Since the commencement of the full-scale penetration of Ukraine, nonfiction and autofiction person become, alongside poetry, the starring genres of modern Ukrainian literature. There are respective reasons for this. Firstly, autobiographical approaches and autofiction assistance stress the immediacy of events, and, arsenic immoderate argue, refrain from compromising authenticity. Secondly, the autobiographical instrumentality allows the texts to look reasonably quickly. Fictionalization of world would necessitate longer periods of probe and analysis. Writing has go a mode of witnessing and documenting beingness successful the times of war. The 3 authors discussed below, Artur Dron, Andriy Lyubka and Lena Lyagushonkova each find their unsocial benignant and picture a peculiar conception of beingness shaped, successful 1 mode oregon another, by the long-standing Russian aggression and assemblage ambition.
What unites these authors is that they each presumption themselves arsenic witnesses and springiness their autobiographically informed perspective. Artur Dron writes astir the beingness of a soldier; Andriy Lyubka, who since the clip of his book’s work besides joined the Armed Forces, describes assorted experiences of a unpaid helping the service and buying supplies, mostly vehicles; and Lena Lyagoshonkova, whose genre is the closest to fiction, focuses connected a idiosyncratic history, inseparable from the larger governmental discourse of the Ukrainian concern east, Russification, totalitarianism, and the bequest of Soviet corruption, inevitably contiguous successful today’s Russia.
Andriy Lyubka’s publication of abbreviated essays War From the Rear: A Ukrainian Aid Volunteer’s Story has been translated by Kate Tsurkan and is disposable successful English from Academic Studies Press. Artur Dron’s book, Hemingway Knows Nothing, a postulation of essays and idiosyncratic accounts, is to beryllium retired soon successful the English translation from Jantar Publishers successful the UK, whereas Lena Lyagushonkova’s autofiction belongs, perhaps, to the class of works that whitethorn beryllium somewhat mislaid successful translation: to immerse her readership successful the authentic Luhansk of the 1990s and aboriginal 2000s, she coins a peculiar sociolect wherever alongside the literate Ukrainian she uses slang; a substance of Ukrainian and Russian called surzhyk (linguistically speaking, a creole); and a just magnitude of culture-specific obscenities that are nevertheless important to recreating the larger picture.
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When the full-scale penetration began, Artur Dron, a young writer successful his aboriginal twenties, voluntarily joined the Armed Forces. His publication is simply a visceral, gripping relationship of beingness astatine constituent zero, being wounded, and losing friends. The rubric that evokes Ernest Hemingway points astatine the polemical quality of immoderate of the essays successful the book. The writings of Ernest Hemingway and Erich Maria Remarque person been agelong considered to beryllium the golden modular of warfare and seasoned literature. Since the commencement of the full-scale invasion, the question that permeated literate discussions was arsenic follows: “Who volition beryllium our Hemingway and constitute this war.”
For Ukrainians of today, warfare is neither an escapade nor a governmental crippled wherever they are someone’s pawns.
Dron argues that the wars these writers took portion successful were of a precise antithetic quality than the contiguous warfare successful Ukraine, and their epistemic scenery cannot service arsenic a blueprint successful this case. For Hemingway, warfare was a overseas affair, an lawsuit helium joined retired of his request for a meaningful adventure. For Remarque, warfare was a forced matter thrust upon the caller German procreation by corrupt politicians.
For Ukrainians of today, warfare is neither an escapade nor a governmental crippled wherever they are someone’s pawns. It is simply a conscious prime to support their onshore and lives, their governmental autonomy, and their beliefs. Dron shows that a Ukrainian worker has bureau and governmental will. The publication became an instant occurrence and won the Yury Shevelyov Prize for nonfiction from PEN Ukraine successful 2025. In summation to its philosophical message, the postulation features moving idiosyncratic accounts of camaraderie, religion and religion, loss, and hope.
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Andriy Lyubka’s caller publication is astir his acquisition arsenic a volunteer. Since the commencement of the full-scale invasion, helium and his squad person been tirelessly fundraising, purchasing, and transporting utilized vehicles to the frontlines. The squad person procured much than 4 100 cars truthful far. Lyubka is talking astir “the warfare from the rear,” not a soldier’s war, but that of volunteers and families of the defenders. The publication features the roadworthy stories and abbreviated essays astir the team’s experiences successful wartime Ukraine.
Lyubka’s compelling storytelling method is detailed, lyrical, astatine times, humorous, and truthful profoundly penetrating. He talks astir the odor of unexpectedly bully java brewed astatine a random state presumption successful the Ukrainian east, but besides astir anticipation and heartbreak, astir soldiers who mislaid their lives earlier the volunteers managed to bring them the vehicles they needed for evacuation, astir regret, guilt, atrocious weather, hard enactment and analyzable clip management. This is an honorable look into beingness successful Ukraine during the past 4 years.
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Lena Lyagushonkova’s novel, A Cat Peed connected My Flag («Мій прапор запісяв котик», Урбіно, 2025), is astir increasing up successful Luhansk successful the 1990s and aboriginal 2000s. Luhansk, this terra incognita of the autarkic Ukraine, is described successful astir carnivalesque terms, but this is simply a carnival infused with absurdity and adjacent cruelty. As the heroine herself states, to idiosyncratic from occidental Europe oregon adjacent from occidental Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk look the same: they are conscionable acold distant eastbound cities, Russified, complicated, and incomprehensible.
In reality, they disagree greatly: portion Donetsk was the terrain of the oligarchs, “Rihanna’s concerts,” and, essentially, money, Luhansk was the onshore of miners, poverty, and thwarted ambition. Lyagushonkova coined a highly archetypal connection of self-description, utilizing immoderate code-switching into Russian, curse words, miners’ slang, and philosophical presumption with adjacent ease.
Growing up pistillate successful a spot that was shaped by Soviet argumentation of mixing of ethnicities, scarcity of worldly resources, and wide oppression, is simply a poignant absorption that illuminates totalitarian epistemic unit that is ever based connected sex inequality. The book’s wit is crisp and merciless, akin to that of a standup drama show, and yet the things described are acold from funny.
It is seemingly not astir the existent war, but this content is deceptive: Lyagushonkova simply offers a larger model and gives an unflinchingly honorable relationship of the concern eastbound that bore the brunt of Russian pre-war propaganda and, successful part, corroborated Russian governmental mythology. This is precise applicable to the warfare and our knowing of its roots. The critics already called the caller postcolonial and feminist. This year, it won the BBC Ukraine Book of the Year Award successful fabrication for 2025.
Autobiographical approaches successful fabrication and nonfiction look successful antithetic ways successful the works of the 3 writers discussed above. Artur Dron offers a conceptual instrumentality connected what this warfare is, successful its epistemic dimension. Andriy Lyubka focuses connected detailing the mundane beingness successful Ukraine and the volunteering movement, indispensable to the Ukrainian resistance. Lena Lyagushonkova presents the scholar with a idiosyncratic relationship of increasing up successful Luhansk, offering a amended knowing of the Ukrainian concern east, parts of which were annexed arsenic aboriginal arsenic 2014.
English (US) ·