Object:
The motanka-doll*
In the exposition of the Museum of Resistance, a motanka doll that survived the occupation in the Department of Education is presented.
Underground education
This is a story about how during the occupation Kherson educators taught children according to the Ukrainian curriculum.
During the occupation, Kherson schools worked remotely. When Russians shut down the Ukrainian connection, teachers had to drive around the city and look for locations where the Internet connection could be caught in order to conduct a lesson. Sometimes these were completely unexpected places – for example, the old cemetery on the edge of the city.
The "educational" policy of Russians invaders required complete destruction of Ukrainian education and the forced russification of children. However, they could not recruit enough students to the Russian schools which the invaders opened on the basis of the Ukrainian ones, so they looked for the children's personal data in order to formally enroll them in schools, at least on paper. However, what Kherson educators did in the beginning, is they took the students documents from schools, and in school No. 50 they hid the documents in the walls.
Photo: Educational Human Rights House, Chernihiv
The invaders stole everything from the schools – equipment and food blocks, even children's bedding and towels. Property was transferred from one school to another and passed off as Russian aid to the "liberated territories." When it was possible, the teachers took the school equipment home, together with the parents, they took turns protecting what was left from looting. In kindergarten No. 10, teachers even came to water the young viburnum trees; they did not enter the yard, they watered inconspicuously through the fence. They said: "The invaders will leave some day, and the viburnum should not wither." They saved it.
The invaders also took over the city's education department, but education was definitely not their top priority. The head of the department Natalya Zhurzhenko says:
"They set up dining rooms everywhere, in every office, even in the basement. They used our dishes, so we threw them away, it was disgusting. When I finally got to my office after the liberation, it was a complete mess. This did not surprise me. What was surprising that there was a motanka doll left on the top shelf. Russians simply did not understand that for us, it was also a symbol of our Ukrainian identity, our tradition. It's as if they would leave the Ukrainian flag in the office."
