Ukrainian GLAM institutions and Wikimedia highlights from a working meeting in Stockholm 2025

Exchange of experience, new projects, new opportunities

On March 31 — April 1, a working meeting on the joint Swedish-Ukrainian project “Open GLAM in Ukraine: Opening up and Bringing Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage to the Wikimedia Platforms”  was held in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. This 6-month project is implemented in Ukraine with the support of the Swedish Institute and is aimed at establishing long-term, constant work on collaborative, high-quality filling of Wikimedia platforms with content about Ukrainian cultural heritage, national cultural values, primarily by cultural institutions as fund holders and volunteers of Wikipedia and sister projects.

Participants

Ukraine was represented at the meeting by Svitlana Vyslinska, project consultant of NGO “Wikimedia Ukraine” and member of the Ukrainian Library Association, Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine Anatolii Khromov, project manager of the Crimean Institute for Strategic Studies Elmira Ablyalimova-Chiygoz (in 2014, Director General of the Bakhchisarai State Historical and Cultural Reserve), Deputy Director General for Research of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War Dmytro Hainetdinov, Deputy Director General for Scientific Work of the National Architectural and Historical Reserve “Ancient Chernihiv” Inna Nepotenko, Scientific Secretary of the National Historical and Cultural Reserve “Hetman’s Capital” Nataliia Saienko and Junior Researcher of the Department of Bibliometrics and Scientometrics of the Institute of Information Technologies of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine Anastasiia Kubko.

The meeting was also joined by WMUA Board Member Valentyn Nefedov (March 31) and Programs Coordinator Anton Protsiuk (April 1, project work session, online).

Swedish stakeholders who actively participated during the meetings: Eric Luth — Project Manager, Wikimedia Sweden, John Andersson — Executive Director of Wikimedia Sweden, Johanna Fries Markiewicz — International Coordinator of the State Archives of Sweden), UNESCO Representatives in Sweden Ellinor Hellberg and Josefin Garpvall, Director General of the National Archives of Sweden Karin Åstrom Iko, Archive staff Linnea Karlberg Lundin and Jan Mispelaere,  Professor of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden Jonathan Westin, representatives of the Swedish Institute Markus Boman and Pontus Jermsten, lawyer, journalist and researcher Maryna Trattner.

The purpose of the trip

The main objectives of the meeting were to present the results of a survey of Ukrainian cultural institutions, which was conducted from February 11 to March 12, 2025, to establish professional contacts and develop ideas for future cooperation.

Day 1

On the first day, all participants met at the  Swedish Army Museum  and got to know each other. In addition, the results of the survey conducted by the NGO “Wikimedia Ukraine” were presented and discussed, as well as ways to check and ensure the quality of information on Wikipedia, disinformation campaigns, and the need for cultural heritage institutions to be active on digital platforms. There was also a lively discussion by representatives from Ukraine and Sweden of the prospects for further joint project work.

Photo:  Eric Luth (WMSE), CC BY-SA 4.0

DETAILS: In the introductory part of the working meeting, Anatolii Khromov spoke about his experience of international work as the head of the State Archives of Ukraine with the State Archives of Sweden in particular, and about the participation of employees of the archives of Ukraine in training abroad, which is an additional opportunity for psychological relief from constant air raids and explosions. But even during the war, new processes are being introduced in the archives. Thus, “In 2023, we managed to make more than 21 million digital copies, despite the lack of electricity and underfunding. This is the second result among all archives in the world in terms of digitization rates, but we are close to taking first place,” the Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine emphasized at the meeting. This is a joint result, because the archives worked without a state program or support, and this figure became possible thanks to cooperation with foreign institutions — primarily with FamilySearch, Polish and Israeli organizations. The plan is to digitize, in particular, all genealogical materials in 3-4 years. There are archives that, due to the still preserved post-Soviet management system, show almost zero result in digitization. And in such archives, it is very difficult to organize the digitization process.

