Books from Ukraine
The Ukrainian Book Institute is a government entity, part of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
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Stories Imagined
Stories Imagined was created to have a voice in woman's fiction. Writing about an age group of women who are on their second wind. Ready to take on the world how they see fit. The juggle and struggle of womanhood, sexuality, motherhood and coming back to self.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2021The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine's Past and Present
by Serhii Plokhy
The Frontline presents a selection of essays drawn together for the first time to form a companion volume to Plokhy’s The Gates of Europe and Chernobyl. Here he expands upon his analysis in earlier works of key events in Ukrainian history, including Ukraine’s complex relations with Russia and the West, the burden of tragedies such as the Holodomor and World War II, the impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and Ukraine’s contribution to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Juxtaposing Ukraine’s history to the contemporary politics of memory, this volume provides a multidimensional image of a country that continues to make headlines around the world. Eloquent in style and comprehensive in approach, the essays collected here reveal the roots of the ongoing political, cultural, and military conflict in Ukraine, the largest country in Europe.
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True stories2019Chaplains. In service of God and Ukraine
by Kovtunovych Tetiana, Pryvalko Tetiana
The book contains the memories of military chaplains of various denominations who, since the beginning of the war in the east of Ukraine, performed pastoral care among Ukrainian soldiers.
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Literature & Literary Studies2017Anthology of Ukrainian Poetry of the Twentieth Century. From Tychyna to Zhadan
by Anthology
The twentieth century was a time for the brightest and daring ways of expressing themselves in creativity. It was a time to experiment with form and content, and the historical revolution was reflected in the texts of writers and poets. How Ukrainian poets saw this time and how they felt will be clearly shown by the Anthology of Ukrainian Poetry of the Twentieth Century. From Tychyna to Zhadan. Thanks to this book, the reader will find the already known works by Dmytro Pavlychko, Vasyl‘ Stus, Lina Kostenko, and get acquainted with the work of those who became famous at the end of the century — Yuriy Izdryk, Oleksiy Zhupanskiy, Serhiy Zhadan, Galyna Kruk. You may also meet and come to love other talented names. Ivan Malkovych gathered everyone under one cover and became the compiler of this collection himself, a poet, publisher and owner of the publishing house "A-ba-ba-ha-la-ma-ha".
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Anthologies (non-poetry)2021Not Only Kobzar. The Anthology of Ukrainian literature. 1792–1883 (in two books)
by Mykhailo Nazarenko
Ukrainian literature of the 19th century was far more exciting and diverse than one might imagine. Mykhailo Nazarenko's anthology contains one hundred and fifty texts that are not known or very little known to the modern reader (some of them are reprinted for the first time after 150 years of oblivion). These texts help to understand Ukrainian literary movement in a wider context. The compilation starts with the "The Song of the Black Sea Army" by Anton Golovaty. This novel precedes the famous "Aeneid" and marks the beginning of the printed literature "in the contemporary Ukrainian language". "It is not time..." by Ivan Franko is the last one in the compilation and describes further evolution of the independent Ukrainian literary word. The compilation also contains fifty essays about each of the authors: why did they write in a particular that way and about what? Why did some turn out to be forgotten, while others are remembered for their works?
