Problems of Preservation and Protection of Archives, Library Collections, and other Objects of Cultural Heritage in the War Conditions

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of preservation of national archives, objects of culture and art in the context of the current Russian-Ukrainian war. For this purpose, the experience of the largest world wars of the 20th century was studied. The issue of protection of valuable historical archives and library collections of Ukraine was separately considered. On the example of the Hague Convention of 1954, the difficulties in solving this problem in the international legal field were cited.The main theses of the national doctrine on the protection of cultural heritage, which were formed based on the results of the international forum “War in Ukraine: the battle for culture”, were considered. Based on these provisions, the main problems faced by state bodies, employees of archives, museums and libraries were identified. Methods of error and deficiencies correction are proposed. Examples of cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations (including international ones), specialists in this field, military and volunteers were given. The technologies and resources used for the physical and virtual preservation of culture and art objects are considered. The path of creating, since the Second World War, special forces, which were involved in operations for the protection and rescue of cultural and historical artifacts, has been studied. The relevant experience of the Ukrainian military working in accor dance with the provisions of the Hague Convention, is shown. Possible variants of a diplomatic solution to the problem of the return of stolen cultural and historical values under different scenarios of the war’s end were considered.

Keywords

• cultural heritage, library collections, historical archives, online libraries, cloud storage, hague convention, special unit of the armed forces.