Rapid Report: Hryhorii Skovoroda Literary Memorial Museum, Skovorodynivka, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine

OVERVIEW: The Hryhorii Skovoroda Literary Memorial Museum (hereafter, Skovoroda Museum) was damaged in May 2022. Founded in 1972, the museum was dedicated to the life and works of Hryhorii Skovoroda, a prominent Ukrainian philosopher, poet, and theologian of the eighteenth century. Satellite imagery and available ground photography of the Skovoroda Museum shows damage occurring between 5 May and 7 May 2022. Analysis conducted by the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI), in collaboration with the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (PennCHC), the Center of International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland (CIDCM), the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (CHML), and the Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab (HeMo), confirmed this damage. This review was undertaken after reports from cultural heritage professionals in Ukraine and a recent statement by an official Ukrainian government outlet prompted a reevaluation of damage to the museum.

Since the 24 February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, damage to the country’s cultural heritage has received considerable international attention. In an earlier analysis, we identified the Skovoroda Museum as a site sustaining damage that could not be fully explained by proximity to a potential military target or nearby ongoing conflict activity. The present report updates this assessment by analyzing recently available satellite imagery of the Skovoroda Museum.

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CITE THIS REPORT: Hanson, K., Bender, T. J. P., Fitzgerald, K., Cil, D., Rozhko, V., Oleksii, A., Makar, R., Zadorozhna, M., Welsh, W., Maher, A., Bassett, H., Gunter-Bassett, M., Muller, C. E., Kane, K. E., Lawrence-Weilmann, J., Aronson, J., Daniels, B. I., and Wegener, C. (2024). “Rapid Report: Hryhorii Skovoroda Literary Memorial Museum, Skovorodynivka, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.” Virginia Museum of Natural History, Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab; Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Penn Cultural Heritage Center; University of Maryland, Center for International Development and Conflict Management; and Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. DOI: 10.25573/data.26321974.