Yevdokiya Lysenko’s Certificate of Heroine Mother

One of the main differences between the museum space in the 1990s and 2000s from the previous exposition was the wide use of materials dedicated to the Ukrainian families. It is important that despite the still Sovietized version there was a transition from a purely ideological presentation to the history of the war, shown through human destiny. Therefore, the Memorial gradually turned into a place of memory and honor, because one of the main consequences of the Second World War was a loss of millions of our compatriots and whole families in this terrible war. Although there were also completely different, incredible cases that are considered as a real miracle now.

Among the numerous artifacts there was the certificate of the heroine mother Yevdokiya Lysenko. She raised 16 children: 11 sons and 5 daughters. During the Holodomor, one son died and soon she buried her husband as well. Yevdokiya was left alone with 15 children. None of them graduated from high school or college because they lived very poorly and worked hard. During the war, ten brothers – Feodosii, Petro, Ivan, Vasyl, Mykhailo, Stepan, Mykola, Pavlo, Andrii and Oleksandr – joined the ranks of the Red Army (five were mobilized by the field military commissars after the Nazis were expelled from the village). They fought in different units, in different fronts. They fought in Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The 19-year-old youngest son Oleksandr participated in the battle of Berlin.