#ukrainian literature | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

justacynicalromantic · 8 days

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- Where are all Ukrainian writers? Why there are so few of them?

Just one example of hundreds similar cases:

Geo Shkurupiy was born on April 20, 1903, a Ukrainian writer of the avant-garde genre. Shot by the NKVD (the Secret Police of the USSR) on December 8, 1937, in Leningrad. His place of rest is still unknown. His wife, Varvara Bazas, was assigned the WTM category — "the Wife of a Traitor to the Motherland". Together with their son Georgiy, they - as an "enemy of the people" family - were forcibly evicted from Kyiv by the Soviet authorities.

#ukraine #ukrainian literature #ukrainian culture #україна #укртумбочка #укртамблер #укртумба #russian imperialism #russian invasion #russia is a terrorist state #genocide

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folklorespring · 22 days

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Ukrainian school in Dnipro after russian missile attack. Teacher of Ukrainian language and literature from this school said that, symbolically, during the last class before the attack they were learning "Contra spem spero!" poem by Lesia Ukrainka:

#ukraine #russia #russia is a terrorist state #genocide #fuck russia #stand with ukraine #support ukraine #genocide of ukrainians #russian war crimes #russian culture #ukrainian poetry #poetry #ukrainian culture #literature #ukrainian literature

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ignorethisatyourperil · 1 month

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#ukraine 🇺🇦#Ukraine #ukrainian literature #ukranian

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redjaybathood · 2 months

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that's our feminist and LGBT icon Lesya Ukrainka by the way

#ukrainian literature #ukrainian memes

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batterknowsbetter · 7 months

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Remember this every time you open a volume of "great russian literature." Because while you are reading russian literature - russians are throwing away and destroying ukrainian literature.

Lesya Ukrainka's collection in this pile just kills me.☠️😭

p.s. to all the offended children who can't live without russians and their spoiled literature, like yesterday's cabbage soup, ventilate your rooms, go out, stroke the grass and read something else, not what you were taught at school. FUCK OFF!

#ukraine #ukrainian art #war in ukraine #russia is a terrorist state #ukrainian literature #lesya ukrainka #Mariupol

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alcestas-sloboda · 11 months

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Why Ukrainians didn’t produce a Tolstoy?

there are a lot of things that can piss me off, today it was this tweet:

and all i wanted to do was to ask this person, why the fuck do we need a racist misogynistic piece of shit as a standout author if we have Shevchenko as our prophet?

but you don’t know who he is? of course, you don’t. that is the thing with imperialism: you destroy other cultures while promoting yours as the only way to legitimise your rule. even if those territories are of higher cultural development. but there is always a way out of it: kill them all. kill anyone who poses an existential threat to your hegemony. throw them into jail. forbid them to write and paint. send them to gulag. kill them. torture them. execute them.

if you don’t know Ukrainian literature, it doesn’t mean that it‘s nonexistent. if you don’t know "a Ukrainian Tolstoy", it means there is a Ukrainian Bahrianyi, who was sent to the gulag but ran away and was the first person in the world to openly criticise USSR in his pamphlet Why I am not going back to the Soviet Union. "I don't want to go back to the USSR because a person there is worth less than an insect"

there is a Ukrainian Symonenko and a Ukrainian Stus. there is a Ukrainian Lesya Ukrainka and Olha Kobylyanska. a Ukrainian Kotsiubynskyi, Ukrainian Drach, Ukrainian Olena Pchilka and Ukrainian Lina Kostenko. and so many more of the bravest people who despite all wrote in the Ukrainian language about Ukrainian people and for Ukrainian people.

there are thousands of beautiful texts that weren’t translated because this would’ve harmed the empire. that is why you are reading Dostoevsky and not Khvyliovyi.

but there are also thousands of texts that were never written. just how many more poems would’ve Stus written if he wasn’t killed by the Soviet regime? how many more texts would have Pidmohylnyi, Semenko, Yalovyi, Yohansen, Zerov written if they weren’t shot at Sandarmokh?

just how many texts have the world missed out on because Khvyliovyi committed suicide as he couldn’t live in the world with Stalin’s repressions. "today is a beautiful sunny day. I love life - you can't even imagine how much", - he will write in his death note as he shot himself with his friends waiting for him in the next room.

or maybe there was a Ukrainian Nobel Prize in Literature waiting for Tychyna? maybe, but he submitted to Soviet authorities and started writing hails for the regime, suddenly forgetting his own literary style and living his entire life in fear. fear of what? fear of getting caught. of getting destroyed just as all of the previous Ukrainian intelligentsia.

