A Museum Collection on the Guard of Ukrainian Statehood

The article analyzes the activities of the Museum of the Sixties, founded in 2012 on the initiative of the Sixtiers themselves and now operating as a branch of the Museum of the History of Kyiv. Its collection showcases works by members of the movement and highlights the crucial role of the Club of Creative Youth (1960–1964), whose vibrant discussions forged a shared outlook and emotional response to contemporary events and history. The study profiles leading artist-activists—Alla Horska, Viktor Zaretsky, Veniamin Kushnir, Opanas Zalyvakha, Halyna Sevruk, Liudmyla Semykina, Halyna Zubchenko, and Liubov Panchenko—and traces how, after the end of the Khrushchev Thaw and the Club’s closure in 1964, their cultural projects evolved into forms of political resistance. Many were harassed and imprisoned, yet even in custody they continued to create: some protested by avoiding state-mandated “ideological” themes and instead depicted nature, illustrated Ukrainian literary classics, or turned to decorative art. With Ukraine’s independence, works once produced in secrecy finally reached the public—many of them now on view at the Museum of the Sixties.