To mark Ukrainian Statehood Day, the Kyiv History Museum will hold a two-day festival, “Millennium of Ukrainian Statehood: From Rus’ to Modern Ukraine.”
On July 15-16, the Kyiv History Museum, in collaboration with the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, invites you to the cultural and educational festival “Millennium of Ukrainian Statehood: From Rus’ to Modern Ukraine,” dedicated to Ukrainian Statehood Day.
Over the course of two days, the museum will become an open space for understanding the more than 1,000-year history of the Ukrainian state. Guests will enjoy scholarly discussions, historical reenactments, interactive master classes, and a tour of museum exhibits that tell the story of the formation of Ukrainian state traditions from the Rus’ era to the present day.
The program starts at 16:00. Admission is free.
The festival program includes:
A scholarly discussion lecture series. Leading historians, researchers, and museum professionals will discuss historical memory, the decolonization of Ukrainian history, the role of museums in shaping national identity, and contemporary understanding of state processes. The names of the speakers and lecture topics will be announced soon.
Historical reenactment space. Together with the reenactment clubs “Kyiv Grad,” “Artyra Ruthenia,” “Pecherskaya Sotnya,” and the Ukrainian People’s Republic, visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of various historical eras and assume the roles of a Rus’ warrior, a soldier of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a Cossack of the Zaporizhian Host, and the People’s Army of Armenia. Examples of military equipment, armor, bladed weapons, flags, and symbols from various periods of Ukrainian history will be on display, along with stories about everyday life, military traditions, and the development of Ukrainian military affairs.
Master classes and a traditional cultural experience. Visitors will be able to try their hand at medieval calligraphy, learn about historical board games from the tafl family, create their own blackout poetry piece based on historical texts, and master traditional Ukrainian zaboyka (a type of stencil) with symbols of statehood—the trident, the coat of arms of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and the style. Visitors will be able to share their experiences with future generations in the symbolic “Time Capsule” project, the “Message Case” project.
The museum space “Attributes of Ukrainian Statehood.” A separate exhibition will feature museum artifacts from various historical eras, demonstrating the evolution of Ukrainian state symbols, institutions, and state-building traditions.
The festival aims to remind us of the continuity of Ukrainian state tradition and to demonstrate that Ukraine’s history is a thousand-year journey of struggle, development, and the assertion of its own statehood.
Organizers: Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and the Kyiv History Museum.
Date: July 15–16, 2026
Start: 16:00
Place: Museum of the History of the City of Kiev (Bogdana Khmelnitsky St., 7)
Free admission .
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