The Lesia Ukrainka Museum in Yalta is located in the premises of the historical and architectural monument of local importance “The House where the Ukrainian poetess Lesia Ukrainka lived” (protection No. 593-AR, Order of the Ministry of Culture of November 22, 2012 No. 1364). The house was first registered in 1969, and in 1980, its protection zones were determined (Decision of the Crimean Regional Executive Committee of September 5, 1969, No. 595; Decision of the Crimean Regional Executive Committee of February 20, 1990, No. 48; Decision of the Crimean Regional Executive Committee of January 15, 1980, No. 16 (the boundary of protection zone is the boundary of the house area).

The creation of the Lesia Ukrainka Museum dates back to the eve of the 100th anniversary of the poetess’ birth with the close involvement of representatives of the Ukrainian creative community of Yalta, namely Oleksii Nyrko, Oleksandr Yanush, Ostap Kindrachuk and Tetiana Tsymbal. Thanks to their efforts, in 1972, a monument to the poetess was erected and a memorial plaque was installed on the house. The first collection of items related to Lesia Ukrainka began to form at the same time.

It was not until the 120th anniversary since the poetess's birth in 1991 that the first exhibition “Lesia Ukrainka and Crimea” was opened on the first floor of the house at 8 Litkens Street (Katerynenska Street, 8-A, building A). The ground floor had housed the exhibition “Progressive Russian and Ukrainian Culture and Literature of Yalta in the Pre-Revolutionary Period” since 1977. In 1993, on the basis of these two expositions, the departments of the Yalta State United Historical and Literary Museum, the Department of Pre-Revolutionary Culture of Yalta and the Lesia Ukrainka Museum were created, which were included in the list of museums that store museum collections and museum objects that are state property and belong to the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on February 2, 2000, No. 209. In 2001, with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, a new exhibition, titled Lomykamin (“Breaking Stone”), was opened on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, which combined the history of Yalta in the times of Lesia Ukrainka and her literary work.

The Lesia Ukrainka Museum (a department of the Yalta State United Historical and Literary Museum (since 2003, the Yalta Historical and Literary Museum) was the center of the Ukrainian community in Yalta and the whole of Crimea until 2014.

History of appropriation/destruction

On March 17, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (whose activities were prematurely terminated by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on March 15, 2014) decided to “declare Crimea an independent sovereign state – the Republic of Crimea, in which the city of Sevastopol has a special status” (Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 4461 of March 15, 2014; “Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea” No. 1745-6/14 dated March 17, 2014).

The second step in the loss of Ukrainian institutional organization by Crimean museums was the inclusion of the “Republic of Crimea” and the city of Sevastopol into the Russian Federation and the introduction of the so-called “transitional period” until January 1, 2015, during which Crimean museum institutions were required to re-register under Russian law.

The occupation authority State Cultural Institution Yalta Historical and Literary Museum of the municipal entity Yalta city district of the Republic of Crimea was registered on December 27, 2014, seizing the property complex and collection of the Ukrainian museum institution Yalta Historical and Literary Museum together with its department, Lesia Ukrainka Museum. The building itself was included in the Unified State Register of Cultural Heritage Sites (Historical and Cultural Monuments) of the Peoples of the Russian Federation under the title “The House where Lesya Ukrainka lived in 1897 (architect P. K. Terebenev), late 19th century – early 20th century.”

In 2015, the occupation administration of Yalta, to which the so-called State Cultural Institution Yalta Historical and Literary Museum of the municipal entity Yalta city district of the Republic of Crimea was subordinated, closed the departments housed in the building at 8a Katerynynska Street, “A” under the pretext of the critical condition of the site.

In contrast, according to the Technical Condition Report of March 7, 2012, attached to the certificate of the cultural heritage site “The House in which the Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka lived in 1897,” the general condition of the house was assessed by the specialists of the Ukrproektrestavratsiia Research Institute as satisfactory. However, according to the so-called Act of State Historical and Cultural Expertise of the Design Documentation for the Preservation of a Cultural Heritage Site of Regional Significance for the Restoration of a Branch of the Historical and Literary Museum (“The House in which Lesya Ukrainka (architect P. K. Terebeniev) Lived in 1897, late 19th century – early 20th century”), specialists from the Russian developer of the design documentation, Arkhitektpodryad LLC, assessed the condition of the building in 2016 as “unacceptable” and in need of urgent repair. In February 2017, the occupying Scientific and Methodological Council of the State Committee for Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Crimea sent the project for revision. The project was never submitted for approval by the State Committee for Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Crimea. After the liquidation of this institution in 2020, the project was not submitted to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Crimea either.

In 2019, the exposition “Culture of Yalta in the 19th – first quarter of the 20th centuries” on the ground floor of the building was reopened, and in 2021, a temporary exhibition “Forest Song of Lesya Ukrainka” was held within its framework.

The destruction of the exposition component of the Lesia Ukrainka Museum in Yalta was realized back in 2016, when the monument “The House where the Ukrainian poetess Lesia Ukrainka lived” was closed for restoration. The opening of the exhibition “Culture of Yalta in the 19th – first quarter of the 20th centuries” in 2019 on the ground floor and the purchase of public address systems for the premises in 2021 eloquently demonstrate the suitability of the building for museum needs.

The intensification of propaganda activities around the name of the museum by the occupation authorities and the temporary exhibition in 2021 may indicate a different kind of threat – an attempt to fit the figure of Lesia Ukrainka into the Silver Age of Russian poetry.