Balm Amidst the Bombs |
A museum in Ukraine is pioneering a new role for such a cultural institution: emergency psychological support. Ukraine’s National War Museum, established in Kyiv when Russia invaded the country in 2014, is not only the first to document a war in real time but to offer psychological services to individuals living with the daily threat of bombs and drones and the reality of lost loved ones and destroyed homes.
The museum deploys teams of historians, archivists, photographers, videographers, psychologists, and local field specialists to liberated areas, often arriving only hours after fighting ends. “We have to move quickly,” says Deputy Director Dmytro Hainetdinov. “After a few days, evidence is gone: cleared, buried, burned, or blown away.”
In addition to salvaging the country’s heritage, the museum—whose teams have operated in 35 areas to date—records accounts of survival. Families tell of hiding for weeks in basements, elderly residents of refusing to abandon ruined homes, ordinary people of escapes through minefields.
As museum........