VISUAL HISTORY / URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS / olsany-cemetery
Olšany Cemeteries: Ukrainian Memorial Layer
Olšany Cemeteries: from the burial of Oleksandr Oles in 1944 to the exhumation of his remains in January 2017 and reinterment in Kyiv.
The Orthodox Dormition Church was consecrated in 1925. Oleksandr Oles died in 1944 and was buried at Olšany with his wife Vira Kandyba; the grave existed until 2017. I. Stambol describes other Ukrainian burials at the cemetery (OLS03); the exact location of individual graves still has to be checked against the cemetery register.
In January 2017 the remains of Oles and his wife were exhumed and on 29 January 2017 reburied at Lukyanivka Cemetery in Kyiv (OLS04, OLS07). The statement "Oles is buried at Olšany" is false in the present tense. Whether a memorial marker stands at the former grave is not recorded in the dossier.
Analysis of spatial transformation
What changed in the urban setting
The remains of Oleksandr Oles and his wife were taken to Kyiv (Lukyanivka Cemetery); Olšany became a former burial site (R0070: 1944–2017).
What is known about preservation
The Dormition Church (1925). Sofiya Rusova’s grave is, according to the UINP register, in sector 2ob, row 18, plot 363 (R0005; needs a current check). The dossiers do not establish the grave locations of Stepan Siropolko (R0028) or Spyrydon Cherkasenko (R0013).
Significance for contemporary memory
Olšany remains an important place of Czech-Ukrainian memory; the burial and reburial of Oles shows how important it is to document grave leases and registers abroad.
More documentary evidence, primary sources and the full list of people:
Related atlas dossier (R0070) →