Kiev's Makeshift Maidan Memorial

If you're in Kiev, chances are you'll pass through Independence Square, also known as Maidan. You can't miss the sprawling area, huge and centrally located. After the uprising in the winter of 2013, Maidan is now known for Ukraine's present struggles and is also a symbol for all struggles in Eastern Europe of former Soviet states defending their independence and rights.

The uprising has been given the identity "Euromaidan" and about 80 people died during the demonstrations. There isn't a permanent memorial to the dead. Instead, peppered along the square are makeshift, personal memorials and grim reminders of the recent, violent history.

The memorials are homemade - and looking at them knocks the wind out of you. Tires add atmosphere.

Pictures plastered, flowers placed.

Cross erected.

Lenin on his book and a dog toy. Memorial to a life lost too early.

Rubble as relic, a spot over the square from where cobblestones were thrown.

An Interesting Museum To Mikhail Bulgakov In Kiev

Mikhail Bulgakov was a Russian writer and playwright active during the first half of the 20th century. Trained as a doctor, Bulgakov served during WWI, was injured several times and eventually gave up medicine for writing. He wrote memoir pieces as well as works critical of the government, including the Communists.

His most famous work, The Master and Margarita, was published in 1966, 26 years after his death.

A house where he lived in Kiev is now a museum. The curators have adopted an inspired presentation model, combining artifacts of Bulgakov's life with details from one of his works, The White Guard. The logic is fair, as that work was written while Bulgakov was living in the house and he placed the fictional family's residence at that address.

The museum has created themes in each room, intertwining fiction and biography.

The blue room.

A bedroom and nice tile work.

Sarah, through a secret passage, featured in the book (passage, not Sarah).

Study in white.

The doctor's real office.