Books from Ukraine
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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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Memoirs202277 days of February. Ukraine between two symbolic dates of the Russian war ideology
by Marichka Paplauskaite (Compiler), Authors: Inna Adrug, Anna Argirova, Kateryna Babkina, Tetyana Bezruk, Oleksandra Gorchynska, Inna Zolotukhina, Vera Kuriko, Olena Livytska, Olga Livytska, Svitlana Oslavska, Marichka Paplauskaite, Eva Raiska, Anya Semenyuk, Zoya Khramchenko, Margarita Chimyris, Iryna Yaroshynska
As a child, she could not understand why people in films about the blockade of Leningrad were always lying down. And when Mariupol was besieged by the Russians, and she and her husband lived for many days without water, food and heat under constant shelling, she realized that when you lie down, you save strength and energy. "77 Days of February" included reports written by journalists of the Reporters media in the period between February 23 and May 9 — two symbolic dates for Russian military ideology. The invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine stopped the number of days and pushed Ukrainians back to the intervening time, where February — the month of the beginning of the great war — still lasts. In the meantime and in these candid stories, there is pain, fear, hatred, and sometimes despair. But the main thing is hope. This is a bare nerve and an honest voice of the new Ukrainian reality.
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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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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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History2019250 years of lies: Russian myths about the history of Crimea
by Serhii Hromenko
The book analyses more than 20 Russian myths fabricated to legitimise the annexation of Crimea. The annexation of the Ukrainian peninsular of Crimea by Russia in 2014 caused the largest political crisis in Europe since the Second World War. It also gave rise to the unprecedented growth of propaganda to justify the aggressive policy of the Russian Federation in the eyes of the world. Is Crimea really an original Russian land? Is it true that the Crimean Tatars are all traitors? Was the peninsula really integrated into Ukraine illegally? And what, after all, were the events of February–March 2014–the illegal occupation of the foreign territory or the “restoration of historical justice”?
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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 Studies2018There was no Stalin
by Borys Khersonsky
Borys Khersonsky is one of Ukraine's leading Russian-speaking poets, winner of numerous international awards. In recent years Khersonsky has written not only in Russian language but also in Ukrainian language as well translated his Russian-language poems into Ukrainian. The collection "There was no Stalin" includes both new poems written in Ukrainian and self-translations from Russian poems made in 2016 and 2017. The themes and stylistics of the poems are typical for the author - surrealist attempts to comprehend the history of totalitarianism, "biographical lyrics", essays on the life in the 50s and 60s of the 20s century. The poems are intertwined with the parallels made to the Middle Ages and biblical motifs. The attentive reader will also find reviews of classical examples of Ukrainian poetry.
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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 & True StoriesOctober 2020Volunteers
The Strength of Those Who Care
by Natalka Poznyak-Khomenko
The book Volunteers: The Strength of Those Who Care tells about volunteering as a social phenomenon that has powerfully declared itself since 2014, when conscious citizens joined in the development and support of the Ukrainian army. The book includes 28 stories told in first person, which represent various aspects of volunteering related to the Russian-Ukrainian war: support for the army, aid to the wounded, assistance for the population that became hostage to this war.
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Historical fiction2021Bat-Ami by Oleksiy Nikitin
by Oleksii Nikitin
Ilya Goldinov, Ukrainian Jew boxing champion, had won the second place in the Soviet All-Union championship when World War II started. After Germany invaded Ukraine, he joins the guerrillas in the forests behind the front line. Only by a lucky coincidence does he survive and he joins the regular army as a soldier before being sent by the secret service on a life-threatening mission to occupied Kyiv. This family saga, full of inconceivable twists and turns, is told in such a thrilling, detailed and touching way that it captivates its readers after only a few pages. Bat-Ami is not a documentary novel, but its story is inspired in part by the author‘s family recollections and is based on the documentary files relating to 1941-42 secret service operations from the archives of the Ukrainian Secret Service released only in 2011, as well as from other Ukrainian archives, in particular the Museum of the Dynamo Kyiv Sports Club and Yad Vashem organisation. The fight of Ukrainian patriots for independence of Ukraine from Russia, the USSR, and liberation from German occupiers captures your attention and can become the vital lesson for present-day Ukraine.
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True stories2022Ferocious February 2022. Evidence of the first days of the invasion.
by Darya Bura, Evgenia Podobna
On February 24, 2022, Ukrainians woke up in another reality: the sky was torned by the roar of Russian fighter jets, Russian missiles were flying at Ukrainian cities, subway stations have become the shelters. In this new reality, the concept of absolute security no longer existed. The first days of the war were very emotional and scary. You don't know what to do, you can't keep up with the news. You can't do anything because of these news... For not allowing anyone to rewrite our history, to put in it something that did not exist, like the Russians do when they swear black is white, we decided to collect people's memories of the first days of a full-scale invasion. To remember...
