The Ukrainian Studio for Culture and Sport Stuttgart and the Heinrich Böll Foundation Baden-Württemberg invite you to a literary evening in two parts:

Reading and discussion with the Ukrainian writers Andriy Lyubka and Stanislaw Assejew

18:30 - 20:00

In „The reverse side of the war. A literary reportage“ describes the Ukrainian author Andriy Lyubka In lively and often humorous language, he recounts his experiences as a volunteer on and behind the front line. He meets soldiers, women, children, minorities and returnees whose lives were radically changed by the war. At the same time, he describes the dangers and the efforts of countless helpers, railwaymen and electricians who kept everyday life going under difficult conditions. Through personal experiences and travelogues, a vivid overall picture of today's war-torn Ukraine emerges.

The Ukrainian journalist and writer Stanislav Asseyev shows another, disastrous side of the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine not just since 2022, but for over eleven years. „Bright path. Donetsk - Report from a torture prison“ is the haunting account of his several years of imprisonment in the notorious torture prison „Isolatsiya“ in occupied Donetsk. It describes the systematic violence, interrogations and repression against journalists and civilians and thus provides important documentary evidence of the reality of the Russian occupation.

Moderation: Olha Bohachova

Reading in honour of Victoria Amelina and Volodymyr Vakulenko „I am transforming myself. Records under Russian occupation“

20:15 - 21:15

In his home village in the eastern Ukrainian district of Izjum, the well-known children's book author Volodymyr Vakulenko the Russian occupation in March 2022. In his diary, he gives an impressive account of war destruction, collaboration and looting and describes how his autistic son experiences the intrusion of war into everyday family life. As a Euromaidan activist in 2014, Vakulenko was eventually arrested by the Russian occupying forces. When the Ukrainian army liberates Izjum in September 2022, Vakulenko's maltreated body is discovered in a mass grave.
A friend of his, the writer Viktoria Amelina finds Vakulenko's hidden diary and publishes it in the early summer of 2023. Shortly afterwards, she too dies when a Russian missile hits a pizzeria.

By reading Vakulenko's notes and poems as well as Amelina's texts, we are commemorating the two murdered men in order to thematise the brutality of the Russian occupation and the enormous cultural losses suffered by Ukraine.

Introduction: Klaus Gestwa, Professor of Eastern European History and Director of the Institute for Eastern European History and Regional Studies at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

Reading: Katharina Eisenbarth, Richard Kneer and Carolin May read texts by Victoria Amelina and Volodymyr Vakulenko

Moderation: Klaus Gestwa