At the end of last year, the National Museum of the History of Ukraine acquired a priceless collection of artifacts from the Ukrainian War of Independence in the 20th century — the collection of the National Military History Museum of Ukraine and Archives of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences in Canada.

The museum part of the collection has 1,595 items. Among the relics of the liberation struggle during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921 are: battle flags of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic, military awards, personal belongings of military and political leaders, including Simon Petliura's typewriter, numerous designs of state symbols, emblems, uniforms, and rank insignia by Mykola Bytynsky. The archival part of the collection has 3,200 items. These are photographs, books, periodicals, correspondence, diaries, and memoirs of participants in the liberation struggle, as well as collections of documents from organizations of former Ukrainian soldiers and communities of Ukrainian political emigrants.

The history of the collection began in 1920, when the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile founded the Ukrainian Military History Society (UMHS). According to its charter, the Society was engaged in collecting materials and studying the history of the Ukrainian liberation struggle of the modern era. In the late 1940s, the work of the UHIS was continued by the Ukrainian Military Historical Institute (UMHI). The “testament” was drawn up, according to which all the property of the Institute was to be transferred to Ukraine after the restoration of its independence.

The process of returning the collection to Ukraine began in July 2022, when Dr. Orest Tsap, president of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences in Canada, informed the National Museum of Ukrainian History of the decision of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences in Canada to transfer the collection to our institution. On October 24, 2022, a memorandum on the transfer of the collection was signed between the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences in Canada and the National Museum of Ukrainian History.

We express our deep gratitude to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for their effective assistance in returning the collection, in particular to Mr. Igor Ostash, Director of the Hennadiy Udovenko Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Oleg Nikolenko, Consul General of Ukraine in Toronto.

Special thanks go to the carrier of the collection, Meest Canada, in particular Mr. Volodymyr Kobetskyi, and the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, in particular the Foundation's Executive Director, Mr. Valerii Kostyuk.

Researchers at the National Museum of Ukrainian History are working on the collection and preparing a large-scale exhibition project based on its materials.