KarunaNews Story

Oleksandra Buzko heads a team of three women in the Institute of Archaeology at Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv who are racing to get their institute’s visual heritage online in case a missile hits the archive. Stunning portraits of Ukrainian villagers and street life made during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and images of Ukrainians wearing their national dress while living under the rule of Tsarist Russia hold new potency amid the Russian invasion. It was during the pandemic that Buzko and her colleague Volodymyr Mysak hit on the idea to make their institute’s precious collections available online. Buzko sourced scanners and a small budget from sponsors, while Mysak worked on building a website. A generator keeps the scanners going through blackouts, and the women work through the air-raid alerts that frequently interrupt public life in Kyiv.