premises an exhibition titled "Not to be forgotten: The Chronicle of Communist inquisition." Documents, photographs and posters made up the initial items of the exposition. These were gathered by the Memorial branch in Ukraine and by sister-organizations in Russia. Among the most interesting exposee items is a large map of concentration camps compiled during the time of Beria.

The exhibition contains such sections as "Kyivskyi martirolog", "Ukrainski Solovky", language issue, special library. It has a plenty of archive documents, books, videotapes etc.

In May, 2007, the above mentioned exhibition was named a Museum of Soviet occupation.

The Museum was visited by Honorary President of the Paneuropean Union, European politician and a direct descendant of the Habsburg family Otto von Habsburg.

The activities and the fact itself of the opening of such institution raised disputes in the Ukrainian society. The Head of the State Archive Committee of Ukraine Olha Ginsburg, who belongs to the Communist Party of Ukraine, refused to give archive materials for the new Museum. Such refusal was estimated by the Director of Vasyl Stus Memorial Society Roman Krutsyk as an ordinary communist's practice to conceal their crimes.

Museums with the same name are active in Georgia (Museum of Soviet Occupation (Tbilisi)), Latvia and Estonia.