Also noteworthy is a copy of the October 1990 decision of the presidium of Chernihiv oblast and the municipal council, which characterizes the preparatory period for launching the state coup of 19 August 1991. These types of documents were drawn up in every oblast of Ukraine, and if the coup had succeeded, it is clear that the implementation of these decisions, which called for the power structures to arrest all the leaders of the new organizations, except for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Young Communist League of the Soviet Union [Komsomol], would have caused rivers of blood to flow.

Today, those politicians who supported the Soviet regime are still trying their utmost to convince people that the coup attempt would not have resulted in any danger to citizens. Finally, the last panel reflects the situation in Ukraine in 1991 and displays the Proclamation of Independence.

In summarizing this catalogue of exhibits, we must note that varying estimates are put forward for the total number of victims in the USSR and Ukraine in particular. According to data published by the researcher of Soviet Communism and its victims, Academician Alexander Yakovlev, head of the Demokratiya (Democracy) International Fund, thirty–two million people were repressed during the years of Bolshevik rule, ten million of them in Ukraine. In our opinion, this figure is far too low and even deliberately minimized, for even today the Muscovite government and Russian political democrats, like their predecessors, often refute or at the very least play down the crimes of imperialist Russia against Ukraine.

The exposition ends with the Proclamation of Independence. It is extremely difficult to live without truth, and still harder to build a state. Indeed, this is a corollary of the idea behind this exposition. No matter how uncomfortable the truth may be, we must know the truth and present it in a systematic, accessible fashion. Thus, the principal goal of the Memorial Society is to struggle against the historical and political myths that were created by the Communist regime. We must never forget that the blood of so many innocent people was shed. We believe that through our activities the time will soon come when the Ukrainian government will finally pass historical, political, and legal judgment on the totalitarian past in Ukraine. Only then will we have a guarantee that the past will never be repeated.

This text was prepared by the historian Dr.Yurii Shapoval, head of the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) and member of the board of the Memorial Society; the jurist Roman Krutsyk, head of the Kyiv branch of the Memorial Society and People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the Second Session; and Oleksandr Yeremenko, deputy head and responsible secretary of the Memorial Society. The text was translated from the Ukrainian by Marta D. Olynyk and edited and formatted for publication by Borys Potapenko.