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FictionJune 2023I am Yustyna
by Karina Savaryna
Since February 24, thousands of women like Justyna have crossed the border every day. With children, pets, and sick parents, they ran away from the horrors brought by the Russian army into Ukraine. Justyna recently retired but hasn’t lost a taste for life. But the war changed everything. An intelligent and smart teacher, she becomes a refugee in Europe, along with thousands of other Ukrainian women. “Who are you?” “I am Justyna,” she would always answer the question that seemed to come from everywhere. Together with Justyna, readers travel through a long road toward the search for the self in the world that dramatically expanded and yet existed only at home, in Ukraine. Foregrounding the traumatic experience of becoming a refugee, the loss of home, and a reconsideration of a new life, the novel answers the question of who really is Justyna as well as every Ukrainian woman who lived through the experience of forced displacement.
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True stories2015Ilovaisk
by Yevhen Polozhii
Ilovaisk (2015) is a novel about the tragic events of the summer/autumn 2014 when part of Ukrainian Armed Forces were ambushed by the Russian army near Ilovaisk in the Eastern Ukraine. The author interviewed more than a hundred servicemen in hospitals and on the front lines - those who took part in the campaign. Based on their recollection of events, he written 16 short stories, all connected by characters, time and place. The book has become a bestseller and has several reprints in Ukraine. The book was turned into a screenplay. The movie called “Border” is currently being produced based on the book. A theatre play Eastern Vacations by Stozhary Theater was staged in Montreal, Canada. A sculpture of the soldier and a little girl has been mounted in the Museum of Anti Terroristic Operation in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine to commemorate the story of Ilovaisk defenders told by the old man named Ivan in the book. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Book Institute, Ilovaisk is among 30 iconic books since Ukraine's independence.
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True stories2020Chronicles of one hungerstrike. 4 and a half steps
by Oleh Sentsov
“Chronicles of one hunger strike” is a diary of Oleh Sentsov, the Kremlin prisoner, who had been keeping it since May 2018, the third day after he announced indefinite hunger strike with the demand to free Ukrainian political prisoners. Day by day, throughout 145 days, despite moral pressure and physical exhaustion, Oleh had been frankly and honestly writing in his notebook in small, illegible letters, extremely accurately recording his everyday life in Russian prison, his observations and thoughts. After his release the author miraculously managed to take his notes out of Russia. “4 and a half steps” is a collection of small prose by Oleh Sentsov, written in a Russian prison. What does a man feel, having gotten to prison for the first time? How do prisoners live in tight and dirty cells, behind thick walls and muddy windows with double grid? What rules and laws one should obey, having gotten there? The author tells as objectively and critically as he can about prisoners’ life and circumstances that led them to captivity—he does not justify, nor criticise, but only witnesses. Striking, sometimes horrifying facts with verified accurate details create a convincing background, where events of numerous lives unfold. The author usually does not make any conclusions—he leaves this right to the reader.
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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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Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)2021The Death of Cecil the Lion Made Sense
by Olena Stiazhkina
This is the first novel Olena Styazhkina wrote in Ukrainian, and the theme of embracing Ukrainian identity is central to the plot. It takes place in Donbas over the course of several years: the reader follows the journeys of characters who are, at first, held back by Soviet mentalities. As a result of war, they undergo important changes relating to their understanding of themselves and their country, like the dentist who becomes a military surgeon or the cosmetics saleswoman who becomes a sniper shooting instructor. The characters go through a whirlpool of historical events and are reborn as Ukrainians.
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True war & combat stories2018Girls cutting their locks
by Podobna Yevgeniya
The book is full of memories of 25 women in the military who fought in the "Anti-Terrorist Operation" as a part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and volunteer units in 2014-2018.
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Relationships2021Magnum
by Illya Makarenko
Fine travel reading with a twist of mystery - Magnum will give you everything: rain and wine, love and betrayal, despair and cowardice, Ukrainian seasonal workers and Portuguese revolutionaries. For various reasons - including the Russian invasion into the East of Ukraine - the protagonist of the novel finds himself in Lisbon – the faraway coast of the Western Europe. While in Lisbon he inadvertently plunges into a tragic family history that began almost half a century ago. The main character of the novel is Lisbon itself, a bright and friendly city one cannot but fall in love with; the city which, however, hides a lot of secrets.
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Literature & Literary Studies2021Bad Roads
by Nataliia Vorozhbyt
Nataliia Vorozhbyt became famous when she worked as a screenwriter on the cult TV series To Catch the Kaidash, based on the life of the Ukrainian classic writer Nechuy-Levytsky, and even played a role in it as a supporting actress. Her play Bad Roads was written for the Royal Court Theatre in London; it was also staged by the Kyiv Academic Theatre of Drama and Comedy and later adapted into a hit film. Bad Roads consists of six episodes: they are the stories of ordinary men and women whose fate brought them to Donbas during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Some episodes have even shocked audiences, like the episode where a naked eighth-grade schoolgirl is found in a military dugout. Disputes over Bad Roads are still raging, but they only manage to increase interest in Vorozhbyt’s work.
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Literature & Literary Studies2019Bow to the tree
by Borys Khersonsky
Borys Khersonskyi is a famous poet, essayist, and translator, laureate of many international awards. Bow to a Tree is a collection of the author’s poems in Ukrainian, his auto-translations, and verses translated by Serhiy Zhadan, Volodymyr Tymchuk, and Oleh Honcharenko. The author travels through his poems from the most ancient times to the birth of Christ, the starting point of the hope revival through redemption. From the Soviet regime, he lived under to the present - a time full of pain, loss, war, and all the same faith and hope.
