In Ukraine, the most popular book by Artem Chapeye was “Dad on Paternity Leave.” In this connection, the author has often been asked if there will be a book titled “Dad After Paternity Leave.” Chapeye, who is now serving as a soldier, replies briefly: “This is what a dad looks like after paternity leave. Not seeing his children for God knows how long.” These are writers and creative figures in Ukraine nowadays – a whole literary battalion.
Documentation for the sake of Literature
Artem Chapeye is a Ukrainian literary fiction writer and translator, four-time finalist of the BBC Ukraine Book of the Year Award, and now a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Chapeye also worked as a reporter covering the war in Donbas. “From the beginning, for my own psychological support, I tried to perceive everything as an ‘observation.’” Chapeye recorded witty phrases said by soldiers and interesting details that might otherwise be forgotten. Artem Chapeye said, however, deliberately “gathering information” isn’t a priority right now with the other tasks at hand. Reflection usually happens during night shifts.
Pavlo Kazarin is a Ukrainian journalist, and the host of numerous TV shows and several projects on Radio NV and Radio Liberty. In 2021, Kazarin published an award-winning book called “Wild West of Eastern Europe.” After the outbreak of the full-scale invasion, Pavlo Kazarin joined the territorial defense forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and currently fights on the eastern front against Russian forces. “I’m trying to live my life with my eyes wide open, so as not to miss anything. When I have time, I write ‘diary’ columns. I might forget things, but paper won’t.” Kazarin said that we had to become part of a process with global scale and consequences.
Olena Herasymiuk is a poet and military medic, and a veteran of the Russia-Ukraine war. Currently with Eugene Lir, Ukrainian dark fiction writer and translator, Herasymiuk is making a list of fallen culture figures.“How can one possibly ‘collect material for creative work’ when everything around you, everything that fills your life, all your values and beliefs are permeated with the threat of death? How can you ‘process what is happening as a writer’ when you read and watch daily news about the death of someone from your — sometimes very close — circle of communication?”
Borys Humeniuk, a writer and poet, joined the Defense Forces in 2014. In a conversation with Chytomo in 2022, he mentioned that he hadn’t written a single word, and couldn’t think about creative work. “I do hope that impressions are accumulating in my mind,” Humeniuk said, “and if I manage to come out of this war unscathed, I’ll be able to turn these impressions into texts.” Borys Humeniuk went missing in action during the battles near Klishchiivka in December 2022.
Post-war literature will be different
Creating quality literature is not a fast process. Quality poetry is now emerging and even being translated, but it is likely that big prose books about new experiences will appear later, even though Ukraine already has a number of prose books about the Russian-Ukrainian war. This is veteran literature, a relatively young genre. “It appeared due to people who went to the front ten years ago,” military officer and journalist Pavlo Kazarin says.
Even despite the emergence of worthy new names during the eight years of war in Ukraine, representing this layer of literature, before the full-scale invasion the society was not ready to perceive war prose the way it does today. According to poet Olena Herasymiuk, veteran authors were not warmly welcomed by the literary community either: “In my opinion, this was all due to myths about PTSD, fear of public discussions on the topic of war, and a lack of understanding that anyone can become an author and create literary works. This is not the prerogative of a bunch of a few dozen names from some union or literary organization.”
Now, the situation has changed greatly because the current phase of the war is more global and it had influence on a greater number of people. Pavlo Kazarin predicts that many people will find themselves desiring to reflect on the experiences, but “some of these books will be primarily needed by their authors,” Kazarin adds.
Artem Chapeye also believes that this war will become the collective consciousness of Ukrainians as the Holodomor, World War II, and Stalin’s Gulag. However, he also emphasizes the need to distance oneself from these events, which neither he nor any of the Ukrainian authors serving in the Armed Forces have been able to achieve so far.
“Let’s not forget that ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque and ‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Ernest Hemingway were written ten years after the end of World War I, and ‘Catch-22’ by Joseph Heller and ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ by Kurt Vonnegut were written 15-20 years after the end of World War II,” Chapeye notes.
Literary critic, volunteer and activist Bohdana Romantsova believes that even when the war ends, Ukrainian literature will change “just as any literature changes after a difficult times.” It is obvious that not only soldiers will be writing it. All Ukrainians are witnesses to the war? and literature, as a whole, will reveal not only the military experience, but also the experience of refugees, aggression, and acts of violence.
It is difficult to predict when Ukrainian authors will be able to reflect on the experiences they have lived through, and the primary task right now is to comprehend and translate the works that have already been written during this decade-long war. And for sure – support and give a voice to the Ukrainian writers who are fighting in the frontline right now.
