Oksana Zabuzhko

Serhiy Zhadan

Halyna Kruk

Volodymyr Rafeyenko

Taras Prokhasko

Ivan Malkovych

Stanislav Aseyev

Ihor Kalynets

Yuri Izdryk

Yuri Andruhovych

Ivan Andrusiak

Lyubko Deresh

Pavlo Korobchuk

Borys Khersonsky

Kostiantyn Moskalets

Svitlana Povalyaeva

Andriy Bondar

Tamara Duda

Lyuba Yakimchuk

Oleksiy Chupa

Iya Kiva

Olaf Clemensen

Olena Herasymyuk

Yuliya Musakovska

Olena Stiazhkina

Oksana Lutsyshyna

Vasyl Makhno

Voices of Freedom: Contemporary Writing From Ukraine is a collection of Ukrainian writing that aims to introduce the English-speaking world to some of the most iconic as well as emerging living writers whose work is shaping contemporary Ukraine. These are leading intellectuals and moral authorities for the Ukrainian people, whose voices and opinions have helped to synchronize the internal compasses of Ukrainian society in the struggle for the freedom of their country. Through poetry, short stories, and essays, this collection demonstrates that the desire for freedom and the struggle to achieve it is a theme that cuts across generations of Ukrainian writers and is a central preoccupation of Ukrainian society.This collection demonstrates the unique style and artistry of contemporary Ukrainian literature over the past 50 years. The curated poetry is an instant reaction to the events taking place today, which speaks directly to this current moment and the national psyche. The short stories sensitize readers to Ukraine's indivisible history and the present. These are accounts of the memory of generations, choices and transitions, self-irony, friendship, love, and the powerful significance of home. The essays showcase the voices of contemporary Ukrainian intellectuals, providing analysis and reflection on what is happening in the present, showing historical connections and parallels, and shedding light on the origins and triggers of war on a mental level.The collection that follows is the story of Ukraine, in the voice of Ukrainians.

Contemporary Writing From Ukraine

Voices of Freedom

2017 wird der ukrainische Journalist Stanislav Aseyev im okkupierten Donezk verhaftet und wegen "Extremismus" sowie "Spionage" zu 15 Jahren Haft verurteilt – unter anderem, weil er in seinen Reportagen aus dem Kriegsgebiet das Wort "Donezker Volksrepublik" in Anführungszeichen gesetzt hatte. Zweieinhalb Jahre verbringt er in Haft, den Großteil in der so genannten "Isolation", einem Donezker Foltergefängnis mit der Adresse Heller Weg 3. Die dortige ehemalige Fabrik wurde 2014 in ein Konzentrationslager verwandelt und steht seither unter Moskauer Kontrolle. Hinter dem Gefängniszaun gelten keine Gesetze, das Leben ist bestimmt von Demütigung, Angst und Folter. Um in der Hölle des Lagers überleben zu können, schreibt Aseyev, wann immer er kann: auf Pappfetzen und Papierresten. Er lernt Textfragmente auswendig und sagt sie vor sich her. So kann er sie bewahren, obwohl ihm seine Aufzeichnungen später abgenommen werden. Offen, tiefgründig und emotional berichtet der Journalist von Leid, das im heutigen Europa unvorstellbar scheint. Seine Mission ist es zu überleben, um berichten zu können. Ende 2019 kommt Aseyev durch einen Gefangenenaustausch zwischen Russland und der Ukraine frei. Das Buch legt Zeugnis ab über ein heutiges Konzentrationslager, von dem nur wenige wissen, obwohl das UNO-Hochkommissariat für Menschenrechte dortige Folterungen dokumentiert hat. Diese Erzählung handelt davon, wie es gelingen kann, menschlich zu bleiben unter unmenschlichen Bedingungen; von Glauben,Vergebung, Hass – und dem Leben danach.

Heller Weg: Geschichte eines Konzentrationslagers im Donbass 2017-2019

The Rustle of a Bamboo Grove

In The Torture Camp on Paradise Street, Ukrainian journalist and writer Stanislav Aseyev details his experience as a prisoner from 2015 to 2017 in a modern-day concentration camp overseen by the Federal Security Bureau of the Russian Federation (FSB) in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk. This memoir recounts an endless ordeal of psychological and physical abuse, including torture and rape, inflicted upon the author and his fellow inmates over the course of nearly three years of illegal incarceration spent largely in the prison called Izoliatsiia (Isolation). Aseyev also reflects on how a human can survive such atrocities and reenter the world to share his story. Since February 2022, numerous cases of illegal detainment and extreme mistreatment have been reported in the Ukrainian towns and villages occupied by Russian forces during the full-scale invasion. These and other war crimes committed by Russian troops speak to the horrors wreaked upon Ukrainians forced to live in Russian-occupied zones. It is important to remember, however, that the torture and killing of Ukrainians by Russian security and military forces began long before 2022. Rendered deftly into English, Aseyev's compelling account offers a critical insight into the operations of Russian forces in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

The Torture Camp on Paradise Street

In this exceptional collection of dispatches from occupied Donbas, writer and journalist Stanislav Aseyev details the internal and external changes observed in the cities of Makiïvka and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Aseyev scrutinizes his immediate environment and questions himself in an attempt to understand the reasons behind the success of Russian propaganda among the working-class residents of the industrial region of Donbas. In this work of documentary prose, Aseyev focuses on the early period of the Russian-sponsored military aggression in Ukraine’s east, the period of 2015–2017. The author’s testimony ends with his arrest for publishing his dispatches and his subsequent imprisonment and torture in a modern-day concentration camp on the outskirts of Donetsk run by lawless mercenaries and local militants with the tacit approval and support of Moscow. For the first time, an inside account is presented here of the toll on real human lives and civic freedoms that the citizens of Europe’s largest country continue to suffer in Russia’s hybrid war on its territory.

Dispatches from Occupied Donbas

In Isolation

Stanislav Aseyev

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