How Russian invaders are plundering the historical values ​​of Ukraine: they are pulling from museums and from underground

During the Great War we lost many museum treasures and archaeological sites. In order to return it someday, we monitor and count losses

139 temples, 214 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 31 museums, 32 monuments, 15 libraries, 1 archive - damage to 432 sites confirmed by UNESCO as of July 31 during the months of the full-scale invasion. The figures are impressive, but do not demonstrate the real scale of destruction and robbery, direct and indirect losses caused to culture and historical science.

How to evaluate what we have lost due to the fact that many plans, ideas and projects remained on paper, because archaeologists can no longer dig due to the war? How to calculate how much of everything the Russians destroyed and took away from the occupied territories? Let's find out how many important facts will never make it into school textbooks, because our scientists did not find their evidence or they were stolen and distorted by the enemy?

No UNESCO will help, experts say: all that remains is to “spy,” record, publicize and wait for better times.

Kherson gold was stolen and ancient mounds were mutilated

If it were not for the war with Russia, archaeological activity in Ukraine would have been in full swing and many finds and scientific discoveries would still please scientists. Mikhail Videiko - archaeologist, researcher of Trypillian culture, Doctor of Historical Sciences - lists how many projects in which he was personally involved had to be suspended.

“These are international projects, the largest one was with the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel (Germany), which lasted since 2012,” he says. “Excavations of the Kyiv Metropolitan University named after B. Grinchenko were planned in the village of Maidanetskoe in the Cherkassy region - there is a Trypillian temple.”

Research began in Podolia, a joint project was supposed to be implemented with Polish archaeologists from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, research on monuments and burial mounds in the Zhytomyr region was also postponed. “And the Germans are now working in Moldova, in Romania, researching Trypillian culture there, but we are not here,” the scientist sighs. “But I must say that they support us, invite us to various conferences at their own expense, so we don’t fall out and publish what we have dug up before.”

Even excavations in Tripoli, planned by the Kyiv Metropolitan University, were canceled - it is now risky to work there. An important archaeological site was also damaged. “The shelling (directed at the Trypillian thermal power plant - ed.) already caused direct damage - landslides began on the mountain on which the ancient Russian city was located, and now it turned out that there was a Trypillian settlement there,” says Videiko, “Landslides began and the remains began to collapse ancient buildings.

So, last year a pottery forge from the times of Rus' moved to the Dnieper - we went and collected what was left of it on the shore.” Problems arose with conducting archaeological practice - this year students worked on excavations in the center of Kyiv, and when there was alarm, they quit work and hid.

Due to funding cuts, the Department of Archeology and Ancient History at Boris Grinchenko University was liquidated. “The city gives money to the army, but has no time to support science. Some of the employees quit - two employees remained from the staff of this department,” says the doctor of historical sciences. “So in all directions the war has gotten to us.”

Mikhail Videiko’s colleague, Dr. Alexander Simonenko, an archaeologist, specialist in the history and archeology of the Sarmatians, had an expedition in Kherson. He told me that the Russians tore his expedition base apart, robbed everything and the museum in particular, and took away all the exhibits.

Scientists made a whole report about what exactly was stolen and where it came from. At a conference organized by the German Archaeological Institute in Iasi last fall, they reported on gold stolen from the Kherson museum. Videiko himself then gave a report and mentioned in it the monuments damaged during the war. So, in the Mariupol Museum there were clippings and finds from the Mariupol burial ground (excavations in 1932 - ed.), which survived the Second World War, and during this were destroyed: two shells flew into the hall where they were exhibited, everything burned out.

“Surprisingly, before the war, researchers managed to take DNA samples from the skeletons that were stored there, and at the beginning of the year an article was published with the results of these genetic studies, but the materials from which the samples were taken no longer exist,” says Videiko.

“The Germans asked me to write an article about the sad fate of this world-famous archaeological site.” And the Russians stole the surviving exhibits and showed them at an archaeological exhibition in Moscow. By the way, the burial ground was excavated at the place where Azovstal stands.

This year, the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences recognized monitoring of heritage in the war zone as a priority area of ​​research for the Institute of Archeology, and this has become, one might say, the routine work of scientists. And before that, Sergei Telizhenko, scientific secretary of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, on his own initiative monitored the state of the archaeological heritage in the Lugansk region (since 2014).

For this I used Google Earth (a Google program; as part of the project, aerial photographs and satellite images of most of the Earth were posted online. - Ed.) or simply worked on the ground when the hostilities moved on, and made reports. When the war began, I received certain data using satellite images.

“Since I know well where the monuments are located, it’s easy to see in real time how the situation around a mound or settlement in the occupied territories has changed - tanks are driving around, trenches have been dug, something has been completely demolished. This is how recording and remote monitoring occurs,” he explains. And the results are disappointing. Mounds are usually heights where it is advantageous to set up firing points and dig in.

Thus, in the Svatovsky, Troitsky, Kremensky districts of the Luhansk region, the invaders dug a large-scale defense line, and it touched a huge number of settlements and mounds. As a result of the fighting in the area of ​​Belogorovka and Serebryansky Forest, many settlements and ground burial grounds were partially or even completely destroyed. Cultural layers were destroyed by trenches. “And how many settlements have not yet been discovered, but have already been destroyed,” the scientist complains.

