Dear friends!

Today’s release of “Memories of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” photo project is dedicated to the illustrated booklets with the images of Kyiv-Pechersk State Historical and Cultural Preserve, printed in the 1970s.

Last time, talking about the booklets of the 1960s, we focused our attention on the definition of this type of printed matter. We were also speaking about the quality of photo images in the booklets and on the postcards), underlying that that characteristic features were higher with reference to the postcards (see issue №41). However, booklets also have their advantageous points. They, for example, can be much more informative than postcards and serve as a mini-guide to the Preserve’s cultural sites.

In the 1970s the tradition of booklet printing did not change. Most often they were still organized in the form of short texts about the Preserve and its history. Besides, the reader of the booklet could also find a plan-scheme of the Preserve there, done with the detailed (or not very detailed) legend. It is important to note that parallel to the booklets, which were giving “general picture” of the Preserve, there started appearing other types of printed matter dedicated to the separate monuments of Lavra’s architecture. The quality of those printed editions improved, so that the users could have a clear general image of this or that monument. They could also observe separate architectural details or fragments of paintings of the cultural sites.

In 1974, Kyiv Publishing House “Reklama” published a series of 8 separate booklets (with circulation of 50,000 copies each). Two of them were dedicated to Kyiv-Pechersk State Historical and Cultural Preserve. They appeared in the Ukrainian (smaller size, brief information) and Russian (twice as large size, expanded information) languages. Five others were about the most interesting sights, such as Dormition Cathedral, Great Lavra Bell Tower, Trinity Gate Church, Church of the Savior at Berestove and Church of All Saints.

The eighth booklet - with the image of the Church of St. Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk and the adjoining Refectory, was dedicated to the exhibition “Christianity and Atheism in Ukraine”. Unlike other, purely informational booklets, the last one had propaganda materials. Short information about the monument itself was given only in the first paragraph. The rest printed space was occupied by the facts from the “struggle of the famous scientists and culture personalities against religious beliefs and church teachings”. In the end of the text there was a quote from the report of Leonid Brezhnev at the XXIV Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, there was no image of the exhibition in the booklet. The only illustration to the text of the booklet was Yu. Balanivsky’s painting named “On the Monastery Field” (1970). It depicted the conflict between a monk and peasants. In the background of the artwork one could see Lavra’s distant outlines.

The most interesting set of booklets dedicated to the Preserve and its monuments was published in 1978. It consisted of ten small booklets that had one common cover. They could be sold as one set or separately, as each booklet had its own price - 10 kopecks. All booklets had the reference to their authors-compilers, the then researchers of the Preserve (V. Shidenko, L. Korzh, V. Pavlenko, M. Matvienko, L. Pivovarenko). The set was prepared by the “Art” Publishing House. It had a beautiful design and contained both, black-and-white and color images of Lavra monuments. One part of the booklets was about Lavra buildings, another - about the expositions of the Preserve. The booklets were published in Ukrainian, Russian, English, French and German. Besides, the Polish-Czech version was also in use. All those editions had high circulation (for example, Ukrainian-Russian version was published in 126 thousand copies), but today they are quite difficult to be found in modern Kyiv second-hand bookstores. It is known that by the mid-1980s this set of booklets became a bibliographic rarity.

The next release of “Memories of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” photo project is going to be the last one with reference to the photo images of Lavra of the 1970s made by the then photographers of the Preserve.

Captions to the illustrations:

1-8. Booklets of 1974

9-16. Booklets of 1978