Ukrainian Political Weblog & Vasyl Stus

Here’s a weblog covering the Ukrainian political situation., Neeka’s Backlog run by VERONICA KHOKHLOVA. I expect Veronica to provide some good eyewitness accounts over the next few days if not weeks).

She mentions a dissident poet Vasyl Stus hailing from Donetsk in east Ukraine. Here’s an essay by Wolodymyr T. Zyla on Stus’ poetry and lifestory and a memoir about Vasyl Stus by Myrna Kostash. (As a side note, it’s suprising that a site devoted to the life and writings of a dissident writer should not actually include any writing samples. Such are the lunacies of copyright madness).

Also, a nice link to a memoir by Masha Gessen, ‘My Grandmother, The Censor’.

(Khokhlova’s stories bring backs memories: students waiting to receive their stipends, living in fear of the kontrolyor on the metro, newly minted graduates , strolling about the chestnut trees in Kiev. Here’s a funny photo she took of of everyday life in Kiev, students playing around in a fountain at the end of the school year. Let’s hope that the political situation returns to normal.

Another interesting photo she took, not of Ukraine but St. Petersberg