In 2023, according to a contract with UNESCO, the Institute of Archeology, together with the Security and Archaeological Service of Ukraine, conducted research in the Nikolaev region and discovered another scourge. Huge damage was caused in the Nikolayev region, according to Telizhenko, taking advantage of the “turmoil” and disorder, “black diggers”. “Antiquity seekers who hunt historical heritage for resale are a bigger problem now than military operations,” says the scientist.

Fresh excavations that appeared during the war are clearly visible from space and this was published in a UNESCO report. The ancient Greek settlement of Olbia with its choirs (agricultural surroundings - ed.) is full of ancient monuments - dishes, for example. “And everything there was literally shoveled over and broken. It is unknown what they were looking for, but the damage was enormous, because at the same time they also destroyed underground objects - tanks, etc.”

Unfortunately, the museum workers were not very prepared for war. The evacuation of the collections was either not planned, or they did not have time to carry out it. “I know that the museums of the South were supposed to be evacuated to the Kirovograd region, they even prepared a room there for them, but Kropivnitsky did not accept a single box, because everyone was waiting for some kind of command from the deputy minister, but waited for Russian tanks,” recalls Videiko, in particular .

CRIMINALS IN OUR CRIMEA

Recently, Evelina Kravchenko, a senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, reported at the III International Forum of the Expert Network of the Crimean Platform that the ruins of ancient Chersonesos in Crimea were actually destroyed by the invaders, and in their place a pseudo-historical complex appeared. You can't imagine anything worse, it seems.

But the fate of Crimean archaeological treasures during the occupation is a separate and very bitter topic. Ms. Evelina, an expert on the Crimean Platform network, a candidate of historical sciences, at one time went through every stone in Crimea and the topic of its looting is especially sensitive to her. The projects I was working on stopped in 2014: research into the northeastern foothills of Crimea, in particular.

“We just started working, opened the material from the ironworks workshop, conducted research, and it was about getting a grant,” she recalls, “it’s a pity that the material remained there, I didn’t have time to transport anything here.” A large expedition remained under occupation, which has been working in Inkerman since 2005 - a large state program for the destruction of ammunition and demining, which is stored in the Inkerman adits.

Until 2014, scientists registered the site as a nature reserve (belongs to the National Nature Reserve “Tauric Chersonesus” - ed.), a passport was drawn up for the monument and it was planned to create a museum there based on excavations - everything extracted in 2005-2014.

“I was writing the program; sketch maps had already been prepared for what was planned to be exhibited there. The only question was what would happen in the adits after they were completely cleaned and demined. They wanted to keep the Ministry of Emergency Situations as a museum,” says Kravchenko. Like, it would be logical - on top there is an archaeological museum, and below there is a museum of the tragedy of the Second World War (a lot of people died there during the retreat in 1942, when Soviet troops, on orders from Moscow, blew up adits).

In 2013, sappers had already reached human remains, but that was all over. “Now this monument is in danger: a few tens of meters on the opposite slope of the gully of the so-called Kamenopolenny ravine are Black Sea Fleet ammunition depots, and there are rumors that ballistics are stored there. In the event of detonation, everything will explode,” explains Kravchenko.

In addition to appropriating what was found, the occupiers are engaged in their own criminal excavations. After the occupation in 2014, large-scale excavations took place in Crimea, which preceded the construction of highways and military facilities. A lot of Russian archaeologists were involved and they were paid a lot of money, says Videiko. “According to our laws, they are all violators who should be put on the international wanted list, but they travel around the world with reports,” the scientist is sure.

The trouble is, according to Kravchenko, that an archaeologist, conducting archaeological excavations at an archaeological site, destroys it. The information that an archaeologist receives when studying this monument is unique. The fact that in Crimea, when studying archaeological monuments, Russians simply pulled out some things and gained superficial knowledge about the monument, means that the details that archeology actually studies remained outside of research and we will never know anything about them. “And the excavated material was probably moved to Russia,” the scientist believes.

“It’s a great pity for Chersonese, we brought it into the state of a monument of world significance, it was restored by the best restoration workshops in Ukraine, the collection was digitized,” says Evelina Antonovna. Funds and a wonderful library, an antique hall almost ready for opening, a restored choir, manors in the choir, excursion routes, excursion tourist infrastructure - it was all there and waiting for visitors. The project to create an exhibition for the Chersonesos museum has stopped.

The museum concept was created, things were selected, but after the occupation it was all simply thrown out of the exhibition plan. The name of the researcher Evelina Kravchenko is the same. “I still managed to transport some of the material, the scientific collection, to Kyiv, and now I have the opportunity to work with the stock material,” says the archaeologist.

It’s also a pity that the historical heritage has become a military target, a legitimate target, and everything is under threat of destruction. “We turned this peninsula, a reserve of the Soviet Union, where there was nowhere to eat or go to the toilet, into a territory with a developed tourist infrastructure, and now it is being turned into a military base,” says the archaeologist.

