Ukraine Is a Country to Make Medium Writers Proud

How can we not appreciate a country that holds its poets and writers in the highest esteem?

When I moved to Ukraine in 1996, one of the things my Ukrainian colleagues wanted me to understand very firmly was that Ukraine doesn’t worship war heroes, conquerors, and politicians. Ukrainians idolize their great writers and poets.

As a newish member of Medium, I feel this is a story every member should read. As the United States House of Representatives debate further funding for Ukraine, I completely understand their hesitation. What politician would want to provide money to a country who doesn’t adore them? What kind of ridiculous nation cares not for people in power and authority but instead could no longer survive without a beautiful poem, a heartfelt song to bring them to tears, or a compelling novel to change minds?

Ukrainians don’t just talk the talk. They walk the walk. You can travel to any city within Ukraine and view the statues and buildings in their beautiful courtyards and you will learn nothing about their leaders, but you will learn everything about their writers! They even renamed a city after the poet-writer, Ivan Franko, called Ivano-Frankivk. What other country do you know every Medium writer should support other than Ukraine?

Let’s meet a sample of the greatest writers in Ukraine lest you one day, after this brutal war is over, have the opportunity to travel around a peaceful and rebuilt country to see this admiration on display.

Taras Shevchenko, born in the Oblast of Cherkasy in the early nineteenth century is considered the Father of the modern Ukrainian language. His poems, written in Ukrainian, revere the Ukrainian peasant during the time of the Russian Empire. Even in exile and oppressed, Taras did much to enrich the Ukrainian language and give the Ukrainian people a national identity very distinct from Russia.

Lesia Ukrainka, a poet and playwright, was born in 1871 in the town of Novohrad-Volynskyy. She studied law and mathematics but was inspired by Shevchenko’s works to write. Her first poem was published in L’viv when she was only thirteen years old. She was a feverish Ukrainian nationalist who believed Ukraine should be an independent nation from Russia. Her works had to be published in Western Ukraine which was a part of Austro-Hungary and then smuggled into the Russian Empire as Ukrainian literature was banned at the time. ¹

Ivan Franko was born in 1856 in the city of Nahuyevychi, Austro-Hungary (now called Invano-Frankivsk). He was born the son of a blacksmith but rose to fame as a dramatist, poet, and short story writer. Like Lesia Ukrainka, his Ukrainian works had to be smuggled into Russian Ukraine. As a polyglot, Ivan wrote in the languages of Ukrainian, Polish, and German.²

Nikoloy Gogol was a Ukrainian humorist, dramatist, and novelist born near Poltava, Ukraine in the nineteenth century. His works written in Russian are considered the foundations of nineteenth-century Russian realism.³

Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kyiv in 1891 and known for his humor and satirical novels written in Russian during the Soviet thaw.⁴ He wrote one of my favorite novels, The Master and Margarita.

What I also appreciated about my time in Ukraine was the Ukrainian lack of interest in discrimination. There is even a lovely statue of Pushkin in Odessa.

I ask all Medium writers, shouldn’t we all support a free and independent Ukraine so that the world can view, peacefully, the great example set by Ukraine — the veneration of the humble writer?

¹Lesya Ukrainka Poems > My poetic side

²Ivan Franko — Ukraine’s Revolutionary European (kyivpost.com); Ivan Franko | Ukrainian Poet, Writer, Activist | Britannica

³Nikolay Gogol | Biography, Novels, & Short Stories | Britannica

⁴Mikhail Bulgakov | Russian Author & Playwright | Britannica