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Literature & Literary Studies1997Toward a History of Ukrainian literature
by George G. Grabowicz
The work of the famous American-Ukrainian Slavologist and Ukrainian scholar Hryhoriy Hrabovych interprets the history of Ukrainian literature in several main ways: theoretical, comparative, immanent and historiographical. The book includes his studies, essays, and polemics written over the years. They were mainly produced in times of a sharp confrontation between official Soviet and Western approaches to literary studies. Today, after Ukraine gained its independence, there is an urgent need for a thorough reassessment of various scientific traditions and paradigms as well as a review of the canon of Ukrainian literature, its histography and methodology. The vast majority of these works were published in English or in sources unavailable for the Ukrainian reader, including specialist researchers. This edition can significantly reorient our understanding of the history of Ukrainian literature and enable a rethinking of Ukrainian cultural and intellectual processes.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2016300 Years of Solitude: Ukrainian Donbas in Search of Senses and the Roots
by Stanislav Kulchytsky, Larysa Yakubova
In recent years, Donbas has been at the epicenter of a heated public discussion. This book is a comprehensive study of the historical experience of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It highlights several problems of rapid social and economic growth and painful stagnation, powerful migration processes and the multi-ethnic population structure and, as a result, an unstructured identity and short historical memory. The authors explore the origins of the Soviet mythologemes of the "people of Donbas”, “All-Union stokehold”, “melting pot”, which have been influencing the formation of the consciousness of the region’s population and the collective image of the Ukrainian Donbas for a long time. This book presents a detailed analysis of the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the factors that preceded the creation of quasi-states, as well as possible ways and tools to overcome the social and cultural consequences of the military conflict.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2022Tempting Fate, Hardening the Will: Ukraine and Ukrainians in the XX - Early XXI Century. In Three Books
by Larysa Yakubova (project coordinator)
The transformation of a mental Ukraine into a real Ukraine, people - into a nation, a territory – into a state is a semantic axis of this trilogy. Book 1. Ukraine and Ukrainians in 1917-1939 The first book is devoted to the interwar period – a key stage of ethnic modernization and mobilization of Ukrainians, the culmination of the Ukrainian Revolution, and the battle for Ukraine in the context of the First World War. Book 2. Between World War II and the Cold War: Wars in the Destiny of Ukraine The second book tells about Ukrainians in the Second World War, after which the Ukrainian lands were united within one state, and in the Cold War, which made possible the sovereignty of Ukraine. Book 3. 30 Years of Independence: Challenges, Trials, Answers The third book is dedicated to the period of Ukrainian Independence and summarizes the thirty years of Ukrainian post-totalitarian transit. Contradictions of internal development, geopolitical challenges, three modern Ukrainian revolutions, and the Russian-Ukrainian war are the focus of understanding the path of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the global world.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2021Ukrainian Worlds of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Stories about History
by Natalya Starchenko
The vision of the Ukrainian history dominant in the Russian Empire and in the Soviet Union focused exclusively on the heroic Cossacks and disenfranchised peasants. There was no room in it for the local elites: the Ukrainian aristocracy (szlachta) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As the result of this biased perspective, Ukrainians to this day know very little about the life of those people. This book invites the readers to take a closer look at the Ukrainian aristocracy. This introduction is done in a somewhat unusual form, through true anecdotes from the life of aristocracy gleaned from court records and other sources from the time. We get glimpses of the elites not only in their best garbs but also in their well-worn home clothes. The book brings together 105 brief chapters that describe how these people saw themselves, how they fought and made peace, how they fell in love and got married, how unwavering they were in the defense of their rights in court. Last not least, these essays explore whether the Ukrainian elites were mere extras and viewers in history or its active makers, resolute and strong in their insistence on defending and expanding their rights and freedoms.
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Humanities & Social SciencesOctober 2008Ukrainian nobility
by Natalia Yakovenko
The monograph "Ukrainian nobility from the end of XIV to the middle of XVII centuries. Volyn and Central Ukraine" by doctor of history, professor Nataliya Yakovenko is dedicated to the history of elites in Ukraine as a part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish Crown. The author examines the formation of different groups and princely elites of the united "noble people" as well as its development during the two ages from the joining of its lands to the GDL and to the Cossack revolution of 1648. An origin and social structure, legal and property status, as well as personal and numerical strength of Ukrainian nobility are the main objects of the author's research. The first edition of the book, written at the end of 1980th, was published in 1993.This researh immediately became a bestseller and bibliographic rarity as it inspired a range of further fruitful scientific studies by Ukrainian and foreign historians in the same field. The new edition has been fundamentally revised and updated.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2020I Will Mix Your Blood With Coal. Understanding Ukrainian East
by Oleksandr Mykhed
In 2014, the Russian army, with support from local militants, had occupied parts of Ukraine’s two easternmost regions, the regions that were the beating industrial heart of the socialist utopia in the Soviet era, and where coal extraction has exhausted both the human population and the natural resources. The regions have suffered from the post-Soviet chaos for decades. In the late 2016, the author set out on a research trip to the East to answer the common questions of those who’ve never been to the region. He takes his readers on a complicated, painful and hopeful trip across the Ukrainian East, guiding them through conversations with the locals, archival research, and conversations with prominent cultural fi gures like writer Serhij Zhadan or released after 700 days of terrorist captivity historian Ihor Kozlovskyi that were born in the region. The readers will meet the miners, the Belgian and British investors who founded the eastern cities, the priceless coal, events of the First and Second World War, the bloody Soviet history, the activists who are now working to improve the country, and sweet memories of the lost paradise.
