This is the first post of our Батьківська Хата. Homestead project. The goal of the project is to showcase the Ukrainian life of the late 19th / early 20th century from the all the main regions of Ukraine. The photographs for the project were taken at the Ukrainian National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in Kyiv, Ukraine. All the clothes in the photographs are authentic and were provided by some of the most prominent ethnographers in Ukraine. People in the photographs are Ukrainians from Ukraine and Ukrainian diaspora from abroad.

In this post we will take a look at the architecture, clothing, and lifestyle of the Kyiv-Svyatoshynsky / Vasylkiv district from the Right Bank. Dnipro River, the longest river in Ukraine, runs through Kyiv and divides the city, and essentially Ukraine, into two parts that are commonly referred to as: Right Bank and Left Bank.

The authentic clothes in the photographs below came from the private collection of famous Ukrainian ethnographer Volodymyr Schybrya. We are very grateful for the guidance and resources provided by Mr. Schybrya.

Below is a detailed description of each piece of the outfit:

• Top coat (юпка). This type of quilted top coat is called styoganka and it is unique to Kyiv-Svyatoshynsky / Vasylkiv district. The embroidery style used to decorate the coat is also specific to the region.

The photograph below is from the Rusanov’s family archives. It was taken around 1910 in Kyiv.

• Hand embroidered shirt (вишита сорочка). In the photograph below, Olenka Bravo from Ukrainian San Antonio is wearing a hand embroidered shirt that was made in 1926-1927. The shirt belong to Maria Vizzan who was born in 1910 in the village of Kodaky in the Vasylkiv district.

• Skirt (спідниця)

• Apron (фартух)

• Kalamaykovyu belt (каламайковий пояс)

• Boots (чоботи)

• Hardcase ochipok (очіпок). Ochipok is a traditional headcovering for a married woman.

• Headscarf (хустка)

• Coral necklace (коралове намисто)

The homestead in the photograph below is from the village of Taboriv in Skvyr district located on Kyiv’s right bank. Visit the National museum’s page for a detailed description of this homestead.

The house is made from pine logs and was constructed in the XIX century as noted by the carvings on the doorpost dated 1833 and 1861.

This type of house was called trydilna (try means three in Ukrainian) as the house was made up of three parts: an entry hall (siny), a living space (hata), and a pantry/storage (komora).

The white surfaces outside the house are trimmed with a scallop design painted in an orange hue. The design runs around the perimeters of the house, above the foundation, and around the windows and the entry door.

The main ceiling beam (svolok) inside the house is a large wooden log decorated with carved crosses. The walls inside the house are adorned with religious icons draped in hand-embroidered runners.

Instead of a dining table, there is a hand painted chest. The inside of the house is also painted in white and decorated with the same scallop motif as the outside. This scallop pattern is very common in the region.

Pich (pronounced like peach), an indoor wood-fired oven made out of clay, takes up almost a quarter of the living space.

In the photograph below, Olenka Bravo from Ukrainian San Antonio is standing by the pich. In her hands is a rogach, a device to handle cooking pottery in the pich. Right above Olenka’s head runs the svolok, the main ceiling beam.

Old houses like this one had built-in furniture such as pil (rest area), benches, shelves and a zherdka (rail for garments). These items were constructed along with the house and were an integral part of the building. There were no closets back then and clothes, along with other items, were hung on the zherdka (built-in garment rail).

The house had a few portable furniture pieces: a table, stools of various sizes, a crib, and a chest.

What looks like a bed on the photograph below is actually an extension of the pich (oven) and is called lezhanka. Lezhanka means a place of lying down and was indeed used as a bed. Because the lezhanka was connected to the pich, it was a warm and cozy place to sleep. Who needs an electric blanket when you have a lezhanka?

In the siny (the entry hall of the house) families often hung bouquets of herbs for drying, which were used for various medicinal purposes and also served as a natural bug repellent in the summer. Ukrainians started consuming black tea only in the late 19th century. Prior to that Ukrainians drank various herbal teas from native plants. Every Saturday before sunset, families took a hot herb-infused bath and used the softened dried herbs as a sponge. Some argue that these herbal baths were the reason Ukraine largely avoided the smallpox and cholera pandemics that devastated Western Europe.

Location: http://www.pyrohiv.com/

Model: Olenka Bravo

Clothes from the private collection of Volodymyr Shchybrya

Project organizers: Olenka Bravo, Natalia Sturgill, Olena Khrystyuk, Olena Garcia, and Viktoriya Lundblade

Photographer: Svitlana Zadorovska