The postcard as a witness of its era

A postcard is more than just a means of sending a short message. It is a unique visual and textual document of its time, able to preserve the atmosphere of an era, people's everyday moods, architectural views, fashion, events and even the intonations of personal communication. A few lines and a small picture combine private history and big history, making the postcard an invaluable witness of the past.

Through postcards we can see the world through the eyes of contemporaries: what towns and villages were like, what was considered important, how people greeted each other, grieved, rejoiced or waited to meet. The Museum Fund of Ukraine holds a huge collection of postcards that captured moments which today help us better understand the cultural context and spirit of a long-gone time.

The appearance of postcards in Ukraine

Postcards appeared in Ukraine at the end of the 19th century. In 1894 an “antimonopoly” order was adopted that limited the exclusive right of the Postal Department of the Russian Empire to produce them. Already in 1895 the Kyiv publisher Stepan Kulzhenko printed the first series of postcards with views of Kyiv. Later came series with landscapes and landmarks of other Ukrainian cities, starting the tradition of the picture postcard as a popular souvenir and means of communication.

A new stage of development came during the Ukrainian War of Independence. In 1917 postcards dedicated to the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and the events of the national liberation struggle began to be published. They were designed by well-known artists and were printed especially actively during the period of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and later in emigration, in particular in Czechoslovakia, the USA and Canada. In Soviet times mass production of greeting cards began in the 1950s: first with images of ideological symbols, later with traditional New Year scenes.

The postcard as a source for research

The Ukrainian postcard is an important historical and cultural source that in recent years has attracted increasing attention from researchers: historians, local historians, art historians, architects and cultural scholars. It represents the architectural, urban and landscape environment of Ukrainian towns and areas from the late 19th to the first third of the 20th century. In many cases postcards have preserved unique images of buildings and landscapes that were later destroyed or significantly altered.

Ultimately, the postcard appears not only as a collector's item but also as a multifaceted document of its era, combining visual and textual information and opening up wide opportunities for in-depth study of Ukraine's history, culture and urban development.

Cover image: the postcard “Dniprelstan. Vovche Horlo” from the collection of the Khortytsia National Reserve