Museum of the Liberation Movement of the Carpathian Region, Ivano-Frankivsk

The vast majority of Ivano-Frankivsk residents have visited the regional museum of local lore at least once in their lives, and have looked at its exhibits with interest. However, almost none of the city's visitors and residents know that in the very center of Ivano-Frankivsk, near the church of Ss. Vasylianok Church on General Tarnavsky Street, 22, there is the Stepan Bandera Museum of the Liberation Movement of the Carpathian Region. In a rather nondescript building on two floors, numerous halls house silent witnesses to the recent "white spots" in our history. These are propaganda materials, personal belongings of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, items of clothing, and other items found during excavations in Demianove Lazy at the mass graves of victims of Soviet terror in 1939-1941, various testimonies, documents, and letters from active members of OUN-UPA units.

The museum was inaugurated in October 1997 with the active support of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Administration and the Memorial Public Foundation.

The museum is dedicated to the events of the liberation struggle of the inhabitants of Prykarpattia and covers the period from the 12th to the 20th century. The entire exposition is housed in 4 thematic halls. The museum fund is based on brochures and magazines of the OUN and UPA, leaflets, valuable documents directly related to the activities of the Sich Riflemen, as well as many items and personal belongings of the rebels. All of them were found during excavations in the region.

From time to time, schoolchildren, members of delegations from abroad, and from the eastern regions of Ukraine are brought to the museum almost by force.

The museum's exposition leaves no one indifferent. There have already been cases when visitors have started a tour of the museum with skepticism, ridicule, and without any knowledge of history. One young resident of Donetsk, for example, started listening to the Holodomor with derision, because "we, the Banderites, had it, and they, the Donetsk people, were not allowed to have it." But after seeing not copies, but original photographs, letters with evidence of the crimes of the Soviet government, all visitors radically change their perception of the past, change even their moral stereotypes, and often leave the museum in tears.

The museum has a branch in the village of Kosiv, Ivano-Frankivsk region. It was created in 2004, and the exposition is entirely dedicated to the residents of Kosiv region who took an active part in the struggle in the ranks of the UPA and OUN.

Try it, visit the Museum of the Liberation Struggle of the Ukrainian People and you will not remain indifferent either!

The doors of the Museum of the Liberation Struggle of the Carpathian Region are open to visitors on weekdays from 09:00 to 18:00.