BRUSSELS – Europe’s capital heard grim portrayals of the situation in eastern Ukraine and the problems of its people on Sept. 4, as the famous Ukrainian poet, novelist and essayist Serhiy Zhadan read extracts from his novel “Internat.”
The event, organized by leading European Union politicians from Germany, Rebecca Harms and Michael Gahler, aimed to highlight four-year Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Zhadan, speaking to the Kyiv Post at the event, said he wanted to use his work of fiction to illustrate the very real issues facing the population of the war-torn Donbas.
“With the help of literature and art, I want to try to show the situation in Ukraine with more dimensions, more diversely,” Zhadan said.
“I want to remind Europeans, politicians and ordinary citizens of Western Europe about what is going on in Ukraine.”
“Internat” or “The Orphanage” in English, has been translated into German from Ukrainian and won a prize at the Leipzig Book Fair in March. It tells the story of Pasha, a 35-year-old school teacher who, as war descends on the Donbas, sets out to fetch his 13-year-old nephew from an orphanage behind the lines. On the way, Pasha, who represents the population of the Donbas, must confront the passivity and lies that have dominated his life to that point.
While the novel does not address the causes of the war directly, Zhadan said he hoped the presentation of his work would focus minds in Brussels on supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression.
“It’s unlikely that one such an event can change much, but this (event) is evidence of solidarity from European politicians, from Brussels, these are signals of support and solidarity,” Zhadan said. “Europe supports Ukraine, and this is evident. I communicate with a lot of politicians, both Ukrainian and from the West, and see that the world is resisting Russian aggression, and this gives me the hope to look into the future with cautious, restrained optimism.”
Harms, a member of the EU delegation to the European Parliament’s EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, said she organized the event “to open the eyes, ears, and hearts of Europeans.”
“We should bring more artists from Ukraine to the EU,” Harms added. “My idea is that for people it’s really much easier to listen to a writer or to a poet to learn about a difficult country like Ukraine; and it’s sometimes even more credible than the speech of politicians.
“We would like to achieve two positive things for Ukraine: more interest and more empathy regarding the war (Russian President Vladimir) Putin started against Ukraine, by listening to Zhadan; and secondly, at the same time, to bring attention to the fact that there are great artists in Ukraine, that there is great creativity, and that also with the pen, people are fighting the war and fighting for a European future.”
Speaking at the event, Ambassador Mykola Tochytskyi, the head of Ukraine’s mission to the EU, said the book had a message for not only Ukrainians, but all Europeans.
“This is an extremely important book not only for Ukrainians but for the whole of Europe,” Tochytskyi said.
“It explains that staying silent leads to radical forces making progress, until it can become too late. I would recommend this book be studied not only in Ukrainian schools, but also here in Europe, because the war is already here.
“It is in the (Russian) interference into the elections in the United States, and in France, and in more elections to come – we all have elections.”
