Olena Stiazhkina | Source | Senior Research Fellow at Institute of History of the National Academy of Sci...
Olena Stiazhkina
Olena Stiazhkina is a historian and award-winning Ukrainian writer and journalist. Her fiction, under the pen name Olena Iurska, includes short stories, novels, and detective stories. She was a professor of Slavic history at Donetsk National University until the occupation of the city, as well as at Mariupol State University. Having written almost exclusively in Russian before, Stiazhkina transitioned to writing in Ukrainian following the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014.
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Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (http://history.org.ua/en/)
Senior Research Fellow
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Fighting Talk: Language and War in Ukraine
Ukrainian writer Olena Stiazhkina and literary scholar Sasha Dovzhyk discuss language and war in Ukraine. Moderated by Uilleam Blacker. 19 May 2023. Co-organised by the Ukrainian Institute London and UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, in partnership with the ProLang Research Group Seminar, UCL. Ukraine’s linguistic landscape has always been rich and complex: over the centuries, many languages have been spoken there, and today bilingualism is common. Yet language has also been the focus for political manipulation and misinformation. Most recently, Russia has sought to use the presence of the Russian language in Ukraine, as a pretext for its invasion and the atrocities that came with it – crimes that have very often targeted Russophone Ukrainians. In response to the invasion, Ukrainians’ attitudes towards language have shifted, with many who previously spoke Russian consciously moving towards Ukrainian, accelerating processes that began in 2014. This discussion, between two of...
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In Ukraine, now we still live in the world of the last words. It is [a] common feeling we don’t discuss, but all our words could [become] last [as] … at any moment, in any town, village … Russian rockets could strike,” Stiazhkina said. “We want our last words to be honest, kind, encouraging and funny. The last one is very important.”
- Olena Stiazhkina in Yale Daily News, 2023 -
For us, the Second World War has not ended, just as it has not ended for those countries that were called by the vile word "post-Soviet." It was a shame to use this word to describe national, independent states. Western researchers often used it in narratives; I, too used it, and I regret this today. Fortunately, I have not written very much about international events. I understand that we are living in this war, and until it is brought to an end, we will not be able to be free and independent; no nation and no people could.
- Olena Stiazhkina in The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, 2023