Mr. Anatolii also noted: “Some archives located in the frontline territories are our priority.” The Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine expressed his desire to cooperate with the NGO “Wikimedia Ukraine”, in particular regarding the placement of digital copies (as one of the ways of demonstration and storing documents) on Wikisources.

Dmytro Hainetdinov also cited impressive data: the funds of the War Museum number more than 400 thousand artifacts, of which only a small part can be exhibited at the same time. Items from the museum collection are digitized both for the internal database and for online exhibitions and the “Digital Collections” section on the Museum’s website, where selected exhibits are presented.

The NGO “Crimean Institute for Strategic Studies”, represented by Elmira Ablyalimova-Chiygoz, focuses on the study of the state of protection of cultural heritage objects in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine — more than 1000 violations of international humanitarian law in the field of protection of cultural heritage have been recorded. To improve the effectiveness of its activities, the NGO works closely with UNESCO, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other institutions, and also looks for opportunities for cooperation in order to avoid Russian propaganda and for a reliable interpretation of history.

Natalia Sayenko from the National Historical and Cultural Reserve “Hetman’s Capital” shared her memories with the audience: “In 2022, the first task was to preserve the team. Everyone stayed in place, no one left. … Thanks to the active work and help of international organizations, we were able to preserve our monuments.” Digitization in the reserve began in 2024, employees also make virtual exhibitions and edit short films.

At the introductory session, Anastasia Kubko presented information about the 17 million items of storage of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, the state of digitization in the institution, places to store digitized materials and the main problems that slow down digitalization. The most valuable part of the manuscript collections are the monuments of Slavic writing of the X-XVIII centuries, unique handwritten books of Western European and Eastern origin. The Library houses the largest collection of old prints and rare publications, including Ukrainian Cyrillic first prints and Aristotle’s “History of Animals” (1476), which exists in the world in only three copies. The fund of musical publications includes about 220 thousand samples of musical heritage, which is represented by musical manuscripts of the XII-XVIII centuries, sheet music editions from the XVIII century and to the present. The fund of cartographic publications includes 42 thousand Ukrainian and foreign cartographic materials, including handwritten maps, atlases of Abraham Ortelius, Mercator and domestic handwritten and printed atlases and maps. The Library also preserves the heritage of countries with which Ukraine is united by historical and cultural ties — the collections of King Stanisław Poniatowski, prominent Polish patrons, libraries of Polish magnates, collections of Greek manuscripts from the III century AD, a significant fund of Jewish studies, old prints and books of the fifteenth and early twentieth centuries, codices, sheet music, theological literature, atlases, astrological tables, etc.

Photo: Valentyn Nefedov (Renvoy), CC BY 4.0

At the beginning of the presentation on the survey results, a minute of silence was held in memory of those who died during the unprovoked war against Ukraine.

Key points of the survey results

554 GLAM-institutions from all over Ukraine took part in the survey (with the exception of institutions from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea due to its temporary occupation). This figure is represented by galleries, libraries, archives, museums, as well as cultural service centres, scientific institution (The Ukrainian Research Institute of Archival Affairs and Records Keeping), culture and leisure centres (for example Centre of Gagauz culture (in Odesa oblast), Centre of Folk Art in Chernihiv), houses of culture, reserves, art institutions. 

In terms of importance, the survey respondents were all types of institutions — national, regional and local institutions.

       Awareness of Wikimedia platforms and projects:

• approximately 85% of participants know about the functioning of Wikipedia and only ~ 4% — no;
• among the sister projects the best known are Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary and Wikidata.

           As for cooperation with Wikimedia Ukraine: 

• ~ 30% are outright interested in establishing cooperation;
• ~ 7% report experience cooperating;
• out of all respondents, only 2% are not interested in cooperation with WMUA. 

Only ~25% of institutions digitise their collections, while the rest are either planning to digitise, but later, or are not planning to digitise due to lack of resources or other reasons. Those who digitise make their digitised collections available on their own websites or portals, government databases, external services and social media. We also had a question about the types of support needed for digitisation — the most common answers were the need for digitisation specialists and technical equipment.

