crimea: the war before the war

watch part 2 now
Author
Valeria Radkevych photo

Valeria Radkevych

Valeria Radkevych is an editor and cultural professional with experience in editorial writing, research, and curatorial practice, working at the intersection of art, politics, and contemporary European issues, with a strong focus on Ukraine. She is experienced in producing and editing critical texts, interviews, and long-form articles for international publications, as well as shaping cultural narratives for diverse audiences.

Articles

Theater director Les Kurbas, novelist and poet Mykola Khvylovy, and modernist writer Valerian Pidmohylny.

The Executed Renaissance: Ukraine’s cultural rebirth and its violent death

by Valeria Radkevych
A black-and-white portrait of a well-dressed, composed family draws the eye to a figure in the left-hand corner —  Antin Krushelnytsky, the family’s patriarch, and a writer, educator, and former minister of education of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. Likely taken in Kharkiv in the early 1930s, the photograph captures a moment of cultural rebirth for Ukraine. Krushelnytsky and his family were part of a generation of writers, artists, and intellectuals who believed Ukrainian culture could devel
Kazimir Malevich was a pioneering avant-garde artist best known for founding Suprematism.

The Ukrainian origins of avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich, long mislabelled as Russian

by Valeria Radkevych
In 2016, Natalia Zabolotna, then director of the Kyiv-based art gallery Mystetskyi Arsenal, proposed naming Kyiv’s main airport, Boryspil International Airport, after the famous avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich. Her idea was far from eccentric. Across Europe, airports serve as sites of cultural self-definition, carrying the names of compatriots whose work reshaped global culture  — from Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport to Granada’s Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport. At th