Despite the war against Russia, Ukraine is participating in the 49th International Kolkata Book Fair for the first time, in order to show resilience by promoting its culture through its literary works.
“The war brought understanding that we should be represented more culturally ... and we have to go to open the hearts and minds of local people," said Volodymyr Prytula, Second Secretary, Embassy of Ukraine.
"This is the only way: by promoting Ukrainian culture, literature, music. We pay a lot of attention. It is a priority for the government, it is a priority for the Embassy in India to do this,” he added.
“We are excited because Ukraine is participating for the first time in the history of the book fair. They have brought books on folktales which are very popular in West Bengal also,” said Tridib Kumar Chatterjee, General Secretary of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, who is instrumental in organising the annual International Kolkata Book Fair.
The Ukraine stall also portrayed determination in the face of aggression from Russia by putting up a map that includes the disputed areas.
“We depicted the map of Ukraine as it is according to 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It showcases our sovereign and territorial integrity. We are grateful to India for supporting our sovereign and territorial integrity. We wanted to showcase that this is our real map. Whatever Russia wanted to put into their Constitution, doesn’t matter. This is the real map of Ukraine, it has Donbas and Crimea, because Crimea is with Ukraine,” Prytula pointed out.
He went on to talk about how war breaks people's minds, and declared that Ukrainians are showing the world they are tough enough to keep going anyway.
The Russian stall is a few metres away, which is not unsettling for the Ukrainian representatives.
“The Soviet Union participated since the first time the book fair was held in Kolkata. Since 1991, stalls were provided in the name of Russia where books and literature related to Russia is provided on different subjects and themes. Russia was the theme country in 2019,” explained Gautam Ghosh, Programme Director for Russian Centre For Science and Culture.
There are many curious people walking into the Ukrainian stall to understand its culture, and also applauding the country's grit in becoming a part of the Kolkata book fair. Authors from Ukraine present at the book fair were keen to showcase their ideology while interacting with visitors.
“We have this empty shelf which symbolises missing writers. Since 2014, when Russia began aggression on the east of Ukraine, 239 people connected to literature have been killed. Approximately 50 of them were poets and writers. The rest were book editors and others,” said Lyubko Deresh, an Ukrainian author.
He goes on to explain a project named Nena Nedo Pysani, a collective archive of people whose works were not published or didn’t finish their novels because they were killed by Russia. The project was started by two Ukrainian volunteers and soldiers.
“This situation is not new for Ukraine. At the beginning of the 20th century, we had a so-called tortured renaissance, where poets, writers, and screenplayers were murdered by the USSR Army. We see this comparison and we try to keep together all the information in their memory; to not be lost,” Deresh added.
His book, Pohliad Meduzy, or Medusa’s Gaze, takes a piece of Greek mythology to depict the first year of full-scale invasion by Russia and fear amongst Ukrainians, relevant in the times of the current war.
The book shows the mental trauma of the war on Ukrainians and overcoming this strong impact of war on their mentality. The subtitle, The Little Book of Darkness, is dedicated to current power outages in the country.
The author also points out that there is hope at the end of the book.
“It is also a metaphor. The Pegasus in Greek mythology means the source of creation; the source of inspiration for poets. It means if you properly process the trauma, you can transform it into experience. This is what we are all coming through. Ukrainians are transforming painful pages of life into experience that makes you stronger,” said Deresh.
For Bengali speaking readers, author Dr Mridula Ghosh, who resides in Ukraine, promotes their country’s culture by translating literary books of legendary 19th century author Taras Shevchenko into Bengali.
Shevchenko was akin to Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who was born the year when the legendary Ukrainian author died. One of Dr Ghosh’s essays talks about how South Asians perceived Shevchenko.
“They perceived him as an anti-colonial poet which is very important for us, because we are talking about the anti-colonial aspect of this war where Russia wants to make Ukraine a colony. That is the main leitmotif of the poems, because it was part of the Russian Empire during Shevchenko’s time. If you think deeply, a part of the idea was generated in the mind of Shevchenko—which didn't even exist—but it always appeals to the country called Ukraine and he mentions the country's name as Ukraine. That is important, because without Shevchenko, there will be no modern Ukraine," notes Dr Ghosh.
Her book on Shevchenko was translated into Bengali and published last year. Her first endeavour was in 2011, translating 23 poems into Bengali, as Ukrainian poetry holds an important place in their country's literature and there is little knowledge of it globally.
While attempts are being made by authors and Ukrainian representatives passionate about promoting the country’s culture, for Ukraine, the Kolkata book fair is a reminder of hope with the curiousness of avid readers, soaking in the country’s culture beyond the war that has been dominating headlines for years.