– I guess I haven’t quite gotten over the shock yet. That’s what Oleksandr Smykovskyj says, the violin maker from Mariupol who has been deprived of everything by the war. His home, his workplace and most importantly: All the violins that were left behind when the Russian attack forced him to flee in haste in mid-March 2022. news meets Oleksandr Smykovskyj in the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine. He is one of millions of Ukrainians who are internally displaced because of the war in the country. Oleksandr Smykovskyj photographed in his workshop in Mariupol. Photo: Privat Together with his mother and father, he has found a temporary home in Vinnytsia, while they wait for the Ukrainian army to continue the counter-offensive against the attacking Russian forces. – When I see the picture of the city coat of arms of Mariupol, I only have one thought in my head, says Oleksandr Smykovskyj, where we are standing in front of a large picture with the hometown coat of arms. This is how Oleksandr Smykovskyj’s apartment looks objection. Photo: Privat – We are all waiting for the moment when we can return to our liberated hometown, he says to news. Vinnytsia has also been attacked We stand together in front of the bombed out officer’s house in Vinnytsia, which was attacked by Russian rockets on 14 July. Russia claims that it was a legitimate target in that there was a meeting of Ukrainian military in the house. 28 people were killed in the attack, including three children. Oleksandr Smykovskyj in front of the memorial to the murdered Liza Dmitrjeva in Vinnytsia Photo: Morten Jentoft Vinnytsia, and not least the military installations of the Ukrainian defense on the outskirts of the city, have been the target of several Russian rocket attacks. Still, Oleksandr says that what we are seeing here is nothing compared to what has happened to his hometown of Mariupol. Awoken by friend from Australia – I was woken up at 04:00 on the morning of February 24th by a friend of mine from Australia calling to say that Russia had attacked. This is how the house Oleksandr Smykovskyj lived in Mariupol looks after the fighting in the spring of 2022. Photo: Private Oleksandr Smykovskyj says that he did not fully understand the seriousness of the situation right away, and that there were no direct attacks on the city on this first day of the war. – We heard the sound of shooting. But at first they only bombed the outskirts of the city. But from March the whole city was bombed more systematically. And until 15 March there was a fierce bombing, says Oleksandr. From data to Stradivarius Oleksandr Smykovskyj is actually a trained computer engineer. But at the end of the 1990s he became interested in building violins. And soon this became such an obsession that he decided to pursue a career as a violin maker. The road led to courses in the world’s violin-making capital, Cremona. Oleksandr Smykovskyj together with the Italian violin maker Liutaio Giovanni Battista Morassi in Gremona. He had a workshop set up in the basement of his house in Mariupol, and was thus able to offer string instrument repairs for the city’s musicians. Eventually also newly built instruments made in line with the old traditions from Italian masters such as Stradivari and Guarneri. Then came the war, and in mid-March things happened frighteningly fast. Fighting just a few blocks away Oleksandr Smykovskyj and his family had thought the war might end, as it did during the first Russian attempt to take control of Mariupol in 2014. But then fighting began to rage just a few blocks away. Oleksandr Smykovskyj has worked as a violin maker in Mariupol for 20 years. Photo: Private – I didn’t have a car and only had to carry the most necessary documents into a small rucksack, says Oleksandr. He then had more than ten violins lying around in the workshop. Five of them he was making himself, one of them was completely finished. – I still couldn’t take it with me in a violin case because I was afraid it would attract attention. Maybe some sharpshooters would suspect me of having a rifle in the case, says Oleksandr Smykovskyj to news. Escape via minor roads The entire work of life was thus left behind in a workshop in an apartment block in Mariupol. He and his parents even managed to join a car, which via small roads made it past Russian checkpoints and up to the Ukrainian-controlled area of Zaporizhzhya. From there, the road continued via acquaintances in Dnipro and Poltava to Vinnytsia, many hundreds of kilometers from the front in the war, but thus not completely safe from Russian rocket attacks. Via some acquaintances who remained in Mariupol, he was sent photos that confirmed what he had feared. Both the apartment and the workshop with the violins were totally destroyed in the fierce fighting between the Ukrainian defenders and the advancing Russian forces. Support from colleagues around the world Eventually Oleksandr Smykovsky’s story spread among the small circle of violin makers all over the world. One of those who has committed to trying to help Oleksandr get started again is the Norwegian violin maker Jacob von der Lippe. – It’s good to see you, they both say almost in each other’s mouths, when news has set up a conversation between the two, via the internet. Jakob von der Lippe promises to help Oleksandr Smykovskyj so that he can start building violins again. Photo: Lokman Ghorbani They have had contact, but only through text messages. Jacob has also sent a package of clothes to Oleksandr, who almost didn’t take anything with him when he fled Mariupol. They have both studied in the same environment with Italian violin makers in Cremona. But now Oleksandr is standing on bare ground. – You must let me know if there is anything I can do for you, if perhaps we can also send down some tools so that you can start building violins again, says Jacob von der Lippe. Difficult to plan the future Oleksandr Smykovskyj is both happy and moved by the support he now receives from his colleagues all over the world. But for now, he has problems thinking that far ahead. As a Ukrainian man under the age of 60, he is not allowed to leave Ukraine. Nor has he been able to find a more permanent place to live, where he might be able to resume his profession. Liza and the brutal war And back in front of the officer’s house in Vinnytsia, Oleksandr shows us an example of how brutal and merciless the conflict in Ukraine is. By a post there are lots of teddy bears and toys. Oleksandr Smykovskyj says that it was here that four-year-old Liza Dmitrjeva was killed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself published this photo of the dead Liza Dmitryeva in Vinnytsia on July 14, 2022. Photo: The Ukrainian Presidential Administration Many may remember the photos of the happy four-year-old with Down syndrome, which was filmed by her mother shortly before she was killed of the Russian rockets right here. – What can one say, it is difficult to talk about this, that something like this can happen in the 21st century, says Oleksandr Smykovskyj and looks away at the touching small memorial site for Liza. – You have to be able to solve problems with other methods than what we see now, says the violin maker from Mariupol, currently without violins and tools.
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Left his life’s work behind when he fled – afraid the Russians would think it was a weapon
