Living in Words – New German translations of Ukrainian literature + Books on Ukraine from German publishers

The idea at the heart of this book is that the key to understanding lies in asking fundamental questions: what...

The idea at the heart of this book is that the key to understanding lies in asking fundamental questions: what are the causes of the war? Who benefits from it? And who has an interest in allowing a conflict that is so incredibly dangerous – that may even lead to the use of nuclear weapons – to continue? The nature of the war in Ukraine is discussed with a view to possible solutions: is it imperialist, hegemonic, a proxy war, even a world order war? What are the aims  being pursued by Russia, by Ukraine, by the West? What is the role of NATO, which is becoming increasingly dominant in comparison to the UN and the OSCE? In the fraught space between diplomacy and militarisation, between sanctions policy and raw materials policy, the authors also reflect on the social situation in their own country at a time when rearmament is no longer a taboo subject. They take the pulse of a turning point, leading with the question of how 'peace can be restored' (Eugen Drewermann) and how peace can become 'a better deal than war' (Daniela Dahn).

A Formality in Kyiv is the story of a family who once moved abroad full of hope, but who ended...

A Formality in Kyiv is the story of a family who once moved abroad full of hope, but who ended up without any homeland at all. Narrated with the bittersweet humour of a son who is stoically trying to become German.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian army launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The city of Kharkiv, close to the...

On 24 February 2022, the Russian army launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The city of Kharkiv, close to the border and home to millions of people, came under heavy fire. Hundreds of thousands of people fled. The Ukrainian writer Sergei Gerasimov, however, remained in the embattled frontline city. Soon there were shortages of clean water, food and medical infrastructure. People froze in sub-zero temperatures. Gerasimov started writing about the absurdity of everyday life in wartime. The result is a disturbing eyewitness account and an appeal for peace and understanding.

Anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists fought for a society free from domination. Until now, little has been known about their lives and...

Anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists fought for a society free from domination. Until now, little has been known about their lives and how they operated. The contributions published in this book give us an insight into the subject. We follow the life of anarcho-syndicalist Mechel Stanger (1909-1984), who grew up near the city of Chernivtsi. In his autobiography he describes the realities of life and work when he was young, and how he became an anarchist. He guides us through the Western European anarcho-syndicalist movement, and we meet Russian and Ukrainian anarcho-syndicalist and anarchist revolutionaries. In 1937 he fought in the social revolution in Spain. David Stetner was active in the same group. He ended up moving from Bukovina to France. This book includes a short and informative autobiographical sketch.

Marc Sagnol travels around the former 'crownland' of Galicia and Lodomeria, most of which is now in western Ukraine. This...

Marc Sagnol travels around the former 'crownland' of Galicia and Lodomeria, most of which is now in western Ukraine. This personal and historical investigation leads him to the forgotten Austrian, Polish and Jewish culture of this once multi-ethnic country, and the many writers who lived and wrote there. Places come into view – Grodek, Lemberg, Bels, Drohobycz, Brody, Stryi, Bolekhiv, Chortkiv – most of which are no longer present in living memory, and texts by various authors are explored – from Sacher-Masoch and Karl Emil Franzos to Georg Trakl, Joseph Roth, Bruno Schulz, Samuel Agnon, Soma Morgenstern and Stanisław Lem, as well as less well-known writers like Jiri Langer, Debora Vogel, Artur Sandauer, Julian Stryjkowski and Andrzej Kusniewicz.

For seven days, Egon Alt and Yuri Andrukhovych talk about the Hapsburg Empire Soviet-style, about train stations, border posts and...

For seven days, Egon Alt and Yuri Andrukhovych talk about the Hapsburg Empire Soviet-style, about train stations, border posts and forgotten dreams, about banned music, recruits in the Red Army and the legendary happenings of the performance group BuBaBu.

In her revised and updated book, Kerstin S. Jobst explores the origins of the Ukrainian nation, going all the way...

