Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology

Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology (Музей антропології і етнології ім. Ф. Вовка; Muzei antropolohii i etnolohii im. F. Vovka). An ethnographic museum established in 1921 by the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kyiv as an extension of the Cabinet of Anthropology and Ethnology. Fedir Vovk’s collection, archives, and library, brought from Petrograd according to Vovk’s will, formed the museum’s core. Later the collection of the museum of the Ukrainian Scientific Society was added to its holdings. O. Alesho served as the museum’s first director and was succeeded by Antin Onyshchuk. In 1934, during Stalinist terror, both the cabinet and the museum were closed down, and many of the workers were persecuted by the state.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]