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The Ukrainian response to the 2022 Russian invasion has strengthened Ukrainians' sense of national identity and inspired a new appreciation for the country beyond its borders. What do the people of Ukraine want for its future?

Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet book cover
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Book Talk | Ukraine is Not Dead Yet

When her grandmother Anna died in Cleveland in 2013, Megan Buskey was compelled in her grief to uncover and document her grandmother’s life as a native of Ukraine. A Ukrainian American, Buskey returned to her family’s homeland and encountered the essential and sometimes difficult aspects of recent Ukrainian history. In this book talk, Megan Buskey discussed her book, Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet, and her process researching Ukraine’s difficult twentieth century through the prism of her family's past.

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A woman plays a stringed instrument in front of a destroyed building in Bodoryanca, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine

Heroic Arts: The Remarkable Story of Ukrainian Artists Confronting Russia

In his series "The Arts of War," Distinguished Fellow Blair A. Ruble presents stories that highlight the ways in which Ukrainians have long explored the meaning of their country and culture through the arts; and the manner in which the arts and their creators have empowered Ukrainians to confront the Russian invaders. These developments also offer intriguing clues about the culture, society, and politics of a post-war Ukraine.

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Dana Kavelina, A Letter to the Turtledove, 2020.
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Ukrainian Wartime Art: A Decolonial Perspective

Artistic documentation of war and anti-colonial resistance reflects Ukraine's tectonic change in response to Russia's ongoing invasion of the country. In this lecture, George F. Kennan Fellow Svitlana Biedarieva will examine Ukrainian wartime art from 2014-2023 to demonstrate how a generation of Ukrainian artists has produced new cultural narratives and critically dismantled prior conceptions of Ukrainian identity as a postcolonial state entangled with Russian cultural influences.

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Outdoor concert near Lviv
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Ukraine’s Cultural Response to War | A Collaboration with PBS’s Culture Quest

In response to Russia's war in Ukraine, Ukrainian artists from across the country have used their work to protest the conflict and to show the world the beauty of their nation's threatened culture. The Kennan Institute welcomed Ian Grant, the host of PBS's Culture Quest, for a screening of clips from his recent special episode on Ukraine's artists at war followed by a discussion with Wilson Center Distinguished Fellow Blair Ruble.

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