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Graphic novels: true stories & non-fiction2021A Brief History of Ukrainian Feminism. Graphic novel
by Mykola Yabchenko
Feminism is a living phenomenon, but its history can and should be recorded. A number of serious works on the history of the women's movement and feminism have been published in Ukraine, but it is only recently that the history of Ukrainian feminism appeared in the form of a graphic novel. This book is our humble attempt to try and cover the vast history of Ukrainian feminism on a moderate number of pages. We have mentioned many outstanding personalities, but we have not mentioned even more names, for which we immediately apologise - after all, a lot has happened in 150 years and it’s hard to fit all into a relatively small graphic novel. This book may be of interest to those who have only recently become interested in feminism, as it is a brief introduction to the history of Ukrainian feminism. More experienced readers will be delighted to notice some additional details and stories to what they already know.
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True stories2020ISOLATION. Secret prisons of Donbas in the stories by people saved from torture and death
by Daria Bura, Iryna Vovk
The book of recollections of those, who went through hell and survived: prisoners of Donetsk and Luhansk prisoners, infamous "Isolation", Donbas colonies. These are the stories of those who were exchanged as prisoners of war on December 29, 2019, those who kissed the Ukrainian land at the "Maiorsk" checkpoint. Despite the controversy over the exchange itself, those who sacrificed their lives, families, peace, and health returned home. Ukrainian soldiers, journalists, bloggers, military aides, doctors, and locals talk about the life "before" and "after", about the life of Donbas during the war, about the atrocities and crimes of militants, about the horrors and tortures in captivity.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2020The Rules of Ukrainian Cooking
by Eugenia Kuznetsova
The Rules of Ukrainian Cooking (Cook in Sorrow) is a guide to Ukrainian cuisine written in an entertaining style of ironic ethnography. It is structured into thirty “recipes”, each exploring one aspect of the Ukrainian culinary tradition. From cooking Borsch (which is never perfect) to brewing homemade wine and hosting guests, the book provides an entertaining account of probably the most cherished aspect of Ukrainian culture. The Ultimate Guide to Ukrainian Cooking puts Ukrainian dishes in social context, offering readers insights about complicated relationship of Ukrainians with cooking, eating, their relatives and even uncovers true love to famous Kherson tomatoes, now under the Russian occupation. The book is beautifully designed and illustrated by a cohort of Ukrainian artists, who represent some of the most prominent names in Ukrainian contemporary book design.
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Relationships1996Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex
by Oksana Zabuzhko
Called “the most influential Ukrainian book since independence,” Oksana Zabuzhko’s Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex became an international phenomenon when it shot to number one on the Ukrainian bestseller list and remained there throughout the 1990s. The sexual odyssey of the artist and poetess, unfolding in Ukraine and America at the end of the 20th century, turns into a true medieval mystery in which the heroine goes through the circles of recent Ukrainian history to meet the Devil face to face.
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True stories2019The Life
by Oleg Sentsov
The Life is a collection of autobiographical stories. This is a book for everyone who has not yet found answers as to why Oleg was assisting Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea, why he spoke openly about the war in Ukraine initiated by Russia, and why he went on a hunger strike and didn’t request clemency. These stories acquaint us with the author during a period of internal searching and transformation that was important to him, when he was trying to understand who he was and which path he will take further and never give it in. The collection is the first publication of Oleg Sentsov’s writings in Ukrainian, with the translation presented side by side with the original Russian texts. Life is an extremely important book for Oleg, and even while imprisoned, he took an active part in its publication.
