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Sights & Excursions
The purpose of this tour is to present you with visual and comprehensive information about the events of the Second World War as it played out in the former Soviet Union, particularly Ukraine, and also about the war in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.
Unfortunately, during World War II Ukraine was fully occupied and suffered irretrievable human losses among its civilian population (more than 8 million people).
Thousands of industrial plants and historical sites were destroyed, and in Kiev alone 80% of buildings were damaged. Great effort was required to restore the city and transform it into one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
The Great Patriotic War (that is how World War II is called in the former Soviet Union) memorial complex occupies an area of over 10 hectares and was opened in the early 1980s.
Mother Motherland Monument
“Mother Motherland” is a 62-meter-high monumental statue of a woman bearing a shield and a sword in her hands.
This monument is the main structure of the war memorial complex and is the 15th tallest monument in the world.
Weighing nearly 500 tons, the monument was made from stainless steel at a military plant in Dnepropetrovsk and was erected on a 40-meter-high pedestal.
World War II Museum
The museum is located right inside the monument’s pedestal and consists of 14 rooms that depict the events of World War II. New materials are continually added to the exhibit, which displays several hundred thousand authentic relics.
The museum’s well-trained, knowledgeable tour guides will take you on a symbolic tour of the war.
Passing through the museum’s rooms, you will gain a complete chronological view of the events and battles of World War II.
Each room is devoted to a certain period of the war and contains a great number of documents, including combat reports and administrative documents, and also personal items, weapons, and equipment recovered from battle sites.
The tour ends in the Hall of Fame, where the names of all the heroes of the Soviet Union are carved onto the marble-white walls.
In the opinion of many foreign students who have visted the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, the museum is one of the best of its kind and holistically reconstructs the war as viewed by Soviet and post-Soviet historians.
Exhibit of Soviet Army armaments
The memorial complex includes an exhibit of Soviet armaments from different periods of Soviet history from the 1930s up to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Much of the exhibit is devoted to Soviet war equipment from the World War II era, including the famous victorious Soviet T-34 tanks, an ironclad train, and a combat bomber.
The exhibit also features dismantled ballistic missiles from the Cold War era. All items on display are authentic and are in excellent combat condition.
Exhibit of Soviet armaments from the Afghan War era
One of the most tragic pages of the last 30 years of the history of the Soviet Union is the Soviet Army’s participation in the war in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989. During this war enormous losses were born among Soviet soldiers and among Afghan civilians.
The war in Afghanistan was a great drain on the economy of the Soviet Union and hastened its breakup.
Soon after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989 the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and the Talibans came to power in Afghanistan.
The exhibit of Soviet armaments from the Afghan war era features Soviet tanks, self-propelled and anti-aircraft units, and also a combat helicopter that performed many combat missions during the war.
Out on the far edge of Kiev, a full hour’s drive from the city center, is the Museum of Ukrainian Folk Architecture and Life, more commonly known as “Pirohovo Museum”. Don’t be too surprised, however, if Pirohovo is unlike any other museum you’ve been to.
Pirohovo is a unique combination of magnificent wooded landscapes and architectural compositions that wonderfully complement the natural setting.
Imagine a rolling landscape with tall hills and deep gullies that shelter placid ponds. Scattered across the hillsides, peaking out from behind scenic groves and woodland as if hiding their face from travelers’ eyes, are Ukrainian peasant cottages and mud-walled huts, village homesteads with fenced in courtyards, traditional country restaurants, barns and livestock sheds, and even village churches surrounded by... who would’ve thought!... those famous towering windmills!
To be quite honest, even if you have been told about the museum beforehand, when you actually get there you will still find yourself a bit astounded by what greets your eyes.
The museum consists of about 500 sites. Almost all are authentic residential and farm structures brought here from different regions of Ukraine. Most buildings are from the 18th and 19th centuries, but the exhibit also includes authentic cottages and churches from the late 16th century!
The structures are subdivided into 6 main thematic groups by the regions they come from: Middle Dnieper, Poltava and Sloboda, Polesia, Podolia, Southern Ukraine, and the Carpathians. These groups are all connected by gravel roads that are a pleasure to stroll on both in summer and in winter.
The different regions of Ukraine in these sections are represented by structures built in the characteristic architectural style of the region.
This means that, within just a few hours, you can take a kind of journey through the entire country of Ukraine and see how people lived in different parts of the land.
Many visitors come to see the regularly held festivals of folk arts and crafts where you can make pottery with your own hands, sew a traditional embroidered shirt, listen to a “kobzar” (traveling bard), or try your hand at the art of decorating Easter eggs (Ukrainian pysanky).
Here you can see all sorts of craftsmen at work: weavers, embroiderers, carvers, blacksmiths, potters, glass-blowers, plaiters, and folk musicians. Out on the homesteads and fields, folk groups can be heard performing jolly and plaintive Ukrainian folk songs.
You can always stop to enjoy a tasty meal at an old-fashioned country restaurant, or buy embroidered shirts, decorative towels with ornamental patterns (“rushniki”), traditional ceramic dishes and toys, wooden jewelry boxes, and many other kinds of souvenirs.
At stage shows devoted to various folk and Christian holidays, you can learn about ancient folk customs, go for a ride on an old-fashioned cart, and see how our ancestors lived 200 or 300 years ago, what they did for a living and how they had fun.
The outdoor museum also includes 5 old churches where colorful wedding ceremonies and child baptisms take place.
All in all, Pirogovo Museum is a splendid place for learning and recreation. It’s well worth it to spend an entire day there, gladdening the heart and soothing the soul...
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