National Union of Artists of Ukraine

Collection

Holding institution:: Central State Archive and Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine

Holding institution (official language):: Центральний державний архів-музей літератури і мистецтва України

Scope and content:: The fond’s materials include a stenogram of the sixth plenary session and minutes of a session of the presidium of the Union of Artists of the Ukrainian SSR (1949) at which issues pertaining to the war on “cosmopolitanism” were taken up, and “cosmopolitan” artists (for the most part Jews) were vilified. In particular, a speech by Ukrainian SSR Committee on the Arts chair M. P. Pashchin criticises works by Z. Sh. Tolkachev (Occupiers; Majdanek; Christ at Majdanek; and The Flowers of Auschwitz) for espousing “panhuman cosmopolitan views” and V. Ovchinnikov’s Babi Yar (The Way of the Doomed) for being based on the “false idea that only Jews were victimized by German fascism rather than Soviet people in general.”

Administrative/biographical history:: This was established in 1938 as a public organisation of artists and art scholars; its purpose was to aid in the development of these persons’ work and of the fine arts as a whole. From 1957 on, it was called the Union of Artists of the Ukrainian SSR; from 1992 on, the Union of Artists of Ukraine; and since 1998, the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.

Access points: persons/families:: Ovchinnikov, V.; Pashchin, M. P.; Tolkachev, Z. Sh.

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Antisemitism--Anticosmopolitan campaigns; Art; Art--Artists

System of arrangement:: The fond includes three inventories systematised according to the structural-chronological principle.