“The Russians gave Chersonesos to the priests (the project is supervised by the Patriarchal Council for Culture of the Russian Orthodox Church - ed.), all possible UNESCO warnings were violated, and now they will build an exhibition that they want and will tell that Chersonesos is an original Russian city,” says Videiko, “ This use of Chersonesos as propaganda is even worse than what they set up there, because only Ukrainians can fight this propaganda, but it’s difficult for us.”

We collect evidence and conduct our own investigation

All that remains for Ukrainian scientists is to carefully monitor the movement of the stolen property and record the observed facts. There are several effective ways to do this. First of all, monitoring of what is published in Russian open sources. “We are also looking very closely at the attempts of cooperation between the Russian Federation and UNESCO on Crimea - they have been implementing them since 2014,” says Kravchenko.

“And they are also trying to take credit for our achievements.” Information about what is happening in Chersonesus is collected bit by bit: for this there are open sources on the Internet, scientific publications, scientific conferences, private messages, insider information. From everything collected, a big picture eventually emerges. How to use the information still requires a good understanding.

“We need to calculate what this will give us in counteracting the Russian Federation,” explains Kravchenko. “For example, our loud information campaign on Chersonesus led to the fact that the project presented at the presidential level was leveled down to the local level.” Of course, this did not stop the Russians in Chersonesos. But lowering the status of the project so that Russians do not freely run around the world with stolen and desecrated goods is also important.

And analysis of violations in the field of monument protection, in the scientific field, documentation and publication of information will allow Ukrainian scientists to develop this topic on international platforms and bury Russia at this level with their projects. “This is our weapon against Russian propaganda in the field of culture, science and education on international platforms,” says Evelina.

Restricting Russia in their activities in the international arena can yield different results. “The oil dollars that they are ready to invest will only be used for bribes, and they will not want to communicate with them officially,” says the scientist. “And in the case of peaceful negotiations, the clause on violation and theft should become another argument for the losses that Ukraine suffered from aggression . And these losses can be approximately calculated.”

The scale of what was lost in the temporarily occupied territories has not yet been fully established, says Videiko. Fortunately, in the modern world, any underground criminal archaeological activity leaves traces somewhere. “The Moscow Institute of Archeology must have copies of reports on excavations in Ukraine. If their people worked, they submitted these reports there,” says Videiko.

In fact, the public space contains a lot of potentially interesting things for an international court. You just need to know where to look. “For example, how did I find out that part of the archaeological materials from Uman were taken to Moscow in 1941? Because museum workers had grants to encrypt the collection, the Moscow Historical Museum on Red Square posted photos of all its holdings and there - materials from the collection that was taken from Uman - Videiko shares the experience of his own investigations.

“And when I contacted the museum before, they said, no, no, we have nothing.” Based on Russian publications, it is possible to compile a whole list of everything that the occupiers dug up in Crimea over 10 years. They didn’t limit themselves to Crimea - highways, railways, and fortification lines were built along the entire southern corridor... Just process these publications and an approximate list of the loot can already be compiled.

Paper war for archaeological treasures

“If we ever want to return something, we will have to present some documents,” explains Mikhail Videiko. Now the main thing is accounting and accounting, he emphasizes. Record everything that happens, because a person exists and is gone tomorrow, but the information must remain. There is no accounting documentation - you cannot prove to any court that these things were yours. But in Ukraine there are certain problems with clear accounting. You literally have to cling to every piece of paper, and bureaucracy also matters.

Registration and certification are a marker that the state controls the situation, its monuments and can manage them, explains Mrs. Evelina. The absence of this control over the monument means that you can change its boundaries, you can even throw it out of the register based on some kind of scheme, and then you won’t find any solutions to it. “It’s always been like this with us – the lack of a passport, the lack of registration documentation is a reason for manipulation,” she says.

And due to the lack of a register of immovable monuments, we cannot prove that some monument belongs to us, that the state of Ukraine is the owner, for example, of museum collections. We need to prove this, look for registers that seem to exist somewhere, but suddenly disappeared. And this is our weak point. And also communication. “Although no one doubts that a crime occurred in Chersonesos, there is still no adequate statement on this matter from the Ministry of Culture,” notes Kravchenko.

It was reported that consultations with the UNESCO secretariat regarding Chersonesus were beginning. “But we need to communicate about violations not with UNESCO officials, but with specialists who will confirm our data,” she is sure. Therefore, first of all, the ICIP should now turn to international professional public organizations that could assess the losses and recommend that UNESCO take up the problems associated with Chersonesos. Otherwise, the problem cannot be raised to the highest level.

“The issue of Western reaction largely depends on us. Considering that the love for Russian culture is often based on petrodollars,” Kravchenko is sure.

In any case, it will be very difficult to return what was stolen. A museum that has received a collection - even illegally - will resist its return in every possible way. “This is a worldwide practice, and only recently have processes begun to return cultural property to Egypt and Greece,” says Evelina Kravchenko. But we need to think about returning now, says Mikhail Videiko, even with the resources that remain. “Let the documents wait their time and, perhaps, someday they will be able to return something,” he says.