I’m tired of my people being silenced. I’m tired of my poets being undermined by "great” russian literature. it’s not worth a single Symonenko’s poem. it’s not worth a single paragraph of Bahrianyi‘s prose.

the greatness of russian literature lies on the bones of Ukrainian writers. to be this high, they killed hundreds and they are still doing it today.

the body of Ukrainian children’s writer Volodymyr Vakulenko was found in the mass grave in Izium in September 2022.

there will be a Ukrainian Nobel Prize in Literature, and there will be more Ukrainian books. there will be Ukrainian Zhadan and Zabuzhko, Liubka and Izdryk, Deresh and Kidruk. there will be Ukrainian literature.

another funny thing is that this person is Indian and let me tell you: the fact that you stand up for one empire even when your own country has suffered from the doings of another is evidence of deep colonial trauma and I hope you will cure yourself soon

#x #ukrainian literature #leo tolstoy

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ohsalome · 5 months

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EVERYBODY DROP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND GO READ "DO OXENS LOW WHEN MANGERS ARE FULL"

This is, hands down, one of my favourite classical ukrainian novels, and up till today I thought it didn't exist in english translation, but it does!!!!

Online version:

PDF version:

I fear that my synopsis won't give justice to the story, so I'll try to keep it short: this novel is set in 19 century ukrainian countryside and offers a deep exploration of the interrelation between the social and individual psyche. The main question of the novel is "what pushes a person to betray their fellow men and commit crimes?", but also takes something of a "100 years of solitude" approach to this (to a smaller scale) and pushes you to explore the interconnections between people, their relations and how much of a domino effect the small drama of everyday injustices can become.

Basically people ususally compare this novel with "cr*me and p*nishment" because both have criminals as main characters, but "Do oxen low..." is just so so much deeper, and I am not only saying this as a russophobe but also as a person who has read both the novels (and used to be a dostaevsky fan).

There is just so much great about this novel that no words can properly express my excitement. To people who have previously asked my recommendations of ukrainian literature: this is it ☝️☝️☝️☝️

#ukraine #ukrainian literature #ukrainian culture #litblr #book recommendations

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unhonestlymirror · 2 months

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Маловський Мар'ян Мартинович (Malovśkyi Mar'yan Martynovych), "What do I need black eyebrows for?..", 1963, illustration to the Taras Shevchenko's poem.

English version of the poem

#Ukraine #Ukrainian art #ukrainian literature #taras shevchenko #украрт #укртумбочка

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luthienne · 1 year

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Olena Kalytiak Davis, from Shattered Sonnets, Love Cards, and Other Off and Back Handed Importunities; "you art a scholar, horatio, speak to it"

#ok this feels like the fated companion to carl phillips' poem cortège???? i need to pair them together #olena kalytiak davis #words #poetry #typography #you art a scholar horatio speak to it #the great wound #the body as a haunted house #on memory #id in alt text #ukrainian literature

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theophan-o · 2 months

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360th Anniversary of Bohun's Death

17.02.1664 Ivan Bohun was executed in the Polish military camp

Ivan Bohun (Іван Богун) was a real person, an authentic Ukrainian Cossack hero from the mid-17th century and one of the most important Cossack commanders during the uprising of Bohdan Chmielnicki (Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Богдан Хмельницький), which started in 1648 ('Ukrainian Independence War').

As such, he has many diverse appearances in the Ukrainian culture and in the Polish culture (in literature, folklore, visual arts, music, opera, theater, cinema, etc.). Perhaps, the most famous worldwide (or just Tumblr-wide) of them all is the novel "With Fire and Sword" ("Ogniem i mieczem") by the Polish writer, Henryk Sienkiewicz, from 1883/1884. H. Sienkiewicz changed Bohun's name to Jurko, but described some of his authentic deeds, i.a. the role, he played during the battle of Beresteczko, 1651. The novel itself, as a part of the well-known "Trylogia" (which occupies an important place in the Polish culture), has many adaptations in art, theater, radio and cinema. The most famous of them is the Polish film from 1999, directed by Jerzy Hoffman. So...

Bohun's appearance in that film is not everything, in fact, it is only the tip of the iceberg of Bohun's myth. There is much more to explore and admire.

More information about artworks presented in this post you can find here:

It is a fan&didactic account, existing only for the Cossack Heroes glory and promoting Ukrainian heritage worldwide. Copyright belongs to the Artists/Museums.

#ivan bohun #jurko bohun #ogniem i mieczem #with fire and sword #trylogia #trylogia sienkiewicza #ukrainian history #cossacks #cossack heroes #ukrainian heritage #ukrainian culture #polish culture #ukrainian art #ukrainian literature #polish art #polish literature #trylogia sensem życia

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san-demetrio-corone · 2 months

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"The Beauty of Ukraine" published in 2022

Photobook showcases the stunning beauty of numerous Ukrainian landscapes as captured by talented photographer, Yevhen Samuchenko, and narrated in English, German, and Ukrainian by author Lucia Bondar.

