Russian Cultural Center in Lviv (Ukrainian: Російський культурний центр у Львові, Russian: Русский культурный центр во Львове) is an organization of Russian culture in Lviv, the only organization in this topic in West-Ukraine. Situated on No. 1-a Korolenko Street, near the city center of Lviv, in western Ukraine. The center was the first of its kind[1] to be open in the USSR and it was the only one for a long time in the territory of Ukraine.
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The Russian Cultural Center was founded by the Pushkin Society in Lviv. The city council provided a neglected building which was previously a former cinema located near the territory of St. George church (the Russian Orthodox church) in October of 1990. Initially the "small auditorium" was renovated in April, 1994 followed by the "large auditorium" in April 1996. It is from this date that the organization became active. Money for the materials was donated by private donors, such as Alexander Svistunov. The latter date is regarded to be founding date for the functioning of the center. It is operated by members of the Pushkin Society. Previously, concerts took place at the Regional Officer's House, The Zinkovska Theatre, the Railway Workers Cultural Centre and School No. 35.
Since January 1997 there has been an active library in the "Small Auditorium", which after 10 years has over 8,000 publications.
The first director of the centre was Sergey Sokurov, the founder of the Pushkin Society.
The organization focuses its attention on topics such as the discrimination of Russian Culture, political pressure[2][3], the depletion of the Russian population in Lviv etc. The organization works with other ethnic minority organizations in Lviv, and with many Left parties in Ukraine, and also with the Party of Regions. The organization holds numerous culture activities. It has a theatre, dancing class, a ing-songwriter club, a painters club, an Intellectual Games club[4], Children Studios, and other community clubs.
The organization also looks after the graves of those who fought for Russia during the First World War and those who fought for the USSR during the Second World War[5].
The RCC has been attacked and vandalized on several occasions. On January 22, 1992 it was raided by UNA-UNSO led by the member of Lviv Oblast Council[1]. UNA-UNSO members searched the building, partially destroyed archives and pushed people out from the building[1]. The leader of attackers declared that everything in Ukraine belonged to the Ukrainians, so the Moskals and the kikes were not allowed to reside or have property there.[1]. The building was vandalized during the Papal Visit to Lviv in 2001[6], then in 2003 (5 times)[7][8], 2004 (during Orange revolution[9]), 2005[10][11], 2006 [12]