The beginning of the exhibition is dedicated to the history of the field, which is home to 30 ancient mounds and 4 settlements. At various times, important events took place here: an episode of the battle between the troops of Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania and the Horde Khan Temir-Kutlui (1399); the decisive battle between Hetman of Ukraine I. Vyhovskyi and Poltava Colonel M. Pushkar (1658); the Battle of Poltava in 1709; the grand operation ‘Frantic’ during World War II (1944).
Poltava region was mostly considered an initial part of Ukraine, and played some part in Cossack activities in the 16th and 17th centuries, however, the main cultural and educational centre was the Kyiv Collegium, founded in 1615. Among its graduates were 16 hetmans of Ukraine, including I. Mazepa and P. Orlyk, as well as Cossack chroniclers S. Velychko and H. Hrabianka.
Fundamental changes in Ukrainian political balance of power in the mid-17th century are associated with the name of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who in 1648 launched the full-scale uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which later grew into the Cossack Revolution. It resulted in something, which was never achieved before – creation of the Cossack State, and had some influence on international relations in Eastern Europe at that time.
The exposition of the hall is represented by archaeological material collected during excavations on the battlefield, weapons of the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, household items of the seventeenth century, objects of Ukrainian religious art, a copy of Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan’s map (1639), portraits of famous statesmen and cultural figures of Ukraine and neighbouring countries of that period.