“Our readers have already reread all the books”: how the restored village library lives 15 km from the Russian border

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In October, the project team “Wounded Culture” from the Museum Crisis Center went on an expedition to Trostyanets, in Sumy Oblast. Our goal is to document the experience of museum workers in the war. After the start of the full-scale invasion, Trostyanets was under Russian occupation for a month.

We knew that the museum and exhibition center “Trostyanetsky”, which includes the fortress “Round Dvir”, the manor of the sugar factory Leopold Koenig, the Museum of Chocolate and the Museum of Local History, was “injured”: from February 25, 2022, employees were without supervision for a month – Russian soldiers were stationed on the territory of the center, a projectile that flew into the courtyard of the museum damaged the local history exposition, completely crushed the ancient doors, the blast wave blew out the windows in the Leopold Koenig estate, the “liberators” crushed two chocolate figures weighing more than 30 kg each.

In Trostyanka, we heard the story of the librarian of the Soldat village library Valentina Hantseva, who, together with her husband, rescued books from the damaged library. And we went to Soldatsk. The village is small – more than 700 people, picturesque, like the whole of Sumy in autumn. In the center – traces of war: shell holes, a ruined industrial facility, in which it is difficult to recognize the functionality.

Silrada and the library are in the same room – the doors are next to each other. And on the threshold of the library, it is as if you enter another world – modern, technological, intellectual. From the middle of the 20th century to the 21st.

The village of Soldatske, Sumy region, consequences of the occupation.

Opposite the entrance – a huge screen on the entire wall, several rows of chairs, a projector, high tables with computers near large bright windows, a corner sofa. The second room is a children’s room, all the latest children’s novelties are on the shelves, pencils and felt-tip pens are on the table and windowsill, and there is a table, chairs and poufs in the corner.

Valentina Gantseva in the updated library. Photo: Museum Crisis Center/Museum Crisis Center

“Children sometimes have lessons here”, – says Valentina Gantseva. “They love the library“. We look at the books on the shelves with admiration – Hrytsak, Shevelyov, Timothy Snyder, Ukrainian fiction, modern foreign literature, local history.

Valentina explains that this library was opened on St. Nicholas Day 2021, on the eve of the war. Before that, the library was in the House of Culture opposite, and since there was no heating there for a long time in winter, the books began to “die”. In addition, the books in the old library were also old – books published during the times of the USSR and under the ideological supervision of the Union prevailed. That’s why the new library took the newest and best preserved – not much, the rest – bestsellers and mustreed tops of recent times.

When the Russians dropped an aerial bomb on the center of the village of Soldatske on the night of March 8-9, 2022, it is said that one of the collaborators tipped off Ukrainian military equipment that was standing on the street, and the blast wave damaged all the surrounding premises, including the new library , sung at seven in the morning, Valentina Gantseva had already arrived with her husband at the place of work in the old “Zaporozhets”.

Building of Soldier Village Library. Photo: Museum Crisis Center/Museum Crisis Center

“Airplanes were flying over the village, and it was scary, so we left our car in the garage, and “Zaporozhets” won’t be so bad if something suddenly happens.”– said Valentina.

“When my husband and I arrived, the library was open, everything was lying around, everything was broken, the windows were blown out, the ceiling was gone, there was clay all around, books were lying around in this garmider. At first, the girls who work nearby helped us a little, then she followed her own work. My husband and I packed the books into bags and transported everything home in 5 flights. The books were put in the shed, and the man went and brought chairs. We brought the multimedia board, projector, and computers home a little earlier, put everything in boxes, taped it, sealed it, and it stayed like that until the library was repaired. I did it from the heart, because this is my job. So much work has been invested here by the community“.

Restoration in Soldatsky, located only 15 kilometers from the Russian border, began with the library, and in September it was again as good as new. And all books, computers, furniture in their places.

“Only our readers have already reread all the books – they are asking for new ones,” says the librarian. “Our children read a lot, and so do adults, especially teachers, engineers, and pensioners. We should be a water cultural space with the whole country”.

Readers have already read almost all books from the library. Photo: Soldier village library

Therefore, the Museum Crisis Center announced a collection of books for the Soldier Village Library.

“We are appealing to publishers, bookstores, businessmen, activists, writers and simply caring people: congratulate the adults and children of Soldatsky with books, your books will be loved, cherished and read there, and they will thank you. Please send books that are new or in very good condition – both for yourself and your children,” – wrote the Center.

You can bring books to the following address:

Lviv, Chornovola Avenue, 45, box office of the “Territory of Terror” Museum

Work schedule:

Monday-Tuesday: closed

Wednesday-Thursday: 10:00-18:00

Friday-Sunday: 11:00-19:00

The cash desk closes 30 minutes before the end of the working day

Banish: Lviv, Nova Poshta, Branch 75, Gazova 5a, Marko Myron +380676742062

Library in the village of Soldatove, Sumy

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