On December 21 at 15:15 in Kramatorsk (Donetsk region) an exhibition research of the history of French investment into Ukraine’s economy as well as the beginning of the exhibition’s tour will be presented.
Guests:
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Deputy Prime Minister on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine
Pavlo Zhebrivsky, head of Ukraine’s military and civil administration in Donetsk region
Dmytro Pirkl, patron of arts, founder of the collection
Svitlana Hlushko, director general of the Donetsk regional local history museum
Leonid Marushchak, curator of the Arts Department at Ukraine Crisis Media Center, “Under construction: Museum open” project manager
Foreign investment in Ukraine at the end of XIX century – beginning of XX century. Part two: France is a research of the little-known theme of Ukraine’s ties with European states and the rest of the world in the end of XIX century – beginning of XX century that ruins the myth on Ukraine’s industrialization by the Soviet regime. The first part of the research was focused on Belgian investment in Ukraine at the end of XIX century – beginning of XX century and was widely presented in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in summer 2016. The focus of the second part is on Ukraine’s ties with France, while the upcoming third part of the research will bring into the spotlight Ukraine’s relations with other countries of Europe and America.
The research is presented with 20 posters – collages of documents, shares, bonds and photos. Originals of the above items are stored at the Dmytro Yavornytskyi Dnipropetrovsk national historic museum.
The project represents relations between Ukraine and France between 1870 and 1918 in a form tailor-made for a museum exhibition. The exhibition hosts almost 230 historic documents that refer to the events of that time. There are also portraits and photographs of French and Ukrainian entrepreneurs, founders and directors of plants and mines established with the participation of French capital. Some of the pictures portray giant metallurgic plants with blast furnaces that were impressive during the epoch even to their workers.
The unique set of documents includes shares issued in Paris, photos of ore mines and of the Hdantsivsky plant, signatures of the French entrepreneurs on the securities from the museum collection, including P. P. Duval, P. Darcy, E. d`Uassel, P. Dumer, E. Paster, J. Bonnardel, M. Verstrat. The exhibition displays companies’ advertisement, documents, photos of an Orthodox church built by the French in those days, and photographs of an old French cemetery in Druzhkivka with the remains of tombstones.
The basis for the exhibition was a collection of a Dnipro-based philanthropist Dmytro Pirkl who was buying historical documents in Europe over 2011-2015. The collected materials were passed to the Dnipropetrovsk National History Museum named after Dmytro Yavornytskyi. Nadiia Kapustina, director of the museum, initiated their study and analysis. Further studies were conducted by Valentyna Lazebnyk. The exposition was formed by Valentyna Lazebnyk and designer Yurii Maliienko.
The Donetsk regional local history museum presents the exhibition as part of the Ukraine Crisis Media Center project “Under Construction: Museum Open”. After Kramatorsk the exhibition will be on tour through the museums in eastern Ukraine under the auspices of Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine.
For additional information please call 099 360 79 54.
The exhibition “Foreign investment in Ukraine at the end of XIX century – beginning of XX century. Part two: France” will open on December 21 at 15:15 at the Kramatorsk public library (Maria Pryimachenko str. 16).
The project Rediscovering Eastern Ukraine Heritage – “Under construction: Museum open II” is being implemented by the Arts Department of Ukraine Crisis Media Center with the financial support of “Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative” (UCBI II), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
