Culture

The Hidden Canon: Discover Ukrainian literary classics

A Kyiv Independent project backed by the Ukrainian Institute

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Symon Petliura, Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army, photographed in 1919.
Culture

The many deaths of Symon Petliura

by Kate Tsurkan

A century ago, on May 25, 1926, an otherwise ordinary afternoon in Paris’ bohemian Latin Quarter was disrupted by a barrage of gunshots, leaving one of Ukraine’s famous military leaders dead in the street. “I emptied my revolver,” Samuel “Scholem” Schwartzbard, the Jewish-Ukrainian man who killed Symon Petliura, told the court, as quoted by Time magazine in 1927. “A policeman came up quietly and said: ‘Is that enough?’ I answered: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘Then give me your revolver.’ I gave him the re

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American military unit would lose to Ukrainian one – former US Marine who fought in Ukraine

I spent 14 years in the U.S. military. My period of service, 2003-2017, covered its most active era in recent memory. Facing enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, working with allies in the Pacific and in Europe. I commanded an infantry company, and I planned operations for a Regiment. I know the U.S. military well, and, years later, I fought in Ukraine. My Ukrainian chapter started in 2022, when I volunteered to fight in Ukraine. I used many of the same weapons in both places: Javelins, mortars, m

About Culture

Our reporting on literature, films, art, and traditions from Ukraine and the latest news on culture in Eastern Europe.

Ukrainian culture
Ukrainian culture has survived centuries of Russian attempts to appropriate Ukrainian art, silence Ukrainian artists, and erase the Ukrainian language. Modern Ukrainian writers, filmmakers, and musicians — some of whom are serving on the front lines — continue to develop Ukrainian culture and fight for Ukraine’s future.
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