A shell case with Ukrainian publications inside was recently found in a field

An artillery shell case with national symbols and Ukrainian publications inside of it was found in a field near Lutsk, a city in the western part of Ukraine, according to a post on the Volyn Regional Museum Facebook page (text in Ukrainian). Such findings are not rare, authorities of the Russian empire and later the USSR have always been trying to damage original Ukrainian artifacts, eliminate intellectuals and their works, and erase the memory of the Ukrainian people of their past and present, including Ukrainian language.

This finding has become a new showpiece in the Volyn Regional Museum. The content of the shell case was sealed with a cork produced for this purpose. The publications inside were partially destroyed. Children’s monthly magazine “Orlenya” (young eagle), which was published between 1941 and 1942 and had only 14 issues, could be recognized, as well as fragments of pages from a book about the history of Ukraine, and paper with a coat of arms.

“This proves how the successive occupation regimes fought against Ukrainian identity. The person who buried it risking their own safety could have destroyed everything, but obviously wanted to preserve the Ukrainian word for themselves and his descendants,” Volyn Regional Museum representative explained in the post.

As previously reported, a unique photo of Borys Grinchenko, Ukrainian prose writer, political activist, historian, publicist and ethnographer, with his autograph, which has never been published before, was found in Ukraine.

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Image: Volyn Regional Museum Facebook page