Almost 90% of institutions are generally positive about the idea of making their collections and resources known to more users through Wikimedia projects (according to the total number of answers ‘yes’, ‘possible’, ‘don’t mind discussing’). 

As for Creative Commons licences, only ~4% of respondents use them in their work, and the majority (~ 60%) do not know about them at all.

For more details you can use the presentation of the survey results.

The first day of the meeting was also joined by UNESCO representatives in Sweden Ellinor Hellberg and Josefine Garpvall, who assured that today Ukraine’s support for UNESCO is a priority, as evidenced by the fact that before the full-scale invasion of the aggressor, there were no UNESCO representatives in Ukraine, and now, during the war, there are 36 representatives. And this, undeniably, is natural, because during the war, cultural institutions in Ukraine suffered significant losses, which are only increasing every day.

Losses of cultural institutions of Ukraine caused by the war

Since the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a huge number of GLAM institutions have suffered from the unprovoked aggression of the neighboring country: some buildings are damaged, some destroyed, collections damaged, destroyed or stolen, material and technical resources (computers, multimedia equipment, furniture, etc.) damaged or lost. People had to quit their jobs, move, and many are no longer alive.

As of February 2025, according to the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, the total number of cultural institutions that have been damaged or destroyed as a result of the russian armed aggression against Ukraine since February 24th 2022 is 2205, of which 408 have been completely destroyed. That’s 877 damaged libraries, 101 damaged museums and 3 damaged galleries. Russian forces stole over 34,000 museum items and destroyed 162 items.

Libraries not only suffered varying degrees of damage, but also lost library equipment and tens of thousands of copies of library collections. In 70 territorial communities across the country, not a single public library is currently functioning.

All library collections have been lost in 477 public libraries, and 464 have suffered partial losses. According to approximate estimates, as of the end of 2024, the total number of lost documents is 4 million 760 thousand copies.

Between 2022 and 2024, at least 3,682 people were terminated from their employment in public libraries operating in the government-controlled areas.

Between 2022 and 2024, the number of libraries that were destroyed and cannot be restored increased fourfold; the number of partially destroyed libraries doubled.

There are 994 libraries, 68 museums, and 2 galleries on the territories of Ukraine that have been under temporary occupation since the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion. Due to the temporary occupation of almost the entire territory of Luhanska oblast and significant parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Kherson regions, it is currently impossible to calculate the exact number of cultural institutions affected by the hostilities and occupation.

As for archives, the State Archives of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the State Archives of Sevastopol, and the state archives of Donetska and Luhanska oblasts have been on the temporarily occupied territories since February 2014.

Before the full-scale invasion began, state archives of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts were moved to the territory controlled by Ukraine.

During the occupation of Kherson in 2022, in October, russians stole more than 300,000 storage units from the State Archives of the Kherson region. As of 01 January 2025, following a comprehensive audit, this figure was adjusted to 359,881 storage units.

According to reports of state archives of regions as of January 2025: stolen — 361,050 items; damaged — 14,542 items; destroyed — 13,252 items.

Many premises of both state and local archives were damaged. For example, the building of the archival department of the Izium City Council of Kharkiv region, the labour archive of the executive committee of the Izium City Council of Kharkiv region, the archival department of the village of Dvorichna, Kupiansk district, Kharkiv region, and the building of the municipal institution “Labour archive of the Soledar City Council of Bakhmut district, Donetsk region” were almost completely destroyed.

Day 2

On April 1, the work was continued at The Swedish National Archives. Wikimedia Sweden Executive Director John Andersson spoke about the work of the Swedish regional office of Wikimedia Foundation, including expanding international activities, cultural heritage initiatives, cooperation with UN agencies, EU institutions, and Wikimedia partners. It was noted that Wikimedia Sweden specializes in cultural partnerships. It is also a practice that Swedish institutions that do not have enough funds to create their own resources or to create good quality photos upload them to Swedish wiki platforms, and already on Wikipedia these photos are of better quality. Interesting statistical information about Wikipedia as a whole was provided for the participants:

• there are already 64 million articles on the Wikipedia platform;
• 125 thousand volunteers contributed last month;
• 1 billion visitors monthly;
• 17 billion page views monthly;
• the Wikipedia site is one of the 10 most visited sites in the world.

