Visualization of Holodomor era: the Collection of Snovsk historical Museum
Authors: HOROKH Mykola 
Published: November 2024

The researches of Holodomor history use not more than 300 photos among which dozens are very replicated. There is an urgent need to add an additional complex of documentary visual sources of the 1920s-1930s to the scientific circulation. Large collections of photo documents are stored in archives, libraries, and museums. They continue to be almost unknown to researchers. The article is aimed at systematization, thematization, and attribution of the collection of visual sources of the ‘Holodomoe era’ of Snovsk Historical Museum. The research methodology is based on general scientific methods such as analysis, typology, concretization and specific historical methods like historical-chronological, periodization, historical-systemic, and criticism of sources. Geographically - these are the pictures which were taken in the settlements of Snovsk region of that time. Chronologically, the ‘Holodomor era’ is considered as widely as possible and is not limited to 1932–1933. First of all, attention was drawn to photographs dated from the late 1920s – the end of the 1930s. At the same time, the photos of the early and mid-1920s were also involved, which made it possible to present the collection and visualize the period preceding the tragedy more fully. The existing museum collection has not been systematically studied before. It has 34 digital prints of the 1920–1930s. and consists of event and portrait photographs. All of them are staged, made in a photo studio or a specially equipped room, in the courtyard of an institution or organization, on the street or railway, in an open space (field, forest, lawn). 24 photos were created in Snovsk. On 18 photographs there are inscriptions with information about the time of creation, event, place of creation. The name of the author of only two photos was found out. They were created by local photographer Freidkin, whose photo salon has existed in Snovsk since the 1910s. The collection is dominated by photos of educational subjects (10), photos of participants of professional and party courses, meetings, conferences (6), and village activists, functionaries, the ‘elites’ of that period (5).Socio-political and economic transformations in the village are presented in 4 photos, sports – in 2 pictures, cultural life – 2 photos, celebrations – 1 photo. 4 more photos are studio photographs. They depict portraits of local residents. On another 3 photos there are internal personal inscriptions (slogans, signs, posters), and on 2 – noticeable mechanical interventions (destructions of the face, pasting the face of another person). The combination of the discovered photographs with similar collections of other museums ofChernihiv region will create an extremely representative source base of visual sources of the “Holodomorera”. Placing photos on publicly accessible websites with open access will ensure the involvement ofresearchers and their future verification, clarification of information about the time and place of creation, the personalities that are depicted on them. Keywords: digital archive, ‘Holodomor era’, visual sources, Snovsk Historical Museum.