The National Bank has put two new commemorative coins into circulation
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has put two new commemorative coins into circulation, dedicated to prominent figures of Ukrainian culture: “The Executed Renaissance: Ivan Padalka” and “The Executed Renaissance: Mike Johansen.”
This was reported by the financial regulator’s press service.
These new numismatic issues are intended to commemorate the creators who fell victim to the bloody Soviet terror.
The coins are part of a large-scale historical and educational project by the NBU.
They are intended to remind society of the tragic pages of national history and the significant contribution of the repressed intelligentsia to the development of European Ukraine.
Every element of the coins’ design is imbued with deep symbolism and reflects the pain of an entire era.
“These coins continue the thematic series dedicated to the Executed Renaissance and its artists, who in the 1920s and early 1930s became a symbol of Ukraine’s powerful cultural breakthrough but were ruthlessly destroyed by the totalitarian Soviet regime,” the statement reads.
Both cultural figures to whom the new coins are dedicated left a deep mark on the artistic landscape. Ivan Padalka was a monumentalist, graphic artist, and educator, a talented student of Mykhailo Boichuk.
The other coin honors Mike Johansen—a poet, prose writer, translator, linguist, screenwriter, and critic.
Both commemorative coins share a symbolic obverse featuring the inscription “SLOVO”—the name of the legendary Kharkiv building where ideas that transformed Ukrainian culture were born, and which at the same time witnessed the tragic fate of its residents.
A sprout of winter wheat is visible in the texture of the letters—an image of the young generation of artists whose lives and creative work were cynically shattered by the totalitarian regime.
The tragedy of that historical era is underscored by the bullet-riddled letter “O,” from which blood flows, serving as a reminder of a painful wound in Ukraine’s history and the unfulfilled dreams of talented artists.
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