On March 10, 2019, the opening of the exhibition “French footprint in the Ukrainian history. The middle of XVIII – the beginning of XX centuries” took place. Representatives of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Investment Agency (DIA) joined the exhibition. The exhibition presents a museum-historical version of relations between Ukraine and France.

French investment in Ukraine is a study of a little-known topic of Ukraine’s relations with European countries, which destroys the myth of the Soviet industrialization of Ukraine. After all, Ukraine’s ties with France have been traced since the 18th century, that is, since the times of the Zaporizhzhia Cossacks.

The exhibition consists of two parts, where about 450 historical objects and documents are presented:

• exhibition-research “French investments in Ukraine. 1870-1918 ”(author Valentyna Lazebnyk);
• french collection of antiquities of the historical museum (authors: Valentyna Lazebnyk, Iryna Zavalova, Vasyl Roztropa).

The bright part of the exhibition is 230 historical documents of those times. Among the unique exhibits are: documents (securities) issued in Paris with the autographs of French entrepreneurs (R. R. Diuvalia, P. Darsy, E. d`Uasselia, P. Dumera, E. Pastera, Zh. Bonnardelia, M. Verstrata); advertising enterprises; photos of French and Ukrainian entrepreneurs, founders and managers of joint-stock companies, factories, mines, created with the participation of French capital and technology. The photo also reproduced giant metallurgical plants with blast furnaces, the images of which hit the imagination of contemporaries, metallurgical workers.

These are the original sources of unique history of a significant territory of Ukraine. Its central and eastern parts, modern Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions (former Katerynoslav province). Thanks to European investments, the emergence of Ukrainian industry and the transformation of the region from a secondary to one of the main industrial regions of the country have happened.

French investments in the Dnipropetrovsk region have more than a century of history and tradition. This is clearly demonstrated in studies of the Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum named after D.I. Yavornytskyi. The special attention in which is focused on the activities of well-known French companies, such as Lesaffre, Lactalis, MasSeeds, Agro KMP in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The exhibition was held with the support of the public organization “French Alliance Dnipro” and will run from April 10 to April 22, 2019.