In her revised and updated book, Kerstin S. Jobst explores the origins of the Ukrainian nation, going all the way back to the medieval Kyivan Rus, and outlines the most recent developments in the history of this much fought-over country.

These essays are a gift: they are a window onto a better understanding of the unthinkable events currently unfolding in...

These essays are a gift: they are a window onto a better understanding of the unthinkable events currently unfolding in Ukraine. In this poignant and analytically razor-sharp book, Tanja Maljartschuk, winner of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, explains what Russia's hostile expansionist policies have done to a country and its people, not only since 2022 but for over a decade. 

This book is a chronicle of ongoing events, the testimony of a man who enters into a new reality while...

This book is a chronicle of ongoing events, the testimony of a man who enters into a new reality while writing and who resists the destruction of everything around him. Not a solitary observer, but an active civilian in a society which has learned, over the past eight years, what it means to be strong together.

In the light of this new war, which is throwing up many old questions, Gerd Koenen embarks on an investigation...

In the light of this new war, which is throwing up many old questions, Gerd Koenen embarks on an investigation that takes us from the cynical partnership of the Hitler-Stalin pact to the friend-or-foe propaganda of our own times, and from the founders of ‘Memorial’ to Putin’s spin doctors. Personal meetings and nuanced analyses come together to produce a long-term diagnosis of a country suffering from deep insecurity, whilst at the same time wanting to be seen as a world power on a par with China and the USA.

In haunting images, Ukrainian author Serhiy Zhadan depicts a familiar environment turning into a warzone. He writes of steadfast people...

In haunting images, Ukrainian author Serhiy Zhadan depicts a familiar environment turning into a warzone. He writes of steadfast people who counter fear and destruction with self-assertion. A young teacher wants to collect his nephew from a school which has come under fire and is no longer safe. It takes a whole day to get across the town, in which civilian life has collapsed. The journey home is just as difficult. The pair end up very close to the fighting, unable to see anything more than the milky fog filled with flashes of yellow fire. Machine guns rattle, mines explode, paramilitary groups and ownerless dogs appear in the rubble, and apathetic people stumble disorientated through an apocalyptic urban landscape.

This book explores the most important events and relationships in Ukrainian history. It counters the dominant Russocentric perspective with a...

This book explores the most important events and relationships in Ukrainian history. It counters the dominant Russocentric perspective with a Ukrainian one, but also looks critically at Ukrainian national myths. The book traces the history of the Ukrainians from the Middle Ages to the present, as well as touching on the history of Poles, Russians, Jews and Germans living in Ukraine.

This book sheds light on the background to the conflict, the course of the war itself, the involvement of the...

This book sheds light on the background to the conflict, the course of the war itself, the involvement of the Western alliance in terms of supplying weapons to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia, the growing strength of the political right in Kyiv and Moscow, and the role of the media in the transatlantic space. The rise of NATO and the economic expansion of the EU in an eastward direction runs counter to the concept of 'Russkiy mir', which aims to unite the 'Russian world'. Ukraine – not for the first time in its history – has become a geopolitical football in the struggle between East and West.

The old nationalism is back, claims political scientist Erhard Crome. That is why Russian oligarchic capitalism is waging war on...

The old nationalism is back, claims political scientist Erhard Crome. That is why Russian oligarchic capitalism is waging war on Ukrainian oligarchic capitalism, so as not to abandon it to the old imperialist powers in the West. It is a war about the redistribution of geopolitical and economic power across the territory of the former Soviet Union and, at its heart, it is about the constitution of the nation. Crome looks not only at the east of the continent, however, but also at the origins of nations, their function in the past and in the present, what we can expect in the future, and why the issue is such a thorny one for people on the left.

Nestor Makhno was ten months old when his father died. Because his family were so poor, he could only go...

