Soviet Ukrainian Electric Guitar — Factories 1960-1991

A 2025 exhibition dedicated to the electric guitars produced in the Ukrainian SSR during the Soviet period and their role in shaping the Ukrainian rock scene. The centrepiece is instruments from the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory, which became the most accessible electric guitars for Ukrainian musicians of the Soviet period. Alongside are instruments from the Lviv and Odesa factories, experimental models of the 1970s-1980s, original Elektron-type amplifiers, and Soviet-made effect pedals. A separate section is dedicated to Western 'smuggled' guitars: Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul, Rickenbacker, which entered the Ukrainian SSR via Odesa sailors, diplomats, and rare visitors from beyond the Iron Curtain. These instruments became the most coveted objects in the collections of Ukrainian rock musicians and were often copied by craftsmen. The exposition places the electric guitar in a broad cultural context: rock music as a hidden form of youth resistance to Soviet officialdom, the first Ukrainian VIA (vocal-instrumental ensembles), beatniks, and the emergence of Ukrainian-language rock repertoire in the late 1980s.