Military Museum of Kiev
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The temperature was about -10C and it was starting to snow.
We arrived somewhere near the museum by taxi. We walked for about 15 minutes and got to a
small building, went inside and paid for our tickets. The staff seemed a bit annoyed at
our presence, as it turned out we were the only visitors. The lights and displays were
switched on and in we went. I was starting to get a bit disappointed. I was expecting the
museum to be bigger. Inside there was your usual pictures, uniforms and small displays,
along with some radios (pictures below) we were escorted to each room by a female guard
who watched us as we looked at the displays. I managed to sweet talk her into letting me
take a few pictures but then she saw me wanting to take pictures of radios and she changed
her mind, but after more begging and telling her about my collection of radios she looked
away while I took the pictures. It took us about 20 minutes to look around. Outside again, we headed down the road to a big park, were a massive statue representing the Motherland welcomed us. As you can see from the picture on the left, the scenery with the falling snow and this massive stone statue standing on what turns out to be the main part of the military museum is amazing. Feeling more hopeful and forgetting the cold we headed down towards it. On the way to it there are cannons to the sides of the path leading to displays of tanks. I looked around and couldn't see anyone so I got my camera out and started taking pictures of displays, the best of which you can see below some of which have descriptions. |
| Further on was a big building with more tanks outside. This
part of the museum was about the Russian / Afghan war and was closed for renovation.
Turning back and this time going around the other way we came to an area filled with
tanks, planes, and other military vehicles, all were standing in the snow. I took more
pictures as a guard watched on. Passing under a concrete structure, the walls of which
were decorated by statues set in black rock. The carved figures in the black stone against
the white falling snow and the absence of any one else made the place feel frozen in time
and somehow alive, strange feeling. By this time we were at the base of the Motherland statue, the locals call it Baba Ukraine (Baba means an old woman). We enter through huge heavy metal doors, which we had to pull open ourselves. After buying tickets we were told to go downstairs were we could leave our coats. The woman at the desk said that it was too late and that the museum was closing but actually we still had an hour, we told her this and she agreed to let us leave our coats. The main hall is very grand. All the walls are made of marble with very high ceilings. It has three circular floors connected together with marble staircases. There are many exhibits, on the ground and first floors, almost all of which are manned by a woman guard. I only took pictures of a few German and Russian W.W.II radio sets. But again you had to beg each guard in turn, and as long as the other guards didn't see, I could take pictures. A huge room on the second floor was decorated with the donated, letters pictures, and other belongings from the people involved with the great war struggle against the Germans. A big banquette table in the centre of the room had all the glasses of people present at the banquette which was held to celebrate the opening of the museum. Unfortunately by that time I had run out of film and could not take any more pictures. Top floor of the museum is directly below the feet of the Motherland, and from there the surrounding area could be seen. We then had to leave as the museum was about to close. If you ever go there make sure you take lots of film as there is lots of interesting stuff to see. Please E-Mail me bijan@armyradio.com if you have comments or information to go with the pictures. |
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 German W.W.II Radio WR 1 Ground Receiver - Special. It covers 0.15 to 15.8 MHz |
 German W.W.II Mobile Radio Feld FU-B or FU-C Transceiver Feld FU-B 100-119 MHz Feld FU-C 120-138 MHz |
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