In Yalta, the occupiers turned the Lesia Ukrainka Museum into an abstract “museum of the nineteenth century,” deliberately changing the “concept” and “work format.”

After Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014, the museum was closed for “repair,” and after its completion, the exhibition Yalta. Century XIX was opened. Currently, the four halls of the former Lesia Ukrainka Museum tell about Yalta’s literary, musical, artistic, and everyday life, focusing mainly on Russian figures such as Pushkin, Tolstoy, Tsvetaeva or Chaliapin.

In the building that housed the museum, there are still Soviet security and memorial plaques that remind us of Lesia Ukrainka’s stay here in the late nineteenth century. However, the newest plaque in front of the building does not mention Lesia Ukrainka at all, although, at the beginning of the occupation, the previous plaque stated that the second floor housed the Lesia Ukrainka Museum and the Lomykamin (Saxifrage) exhibition, which was associated with the poetess’s stay in Yalta.

The exposition also does not mention Lesia Ukrainka. The only things left from the poetess’ museum are the photographs in the windows, mixed with photos of Russian figures, and a small desk where she worked.

The occupiers are systematically destroying Ukrainian identity on the occupied peninsula, erasing Ukrainian identity from the cultural space and the memory of Ukrainian figures in Crimea. This is only part of a broader “campaign” to eliminate everything symbolizing Ukrainian national identity. Instead, new “museums” dedicated to Russian history are created in their place.