Exhumation of ancient graves is underway at the Lychakiv military cemetery (above the burial place of the newest Heroes of Ukraine). The work is carried out by specialists of the “Fate” Memorial and Search Center.
From March to today, it was possible to find the remains of 459 people. Of them, 26 are from the period of the First World War, a small part is from the period of the Second World War, and the vast majority are from the post-war period. Svyatoslav Sheremeta, head of the Memorial and Search Center, told about this during the briefing.
He emphasized that during the research, they discovered places with multi-layered burials, where there were remains of soldiers from the First World War, the Second World War and the post-war period. There were also places with single-layer burials.
“When we started the research, we predicted that most of the burials here would be from the time of the First World War. But we have a completely different picture: most of the burials are from the post-war period. For example, a metal plate was found on one of the burials with the name of Captain Vagin and the date of death – 1947. We conducted research: there is data on such a person in Russian databases. He was born in Nizhny Tagil. He was in the war, had awards, then entered the Frunze Military Academy and after graduation came to Lviv. And we all understand what a graduate of this academy could do in western Ukraine in 1947. Remains of military uniforms and captain’s insignia were also found. The probability that the found remains belong to Captain Vagin is 99.9%,” Svyatoslav Sheremeta said.
We will remind you that there was a cemetery from the time of the First World War on the territory where the exhumation is being carried out. Servicemen of various armies that took part in the hostilities of that time on our territory were buried here (the armies of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the German Kaiser’s army, the Turkish army, the Russian imperial army). In addition, the Soviet authorities conducted their own, “additional” burial when they came to Lviv.
“During the interwar years, burials from the time of the First World War were moved from this part of the territory and they did it in bad faith: the Soviet authorities “drove” with tractors to the place of burials of the soldiers of the First World War, destroyed everything and began to carry out burials on top of it,” – said the mayor’s adviser on conservation issues of cultural heritage Liliya Onishchenko.
Sviatoslav Sheremeta added that the remains of military uniforms were found near approximately 15-20% of the burials. “Among other finds are the remains of buttons from the uniforms or underwear of soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian and German armies. Also found were 3 identification tokens of soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire army, crosses from graves of the First World War, Soviet tombstones. The finds will be handed over to museums,” Svyatoslav Sheremeta noted.
Work on the exhumation of ancient burials on this site is planned to be completed in mid-July. Next, the searchers will proceed to the study and exhumation of burials on the central alley of the Lychakiv military cemetery.
All found burials from the First World War will be moved nearby, to fields No. 84 and No. 85, where the Memorial Complex will be built in the future.
Instead, the remains from Soviet times (1944-1950s) are kept in a special depository. It is planned to transfer them to the Goloskiv cemetery.
“The Lychakiv military cemetery is included in the list of historical monuments. Monuments are, in fact, remains. And in order to transfer them to another cemetery, we prepare the appropriate project documentation. It must be approved by the Lviv OVA and the Ministry of Culture. Next, we have to receive the appropriate order from the ministry and we will be able to start moving the remains to the Holoskiv cemetery,” Liliya Onishchenko said.
In addition, exhumation work at the Lychakiv military cemetery is carried out on the basis of all necessary permits and approvals from local self-government bodies and the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.
We will remind you that the city plans to announce an international architectural competition for the construction of the Memorial Complex on this territory.