On 31 October, the history department of the Drohobychchyna Museum hosted a scholarly conference dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and the 60th anniversary of Andrii Melnyk’s death.
The event brought together several dozen scholars from Lviv and Drohobych.
The conference began with a minute of remembrance for the fallen defenders of Ukraine. The event was opened by Alla Hladun, director of the Drohobychchyna Museum.
Iryna Partyka, Head of the Tourism and Promotions Department, presented the footage of the newsreel “Andrii Melnyk and the Liberation Struggle” prepared by the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Drohobych City Council, as well as the only archival recording of Andrii Melnyk’s voice and a selection of orders signed by him and a collection of photographs “Andrii Melnyk in the midst of the struggle.”
The first panel discussion featured renowned scholars: Oleksandr Kucheruk, Head of the Department of the National Museum of History of Ukraine, researcher of the national liberation movement, with the report “Andrii Melnyk – Warrior and Cathedral Builder”; Ivan Khoma, PhD in History, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of History, Museum Studies and Cultural Heritage of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of Lviv Polytechnic National University, with the report “Andrii Melnyk’s Participation in the USS and SS” and PhD in History, Director of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve “Naguyevychi” Bohdan Lazorak with a report “De-imperialisation and Ukrainisation of Drohobych and the district by the government of the ZUNR in 1918-1919 and the danger of the return of imperial symbols in our time.”
In the second part of the conference, Volodymyr Khanas, Head of the Department of Culture and Tourism Development of the Drohobych City Council, described the process of compiling the register of officers and riflemen of the Drohobych Legion of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and presented a number of other thematic reports on the life and work of Mykhailo Minchak, the prominent Sich Rifleman and founder of Plast in Drohobych (a report was delivered by a PhD student at the Ivan Frak State Pedagogical University, curator of the Ivan Frak Foundation).Nazariy Yurchyshyn, a PhD student at Ivan Frak State Pedagogical University, curator of the Naguyevychi State Historical and Cultural Museum), about riflemen’s songs as a phenomenon of Ukrainian musical culture (by Oksana Rudavska, a teacher at the Drohobych Barvinsky Music College), about the awards and distinctions of the USS (by Maria Holovkevych, a senior researcher at the Drohobychchyna Museum), and about USS tourist routes in the Drohobych region (by Natalia Malysh, chief specialist of the Tourism Department).
The panel part of the conference ended with the report “Drohobych resident Hryts Kossak through the prism of museum monuments” by the head of the history department of the Drohobychchyna Museum Zoryana Korduba.
The attendees not only listened to the presentations, but also asked the speakers questions. Professor Leonid Tymoshenko, winner of the Ivan Franko International Prize, summed up the academic part of the conference. He expressed his gratitude to the organisers of the educational event, the speakers, and the audience.
Afterwards, the conference participants honoured the memory of the Kossak family – Colonel Hryhorii Kossak, Centurion Ivan Kossak and Chetar Vasyl Kossak – by lighting candles at the memorial stele on Lesia Ukrainka Street, the site of their estate.