Petliura’s death mask and typewriter are transported to Ukraine from Canada

This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications, Andrii Nadzhos, during a round table discussion at Ukrinform entitled “105th Anniversary of the Miracle on the Vistula,” dedicated to the 105th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw.

“A very important shipment has already crossed the border. It is on its way to Kyiv from Canada, and this shipment contains a typewriter used by Petliura… Petliura’s death mask and typewriter have already crossed the border. They will soon be at customs. We… want to do a good historical project together with our Department of Cultural Heritage and Religion Protection,” Nadzhos said.

He noted that this is a historical legacy that was found in Canada. In total, there are about 4,000 unique items. This archive was created by the Ukrainian diaspora after Ukraine lost its statehood: emigrants first ended up in Western Europe and later in North America. It is thanks to them that these rare artifacts have been preserved.

According to Nadzhos, Ukrainian specialists traveled to Canada before the shipment of Petliura’s death mask and typewriter to describe and catalog the items.

“We plan to make this shared history public, possibly as early as the beginning of September,” the Deputy Minister said.

Symon Petliura was a member of the General Secretariat of the Ukrainian Central Council as Secretary General for Military Affairs, as well as Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and Chairman of the Directory of the UPR. On May 25, 1926, he was shot dead at the corner of Rue Racine and Boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris by Samuel Schwartzbard. Numerous historical studies indicate that Soviet special services were responsible for this assassination.