The issue of the evacuation of cultural and artistic
valuables arose for the staff of Lviv museums, archives and libraries as
early as the autumn of 1943. Due to the front line approaching, there was a
threat of destruction due to active hostilities. The most valuable parts of the
collections of the Ossolineum, the Baworowski Library, the University Library,
the City Archives, the Historical Museum and the Art Gallery were transferred
inland, to "mainland" Poland. Since the evacuation of these
collections took place under the supervision of the Nazi administration, the
important task was to prevent their relocation to the Third Reich. In addition,
measures were taken to preserve the remaining collections in Lviv. For example,
the Ossolineum directorate moved part of the collection (manuscripts and
ancient engravings) to the dungeons of the Dominican church. In April and May
1944, Soviet air strikes caused significant damage to the Wroclaw panorama, the
buildings of the Ossolineum and the University Library, but the collections of
these institutions were not damaged.
The 1944 Lublin Agreement did not mention the issue of
the relocation of Polish cultural heritage, and until the spring of 1946 it was
not a priority. After the war, thanks to the efforts of the Polish authorities,
some of Lviv's works of art and collections were transferred to Poland. Thus,
the Provisional Government of National Unity placed the Wroclaw Panorama in
Wroclaw, where it was transported in 1946. The following year, 30% of the
Ossolineum's funds (217,000 units) were transported by two trains to Poland (at
the same time, more than 10,000 books were transferred to the Library of the Soviet
Academy of Sciences in Moscow). Some of the Polish workers of the Ossolineum
(led by the director Mieczysław Gembarowicz) did not move to Poland and
remained to work in the Lviv branch of the Library of the Academy of Sciences
of the USSR.
The fate of Janusz Witwicki, a Polish engineer and
historian of architecture, and his model of 18th-century Lviv illustrate the
complex relationship between the Soviet regime and Polish cultural heritage in
postwar Lviv.
Witwicki began to work on an ambitious city panorama of Lviv at Lviv
Polytechnic in 1932. In 1936, efforts were made to purchase a new two-room
workshop in a building belonging to the City Council and located at ul.
Ormiańska 23 (now vul. Virmenska, the so-called "Seasons" building).
It was then that his work began on the construction of a model of Lviv on a
scale of 1:200. Probably, the impetus for the creation of the Panorama was a
collection of 17th-18th c. urban fortifications models he saw in
Paris. The Panorama was partially financed by the City Council. To assist in
its construction, the "Society for the Construction of the Model of
Ancient Lviv" (Towarzystwo Budowy Panoramy Plastycznej Dawnego Lwowa)
was established in December 1935. A team of designers and architects worked on
numerous models of houses, churches, towers and fortifications. Witwicki made
the most complex elements himself.
The panorama reflected the appearance of Lviv's
buildings within the city fortifications as of 1772, on the eve of Lviv
becoming part of the Austrian Empire. The plastic model reproduced the baroque
pre-Habsburg architecture of Lviv, emphasizing the city’s Polish character. The
grand opening of the Panorama was planned in 1949, for the 600th anniversary of
Lviv's accession to the Kingdom of Poland. However, history made a different turn,
and the model was never completed.
The Soviet authorities did not want to lose
this monument and made a lot of efforts to preserve it in Lviv. In 1944, Nikita
Khrushchev, the then secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of the Ukrainian SSR, visited Witwicki's workshop, assessing his work as
"very important" and promising support. A few months later, the Lviv
regional committee of the communist party recommended continuing the Panorama
of the City project as a state one, with a reduction in "Polish"
accents. The new panorama was to reflect the Ukrainian model of historic Lviv.
In June 1945, the rights to the panorama were assigned to the Ukrainian Academy
of Architecture, and Witwicki was appointed deputy director of this
institution.
When Janusz Witwicki decided to move to Poland, the
possibility of "compulsory sale" of his work was considered. In April
1946, the Panorama was declared state property. Three days before the planned
date of Witwicki's departure, three men came to his workshop on vul. Virmenska
and introduced themselves as journalists or art critics. The next day, July 16,
1946, the body of Janusz Witwicki was found on the street. His wife testified
that she saw one of the "art critics" in the NKVD uniform. There was
no show trial in this case. Two weeks later, Irena Witwicka and her daughters
left for Poland and managed to take the Panorama in parts with them. Upon
arrival in Warsaw, Panorama was placed in one of the rooms of the National
Museum. However, due to the fear that the Soviet authorities would demand its
return, it was decided to hide the Panorama in one of the basements of the
Warsaw Polytechnic. Since September 2015, Panorama has been available for
viewing at the Hala Stulecia exhibition complex in Wrocław.
Despite the fact that some of Polish cultural heritage
artifacts were transferred to Poland in the postwar years, most of them
remained in Lviv. In 1969, the Lviv regional committee estimated that there
were "more than four hundred thousand works of art, history, and
culture" in Lviv museums alone, of which only 6% could be accessed by
public. Thus, post-war Lviv was overflowing with artifacts of the past that did
not fit into the new Soviet ideology.