#ukraine #ukrainian literature #Yevhen Samuchenko #Lucia Bondar

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loveaetingkids · 1 year

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Inspired by @ohsalome post about Fedko-brigand:

#choose wisely #ukrainian literature #ukrainian memes #ukrainian tumblr #bojack horseman #shower thoughts

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sonyaheaneyauthor · 5 days

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2010 Ukrainian stamps with children's book themes.

#stamps #ukrainian culture #ukrainian literature #slavic #ukraine #slavic culture #children's books #european culture #eastern europe

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lordkryze · 4 days

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The common man is a simple creature. If he dies, he dies, if he recovers, he recovers

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aif0s-w · 1 year

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Hey, I read your post about the difference between Ukrainian and russian literature, with a couple of quotes that looked really promising. Could you tell me what books or poems was quoted? And if you have the will, could you list Ukrainian literature references? I know Russian invested a lot to get their literature translated and I think it is time we make Ukrainian literature more known.

Hi! Thank you for the ask. I suppose you’re talking about this post, so here are the quotes mentioned in it, as well some links to Ukrainian literature.

“Ти знаєш, що ти людина” means “Do you know that you are human”. It’s from a poem by a Ukrainian poet Vasyl Symonenko (full English translation here). In the USSR, a human was just a screw in the system, easily replaceable. The Soviets didn’t care about individual people, only about the whole. You were supposed to die for the sake of the system if need be. And Symonenko’s poem is the opposite. It reminds us that each of us unique, that every human deserves happiness and freedom. The poet died after he was beaten up by the local militsya.

“Тварь ли я дрожащая или право я имею» is something like “Am I a trembling beast or do I have the right” is a quote from Raskolnikov, the protagonist of “Crime and Punishment” by russian writer Dostoyevsky. Raskolnikov says this as he thinks he has more rights than others and is superior to them. He divides humanity in two categories: those who have the right (who don’t need to care about laws and rules) and “trembling beasts” (who must be slaves).

“Борітеся й поборете” means “Keep fighting — you are sure to win!” It is from a poem “Caucasus” by Taras Shevchenko, the most famous Ukrainian poet. Full english translation. At the time of the writing, the russian empire was at war in the Caucasus region. Russia said that this war is actually needed to give the locals “the civilisation”, “russian laws” etc. Shevchenko gives a satirical characterisation of the empire and calls out against the war. He also encourages the locals to fight with the quote above, because “the right is on their side”.

Another writer who described the russian war in Caucasus is a famous and largely celebrated russian poet Mikhail Lermontov and his poem “Izmail Bey”. “Пускай я раб, но раб царя вселенной” - “Maybe I’m a slave, but I’m the slave of the ruler of the world”. Ah yes, the mysterious russian soul. No wonder they don’t protest.

Lermontov also wrote a poem glorifying a gang rape by the military. Here’s a video with English subtitles about Lermontov and what the hell was that poem (TW for the poem. 18+)

Ukrainian literature was always about fight for freedom, because that’s what our people always wanted more than anything. Meanwhile russian literature justifies imperialism all the time.

Links to translations of Ukrainian literature (for free!)

I am (romance) by Mykola Khvyliovyi, a psychological novel about Bolshevik revolution

Forest song (english, polish) by Lesia Ukrainka, a drama about mythological creatures in a Ukrainian forest

The city(part 1, part 2)by Valerian Pidmohylnyi, an urban novel. Recreates the atmosphere of Kyiv

Eneida by Ivan Kotliarevskyi is a parody of the classic poem where the Greek heroes are Ukrainian cossacks, describing Ukrainian customs and traditions

Zakhar Berkut by Ivan Franko is a historical novel about the struggle of ancient Carpathian communities against the Mongol invasion

Enchanted Desna by Oleksandr Dovzhenko is a cinematic novel that consists of short stories about the daily life of the author as a child in a Ukrainian village.

Tiger Trappers by Ivan Bahrianyi - a story of a political prisoner who escaped Gulag and lives in taiga with local hunters. One of my personal favourites.

Poems and stories by Ivan Franko

Contemporary Ukrainian literature in English (not for free)

What we live for, what we die for by Serhiy Zhadan - selected poems by a Ukrainian musician and poet

Apricots of Donbas by Lyuba Yakimchuk - about the East of Ukraine

The voices of Babyn Yar by Marianna Kiyanovska about the history of Babyn Yar in Kyiv

Life went on anyway by Oleg Sentsov, who was kidnapped from his home in the occupied Crimea and forced to go through a russian military trial

Fieldwork in Ukrainian sex by Oksana Zabuzhko

Also here you can buy a book “Torture camp on paradise street” by Stanislav Aseyev, who survived a russian concentration camp and described what it was like.

#answered asks #ukraine #ukrainian literature

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justacynicalromantic · 16 days

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T.Shevchenko (1814 - 1861)

#ukraine #ukrainian culture #ukrainian literature #poetry #art #taras shevchenko #україна #укртумбочка #укртамблер #укртумба

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