On the same day, representatives from Ukraine had the honor to meet with the Director General of the National Archives of Sweden Karin Astrom Iko and the archive staff Linnea Karlberg Lundin and Jan Mispelaere. During the meeting Linnea focused on practical aspects — how the National Archives of Sweden make archival materials available on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. Once a month a team of archivists and web specialists meets for two hours to contribute data and documents to Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and Wikipedia. One of the priority areas in 2022 was maps and documents of Ukraine, mostly old, and today these images are among the most popular and used on Wikimedia projects. In 2024, the focus was on UNESCO’s Memory of the World, the Swedish Press Freedom Act, the Nobel Archives, and the creation of a working group with the participation of other institutions of the Memory of the World program in Sweden was initiated.

Digital Cultural Resilience & Protection Project

The next to present the current project “Digital Cultural Resilience & Protection” was Professor of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden Jonathan Westin (project partners from Ukraine are the National Museum of History of Ukraine and the National Reserve “Sophia of Kyiv”). The project aims to create a training program and a Center of Excellence in Kyiv on documenting digital heritage to collect critical data and preserve endangered cultural heritage.

The following meeting was also organized with representatives of the Swedish Institute, which provides regular support not only to Wikimedia Ukraine, but also to a large number of other organizations both in Ukraine and abroad, Markus Boman and Pontus Jermsten.

Markus Boman provided the audience with thorough and comprehensive information about the activities of the Swedish Institute, about the wide range of areas in which the Institute provides assistance, as well as about subsequent grants. It was especially pleasant to hear that despite the war, after the full-scale invasion, the Institute not only did not stop its cooperation with Ukraine, but several initiatives were launched in Ukraine.

Jan Mispelaere, an employee of the State Archives of Sweden, showed diplomatic letters from the Crimean Khan and his wife, told the history of these letters. The guests of the Archive were amazed at how well the documents were preserved.

Lawyer, journalist and researcher Maryna Trattner impressed the audience with her professionalism and breadth of cooperation together with her team (which includes Swedish and Ukrainian historians, archivists, scientists, paleographers, translators, artists, calligraphers) with Ukraine, where she comes from: this includes cooperation with Wikimedia (creation of articles — for example, “Letter about Ukraine as an independent state of 1711”, uploading documents to Wikimedia Commons — three volumes of diplomatic correspondence about the Cossacks, etc.) and with Ukrainian museums and researchers, with Ukrainian schools and universities, with Repower and Armed Forces of Ukraine.

  Photo: Dmytro Hainetdinov, СС0 

Chernihiv-Stockholm: millennial relations

At the end of the group meetings Inna Nepotenko from the National Architectural and Historical Reserve “Ancient Chernihiv” presented in her report interesting and thorough materials confirming the close historical, cultural, dynastic Ukrainian-Swedish ties:

1. About the Black Grave mound of the X-XI centuries — the largest known burial mound in Eastern Europe, in which the first Chernihiv prince, a native of Scandinavia, is buried;
2. About the burials on the Boldyn Mountains in Chernihiv, which are similar to the burials in the Swedish city of Birka;
3. About the activities of Svyatoslav, the founder of the Chernihiv dynasty of princes (who ruled for more than 250 years), who was the son of the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise and the Swedish princess Ingigerda and whose reign went down in history as the “golden age” of the principality.

The participants of the working meeting were also invited to Elmira Ablyalimova-Chiygoz’s presentation on Crimea and cultural heritage during the war entitled “Crimean Tatars: Erased from History, Yet Unbroken”, which took place at the Swedish Army Museum. 

Photo: Svitlana Vyslinska, CC BY-SA 4.0

More photos from the work trip can be found here.