Anthem of the Nation on Record — Ukrainian Music 1930-1991

The current exhibition traces the Soviet period of Ukrainian sound recording — from the first Kyiv pressings of the 1930s through the post-war record factory to the end of the Soviet era. Central figures: Borys Hmyria (1903-1969), the Ukrainian operatic bass whose National Opera of Ukraine recordings became a standard of performance culture; Anatoliy Solovyanenko (1932-1999), a world-class tenor who performed at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala; Yevhenia Miroshnychenko (1931-2009), the Ukrainian soprano and prima of the National Opera. A separate section is Volodymyr Ivasyuk (1949-1979), author of Chervona Ruta (1970) — a song that became the unofficial anthem of Ukrainian youth and one of the reasons for the composer's persecution by Soviet authorities; he died under unexplained circumstances in Lviv in 1979. The exhibition shows original Melodiya factory discs with Ukrainian repertoire, released in limited runs alongside mass imperial-language releases. The exposition emphasises: Ukrainian music in the Soviet period survived as a form of hidden resistance — from folk melodies performed by the Hryhoriy Veryovka Choir to opera arias by Hmyria in the native language. The curatorial programme involves musicologists, ethnomusicologists, and researchers of Soviet cultural policy.