Russia has destroyed one of the largest computer museums in the world, which was in Mariupol
A large private museum dedicated to it8bit.club retro computers and video games destroyed earlier this week in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s ongoing terrible invasion. Although the destroyed museum is not at all comparable to the thousands killed and wounded, it is still a sad loss, as more than 500 units of computer history spanning decades have destroyed, Kotaku writes.
The museum, located in Mariupol, was managed by Dmitry Cherepanov. The news of its destruction confirmed by the Ukrainian Museum of Software and Computers on Twitter. It reported that the owner Cherepanov is safe.
Unfortunately it's true. Dmitry and I met personally in his museum a few years ago. It was really good collection. But now Dmitry is in the safe place. This is most important thing in the current situation. Слава Україні.
— Software & Computer Museum (@sncmuseum) March 24, 2022
However, Cherepanov explained on Facebook that he had lost not only the museum but also his home.
“Salute retorts! Well, that’s all, the Mariupol Computer Museum is no more. All that’s left of my collection, which I collected for 15 years – it’s just fragments of memories on the FB page, website, and radio station of the museum. I will continue to support the site and RetroBit radio, but life will now have entirely different priorities. There is no museum or my house (and it hurts, but I will definitely go through it and find a new home!).” — Cherepanov wrote in his post.
Back in 2019, GIZMODO visited the museum and talked to Cherepanov. According to the profile, he began assembling computers when the Soviet regime was building its own computers.
“It’s like looking at an alternate universe. Cars popular with Soviet children look different from what we know in the Western world, but they still carry the same sense of nostalgia that you, or I can feel with the Commodore 64 or Macintosh II. Cherepanov has been collecting and restoring these computers for more than ten years, and his PC museum is a fascinating look at the broad scale of the PC revolution of the 1980s,” – GIZMODO said at the time.
Russia’s ongoing deadly invasion of Ukraine has already killed and injured thousands. It has also forced more than 3 million people to flee the country, creating a major refugee crisis in Europe.
Since the invasion in February, many companies around the world, such as Sony/PlayStation, Twitch, Netflix, EA Games and Witcher’s CDPR, have supported Ukraine and left Russia. Meanwhile, a growing list of states has imposed and continues to impose severe economic sanctions on Russia.