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Biography: general2020Outstanding Women in Ukrainian History. Biographical sketches in historical settings. Book One. 10-18 centuries
by Serhii Seheda
In his book, a famous Ukrainian anthropologist Professor Serhii Segeda, tells about famous Ukrainian women who left their mark on the country's history. From the legendary Princess Olha to Natalia Rozumovska, the mother of the last Ukrainian Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky, these women lived lives full of struggle, setbacks and breakthroughs, and had a significant influence on political decisions and statesmen. Their amazing stories will fascinate even the most seasoned readers. For a wide range of readers, history buffs, university students and history teachers.
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Travel & Transport2022Ukraїner. Ukrainian Insider 2
by Bogdan Logvynenko (idea), Daria Titarova, Kseniya Chykunova (texts)
Our team continues to study Ukraine, the results of which we share with you. This book is a story of the Ukrainian land, told by the Ukrainian people and filmed by the Ukraїner team. It was not enough to travel around all regions of Ukraine just one time to get to know it. Therefore, during 2019-2021, we drove the second expedition circle and brought even more stories about our incredible country and its inhabitants. Like all Ukraїner materials, these are stories of real people and the places they take care of, with dialogues and without directing. Traveling around the country, we want to capture it for every Ukrainian and for the whole world. And with the beginning of the annexation war started by Russia, this book has another important goal: to show Ukraine as it was before February 24, to keep it in our memory so that after the victory it could be rebuilt, and made even better.
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Literature & Literary Studies2021The vocabulary of a nationalist and other essays
by Mykola Riabchuk
This collection of opinion journalism is a comprehensive and far-sighted look at the past, present, and future of Ukraine in political and cultural aspects. The author meticulously describes the phenomena of Ukrainian realities, in particular, analyzes the Ukrainian Maidans (2004 and 2013), examines the crisis of the Ukrainian elite, Ukrainians’ identity crisis by nationality or citizenship, and also describes in details the USSR iron curtain of the 20th century in the sphere of culture and literature. Most of these essays were published in periodicals, mainly in English and Ukrainian, sometimes in Polish and German, and occasionally in such languages as Farsi, Turkish, and Catalan. The author prepared all Ukrainian versions with the hope of a synergistic effect of personal experiences gathered under one cover and hoping to awaken from the Soviet delusional dream that has not yet dissappered.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2017Survival as Victory: Ukrainian Women in the Gulag
by Oksana Kis
Of the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian women were sentenced to the Gulag in the 1940s and 1950s, only half survived. In Survival as Victory, Oksana Kis has produced the first anthropological study of daily life in the Soviet forced labor camps as experienced by Ukrainian women prisoners. Based on the written memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories of over 150 survivors, this book fills a lacuna in the scholarship regarding Ukrainian experience. Kis details the women’s resistance to the brutality of camp conditions not only through the preservation of customs and traditions from everyday home life, but also through the frequent elision of regional and confessional differences. Following the groundbreaking work of Anne Applebaum’s Gulag: A History (2003), this book is a must-read for anyone interested in gendered strategies of survival, accommodation, and resistance to the dehumanizing effects of the Gulag.
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The Arts2019ZNAK. Ukrainian Trademarks 1960—1980
by U, N, A collective
Znak. Ukrainian Trademarks 1960—1980 is research by U, N, A collective (Uliana Bychenkova, Nika Kudinova, Aliona Solomadina) on the history of Ukrainian graphic design, in particular, on the area of corporate identity during the period of Thaw, Stagnation, and Perestroyka. Visual and textual narratives coexist in the book, as this type of material needs not only visual but also textual support. They address the given subject in the wider chronological order: from the 20th century avant-garde to the present. Most importantly, the publication focuses on the Kharkiv school of industrial graphics and the accomplishments of Volodymyr Pobiedin. The publication displays archive materials, identifies the names, describes the processes and highlights the influences in Ukrainian graphic design in the local and global contexts.
