Charging Ukrainian identity

Six copies of Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar and loads of other patriotic-themed books have already been dispatched to Ukrainian troops in the east by volunteer Tetiana Dolzhko (Lutsk). Volyn SOS is the name of her group of volunteers taking care of refugees from Donbas who found shelter in Volyn, and of troops, both Volhynian and from other regions. They all defend our Ukraine, says Dolzhko. Besides thermal underwear, army boots, sleeping bags, and other indispensable gear, she has been recently busy looking for Kobzars. Troops ask for this particular book, and the same requests she has been getting from the wounded men from the military hospital in Lutsk.

When one of the volunteers said she did not want to bring them books about war, they said, just on the contrary, now they will read about war because now they see it differently. The men also ask for historical books. What period are you interested in, asked the volunteer, the epoch of the princes or Cossacks? The Sich Shooters and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, was the answer. The generation that just got a taste of fighting for Ukraine wants to know more of its history. These boys have felt their national identity. As for Kobzar, they say they need it to find answers to eternal questions, as well as “charge their Ukrainian identity.”

Note from the editors: we would like to remind our readers that The Day has already written about a new pocketbook edition of Shevchenko’s Kobzar, specially for the troops on the frontline. The project was carried out by the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, jointly with the Ukraine Open International University of Human Development (see “Kobzar on the Frontlines,” No.70 of November 10). The two editions have already been distributed among the troops in the ATO zone. The Day is going to coordinate the cooperation of Lutsk volunteers and publishers.