Who destroyed and restored Kyiv Lavra? MinCulture's video reveals the truth

Easter celebrations at the Lavra in 2018. Photo: UOC press service

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture has launched a series of propaganda videos portraying Reserve employees as the people who saved the Lavra, preserving its churches and religious treasures for future generations.

One of the videos features Vasyl Petrovych, a retired employee who worked at the Reserve for several decades, including as a caretaker of the Dormition Cathedral. So what exactly did he say?

"When I first started working here, everything was in ruins. Everything had been wrecked. There wasn’t a single icon inside, not even any flooring – nothing at all. Over the years I worked here, the Lavra underwent many changes. The changes were especially noticeable in the growing number of people coming here, as everything continued to improve and become more beautiful."

This raises a question: Who reduced everything to ruins in the first place, and whose efforts brought the Lavra back to its former beauty?

It is worth recalling that the present-day Reserve presents itself as the successor to the Soviet-era “Museum Town,” where the relics of saints were displayed as museum exhibits, churches were converted into museums of atheism, and toilets were installed in the sanctuaries. It was from this very Reserve that the UOC received its churches and monastic cells in 1988, in a deplorable, half-ruined condition. Numerous before-and-after photographs can be found on Church websites – anyone can see the difference for themselves.

In other words, before the churches were handed over to the Church, they lay in ruins. Under the UOC, they were restored. Now history is coming full circle.

There is another important point in Vasyl Petrovych’s account: he highlights that after the monastery was restored, more and more people began coming to the Lavra. And he is clearly referring not to museum visitors, but to worshippers attending services in the Lavra’s churches.

Today, the Lavra is once again being turned into a deserted museum – only this time, a Ukrainian one rather than a Soviet one. And it is only a matter of time before its now magnificent churches fall into ruin once again.

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