National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War

The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War stands at Lavrska Street 24 in the Pechersk district of Kyiv, Ukraine, on the hills above the Dnipro. The memorial complex was opened in 1981 as the Soviet Museum of the Great Patriotic War, and it is dominated by the Motherland monument, a stainless steel statue of a woman holding a sword and shield that rises about 62 metres on a museum building and is among the tallest statues in Europe. The memorial includes a Hall of Glory, a ceremonial space with the names of Heroes of the Soviet Union, and an outdoor Alley of Military Equipment with tanks, aircraft, artillery and other weapons. Since Ukraine's independence the museum has been renamed and the exhibitions rethought to show the war from a Ukrainian perspective, including the Holocaust, the Holodomor background, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, forced labour and the role of Ukrainians in both the Red Army and resistance movements. In 2015 the Soviet hammer and sickle was removed from the Motherland shield and replaced with the Ukrainian trident, and the museum added a section on the war that began in 2014 and the full-scale invasion in 2022. The exhibition approach is chronological with thematic halls, combining uniforms, weapons, documents, photographs and dioramas, and the complex contains a large number of artefacts. Preservation is variable, with some Soviet-era interiors retained and others modernised. The museum is an example of how Ukraine reframes Soviet monuments. Visitors can combine it with the Holodomor museum and the Lavra nearby, and the outdoor display gives a clear impression of the scale of the memorial. Opening times, equipment display and access to some halls vary in wartime, so checking locally is advisable.