Vladimir Putin said he annexed Crimea and much of the Donbas region to “save” its Russophone population. The claim infuriates Volodymyr Rafeyenko, a distinguished Ukrainian novelist who was born in Russian-speaking Donetsk and who wrote and published entirely in Russian until ten years ago.
“It was an out and out lie, aimed at a western audience," Rafeyenko says aboht Putin’s comments. "My conscience began to hurt. I was 46 years old and didn’t know Ukrainian. I decided to learn it to a level where I could speak and write it.”
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Born in Russian-speaking Donetsk, in the east of the country, he won literary awards for his work, including the prestigious Russian prize, given in Moscow.
He recalled standing in Donetsk’s central boulevard – named after the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin – as soldiers rolled in.
The Lviv book forum – which takes place this week in partnership with Britain’s Hay festival – is in Ukrainian and English.
“Without Russian you couldn’t get a job or be promoted.” Soviet planners sent Russian-speaking specialists to work in Donbas’s factories, Rafeyenko added, changing the region’s ethnic mix.
It’s about the tragic experiences of characters in the first two months after Russia’s invasion, as they try to preserve their lives.” The book – his eighth – is “more powerful” than Mondegreen, he said.
“We sell a lot of classical literature,” said Natalie Momot, a 22-year-old sales assistant at Vivat’s bookshop in Kyiv, adding: “People also buy George Orwell.
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