@affairwithfilm: Vadym’s life’s work disappeared overnight when a russian missile struck the Pochaina antique market in Kyiv on 30 July 2026. The fire that followed the strike completely destroyed his wife’s antique porcelain shop, leaving the floor covered in nothing but shattered porcelain. Next door, it also engulfed Vadym’s record store, destroying nearly 25,000 vinyl records and around 1,000 cassette tapes collected over five decades. Vadym recalls receiving his very first record in 1969. It was an album by the Barry Sisters. That moment sparked a lifelong passion. He later worked in record stores, first at a shop on what is now Ukrainian Heroes Square (then Lva Tolstoho Square), and later at the Melodiya record store on what was then Druzhby Narodiv Boulevard, now Mykola Mikhnovskyi Boulevard. Over the years, he built one of Kyiv’s most remarkable private collections. Now it has all been reduced to a single blackened pile of rubble. When Vadym showed me what remained of his store, everything had been burned to the ground. As we stood there, he carefully sifted through the ashes, hoping to find anything that had survived. When I first visited the site shortly after the strike, smoke was still rising from the ruins. One of Vadym’s longtime customers happened to drive by to see how he was doing. He told me about Vadym and showed me vinyl records warped and blackened by the fire. Buried beneath the debris are signed records by Led Zeppelin, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Gloria Gaynor, and ONUKA. Many other items that meant the world to him are gone as well, including rare and valuable records, collectible audio equipment, amplifiers, a Thorens turntable, a Dual C844 cassette deck, a Nikon camera, and even a bicycle that took part in the 1979 Tour de France. Despite losing almost everything, Vadym remains remarkably optimistic. “Thank God He took it in money, not in lives.” Thousands of burned vinyl records are still lying in the ruins. Perhaps some of them could be given a second life through art instead of ending up in a landfill. If you’re an artist or have an idea for how they could be transformed into something meaningful, let me know. Perhaps something new can emerge from what was left behind. #kyiv #vinylcollection #vinylrecords #vinyltok

Diary of a Kyivan

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Thursday 06 August 2026 11:30:58 GMT