Nestor Makhno was ten months old when his father died. Because his family were so poor, he could only go to school during the winter months: in summer, he worked as a shepherd for local landowners in what is now Zaporizhia Oblast in Ukraine. As a result of the repression meted out by Tsarist Russia, which had grown harsher since the Russian Revolution of 1905, he became inspired by revolutionary groups and embraced anarchism and the ideas of Bakunin and Kropotkin. In this electrifying book, Vasily Golovanov tells the almost unbelievable story of Makhno's life, from his birth until his death in Parisian exile, against the backdrop of a turbulent period in history. He traces Makhno's comet-like rise to become leader of an uncompromising freedom movement, named after Makhno himself, which wanted to create an anarchist Ukraine.

The texts in this Neue Rundschau special edition help the reader gain a better understanding of the current situation. Why...

The texts in this Neue Rundschau special edition help the reader gain a better understanding of the current situation. Why did the West not see the invasion coming? What was/is the relationship between Ukraine and Russia like? What impact will the war have on civil society? What kind of Europe is possible now? But also: how do people experience the war both in Ukraine and in Russia? With essays by Vitali Alekseenok, Yevgeniy Breyger, Dmitrij Gawrisch, Volha Hapeyeva, Uwe Kolbe, Olga Martynova, Christoph Ransmayr, Stephan Wackwitz and Alexander Lebedev among others.

"Absolute zero": this is the name given to the demarcation line in eastern Ukraine dividing the Ukrainian army from separatist...

"Absolute zero": this is the name given to the demarcation line in eastern Ukraine dividing the Ukrainian army from separatist fighters from the rebel "People's Republics". Artem Chekh, a young author from Kyiv, fought on this front in 2015/2016  – and became a soldier.

While researching this book, historian Karin Huser had access to a unique treasure trove of diaries, memoirs, photographs and hundreds...

While researching this book, historian Karin Huser had access to a unique treasure trove of diaries, memoirs, photographs and hundreds of letters, still in the family's possession. In a knowledgeable way/In expert fashion/Drawing on in-depth knowledge, she situates the unique story of an individual within the wider context of Russian history and Swiss migration to the Russian Empire. The family biography gives a powerful insight into people's everyday lives and living conditions at the time. An exciting slice of Swiss-Ukrainian migration history! 

39 authors from various academic disciplines approach Eastern Europe from different angles in these essays on historical, anthropological, literary and...

39 authors from various academic disciplines approach Eastern Europe from different angles in these essays on historical, anthropological, literary and cultural subjects. Special attention is paid to the historical spaces of Galicia and the Black Sea region, but several contributions transcend spatial classifications. They emphasise translocal perspectives, and look at colonialism and imperialism and the orientalising gaze of these processes. Other essays focus on social, national and religious issues in Central and Eastern Europe, a space that is so rich in identities and alterities. Finally, some essays examine how specific historical events are/were remembered or processed in literature.

Born in Poltava in 1925, at the time of the Bolshevik regime, Anastasia Gulej grew up in a typical Ukrainian...

Born in Poltava in 1925, at the time of the Bolshevik regime, Anastasia Gulej grew up in a typical Ukrainian village. She was the daughter of a village schoolteacher and a housewife. As a child and adolescent she lived through three disasters: the terrible famine of 1932/33, Stalin's Great Terror of 1937/38, and being transported by the Germans to do forced labour in 1943. After fleeing in 1943, Anastasia Gulej spent time in several prisons, ended up in Auschwitz-Birkenau, survived the death march from Auschwitz in the freezing temperatures of January 1945, and entered the hell of Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated at the last moment by British troops. She returned to her homeland, finished school, studied forestry, and worked in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and later in Kyiv. When Ukraine gained independence in 1991, her work as a contemporary witness at home and abroad began. Anastasia Gulej wrote books about the period of the Second World War, recording the stories of many victims of the Nazi terror. In 2022 she experienced war once again. Russia's invasion of her homeland forced her to leave Kyiv and Ukraine.