STORIES
A Quaint World of Forgotten and Abandoned Things.

Memories Hidden in the Basement of an Ordinary Lviv Khrushchev-Era Building
Pavlo Bishko
August 19, 2022
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
A lonely dreamer Volodymyr Travnikov turned the abandoned basement of the Lviv Khrushchev-era house into a museum. Fifteen years ago, he started clearing the basement corridors and decorating the walls and doors of the premises with toys from his childhood and things from the nineties.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
Currently, the Travnikov museum has more than three thousand exhibits. These are vinyl records, cigarette packs, photographs, video cassettes, and posters of old Hollywood action movies. All these things were considered by their owners as unnecessary goods, which were thrown away during renovations.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
Zaborona visited the quaint world created by Travnikov and learned the story of Volodymyr himself and the things he tries to give a second life.
Volodymyr considers himself a creative person. From the age of 17, he wrote poems and liked to embellish caskets with coins. Once he got a lot of paints, spatulas, and brushes from one artist. So he became interested in painting for a while.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
"It was interesting to me. I have watched several tutorials online. From the third time, the pictures turned out to be quite good, in my opinion. I even gave some to the girls then," says Volodymyr.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
Travnikov is a builder by profession, engaged in apartment repairs. Most of the exhibits in his museum are things that his customers consider as trash to be hastily thrown away during renovations.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
At the beginning of the 2000s, the basement, where the museum is now located, was completely cluttered and looted. There were no locks on the doors or bars on the windows. Almost every night someone climbed in there to steal something. Although, as Travnikov recalls, there was nothing to steal.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
The builder began to restore the basement little by little. He installed new locks and bars, repaired the door of his cell and decorated it with old vinyl records.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
Now, every inhabitant of the house has a key to the basement and, if he wishes, he can restore his cell, decorate its door to his taste, and also participate in decorating the walls of the basement.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
"There is one IT specialist here, he deals with computers. He has too many such things there. On his cell’s door and next to it he hung motherboards, computer details", - says Volodymyr. "Maybe if he was a fisherman, he would have some fishing equipment around him."
But it's Travnikov who brought most of the things and toys to the basement. Many people throw away old things when they start making repairs. Sometimes acquaintances call him and say: "Vova, come and pick it up because I'm going to throw it away..." Some things and toys he had found in the trash.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
"Someone probably gave a teddy bear to someone when they were in love. And then the couple breaks up - what then happens to the toy from the person who is no longer loved? Yes, it goes right in the trash pile. And it is not difficult for me to take the teddy bear here, to the basement."
Photo: Ivan Chernichkin / Zaborona
Volodymyr is surprised and to some extent outraged by the carelessness and indifference with which people treat their memory and past. Things that were once dear to the heart - postcards, photos, and sometimes even medals - are all forgotten and sent to the trash or landfill.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
"The photos go to the trash can, some of these things I would never throw away - something from my grandmother, grandfather. Of course, war medals usually are not given out, but sometimes even something like that can be found. Toys and all that - it just goes to the garbage. I would not have raised my hand to throw it away, and it remains here."
Volodymyr gently and dreamily calls the basement 'The World of Forgotten Toys.' And he is glad that he can give these things a new life, and sometimes new meanings. Some walls or their segments, decorated with toys and other things, can be interpreted as art installations, Volodymyr believes.
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
But he is most happy when the exhibits find new owners and get a new life outside. "I don't mind when someone comes with little ones, and the child grabs a toy, a car - no questions, we give it a second life."
Photo: Pavlo Bishko
At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, during the air raids, children hid in the basement and were not afraid at all, for they were playing with toys all the time and forgot about fear.
Photo: Yevhen Zinchenko / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Volodymyr understands: the improvised museum will not exist forever. This Khrushchev-era building is already 60 years old, and the communications in the house have never been changed. And, if the building does not undergo major renovation or it is simply not decided to demolish it, it is hoped that 'The World of Forgotten Toys' will last at least another fifteen years.
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