Reflections on Life on the Edge from the Book Arsenal

During the opening ceremony of the festival, the curators of the focus theme elaborated on the meaning behind it. The idea came from the many expeditions to frontline towns and villages organized by PEN Ukraine. Yermolenko and Ogarkova define edge in three ways: geographical (Ukraine being a midpoint between Europe and Asia), existential (with the Russo-Ukrainian War being a conflict between freedom and slavery, democracy and authoritarianism, life and death), and geopolitical (questioning whether Ukraine is in the center or on the margins of the emerging world order).

Culture is what unites these three definitions of the edge. This is especially evident in light of the destruction of the Faktor Druk printing house in Kharkiv – one of the biggest printing facilities in Ukraine and Europe – which happened a week before the Book Arsenal. The remnants of books destroyed by Russia were displayed mere meters from the main stage of the festival, a constant reminder to visitors of what is at stake in this war.

The opening discussion of the focus theme, The Edge within Us, focused on the changing definitions of the edge in pivotal moments of Ukrainian history. Human rights lawyer and Nobel Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk reflected on the line between cruelty and solidarity that emerged during the Revolution of Dignity, while writer and historian Olena Stiazhkina explained her everyday choice to live in liminal space since 2014, when her native city of Donetsk was occupied.

Philosopher Oleksandr Komarov and writer Oleksandr Mykhed, who both joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, shared how they make sense of the full-scale invasion and the cruelty beyond comprehension brought by Russian soldiers upon Ukrainians. Writer and human rights activist Larysa Denysenko spoke about the lives of women who became victims of sexual violence amid war and where to draw the line in reporting their stories, since they are usually either neglected or exoticized.

A major throughline of the focus theme discussions was how to bring together the military and civilian understandings of the war. The panel Being a Military Man/Woman Today featured Ukrainian writers, poets and journalists who have decided to join the army. It centered around encounters with their past civilian lives, since as poet Artur Dron said: “The serviceman who sits on the Book Arsenal stage is a [former] civilian who sat in the Book Arsenal audience but made a decision”. For all the discussants, literature was a point of return to their past lives, something to, in the words of poet Yaryna Chornohuz, remind themselves that they are more than the framework of the military. While Chornohuz enjoys reading Milan Kundera, and author and journalist Dmytro Lazutkin relates to pirate novels, journalist and editor Dmytro Krapyvenko reads not only as a means of escapism, but also self-education.

Books are just as important to civilians, especially those living on the edge. In a heartfelt discussion A Book in a Shelter, a Book as a Shelter Kateryna Kalytko, Kateryna Mikhalitsyna and Myroslava Barchak spoke with Maryna Chyzhova and Aelita Horbunova from the Book in the Shelter project, who distribute Ukrainian-language books to bomb shelters in Kherson. They met during PEN Ukraine’s visit to Kherson in March 2024. In cities on the edge, books become not only a way of community-building, but also a means of defense against Russian imperial narratives. Initiatives like Book in the Shelter demonstrate that cultural life is possible on the frontline, even despite Russia deliberately targeting Ukrainian literature. Philosopher Vakhtang Kebuladze emphasized the importance of the human sciences, since their absence opens space for imperial interpretations.

The event Civilians. Life on the Edge. Kherson – Kharkiv – Izium – Chernihiv was a testament of love for Ukrainian cities that have witnessed the war firsthand. Culture manager and author Ivanna Skyba-Yakubova, currently residing in Kharkiv, shared how the heavily shelled city fulfils the will of George Shevelov by becoming a cultural center of Ukraine. Halyna Ivanova, director of the Izium Local History Museum, expressed the need to document stories of residents of the city. Historian and director of the Kherson Local History Museum Olha Honcharova reflected on the deep sense of solidarity between residents of Kherson, other Ukrainians, and the world in general. Reporter Vira Kuryko told her story of choosing Chernihiv and sticking to this choice throughout the city’s most vulnerable moments. War correspondent Olha Kyrylenko spoke about how Ukrainian cities and villages disappear amid war and how civilians cope when the frontline is slowly creeping towards them.  

Occupation and non-violent resistance of Ukrainians were the topics of discussion during The Art of Resistance Beyond the Edge. Photographer Li Biletska and Ukraïner founder Bohdan Logvynenko were joined by an anonymous member of the Mavka women's resistance movement to discuss various ways in which Ukrainians resist the occupiers, from creating art and distributing Ukrainian news to feeding Russian soldiers treats with laxatives. For Biletska, who experienced the occupation firsthand, compliance with the rules of the Russian administration meant losing her future. Deputy Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Noel Calhoun and British journalist David Patrikarakos explained what Ukrainian resistance means for the world and how to communicate it to international audiences and policy-making institutions.

Poetry: A Conversation between Languages. France — Ukraine was a proclamation of solidarity between Ukrainian and French poets, which grew out of a literary visit to the Ukrainian frontline six months ago. French poets recited Ukrainian poetry in French and Ukrainian poets read French poetry in Ukrainian. During a panel titled Kant and the Limits of the Mind philosophers Vakhtang Kebuladze, Anatoliy Yermolenko and Taras Lyuty discussed the philosophical ideas of Immanuel Kant and how they manifest amid the Russo-Ukrainian War, particularly the notion of the categorical imperative and his political theory of perpetual peace.

The concluding discussions of the focus theme brought together renowned international thinkers and practitioners to reflect on Ukraine as a part of broader geopolitical context. Frontier or Center? Ukraine's Role in the World focused on positioning the Russo-Ukrainian War in the changing world order after the so-called “end of history.” Scholars Botakoz Kassymbekova and Rory Finnin talked about Russian colonial strategies towards Ukraine and defined the Russo-Ukrainian War as a story of an empire that returns to re-conquer. Bruno Maçães, writer and former Secretary of State for European Affairs in Portugal, focused on how the re-centering of the world towards Asia affects the Russo-Ukrainian War and how to frame this conflict to secure support from countries of the Global South. Continuing that topic, legal data archive analyst Raji Abdul Salam mentioned that the Global South is not homogenous, and despite Russia exploiting resources of these countries and often committing crimes against their populations, their governments’ interests often align with Russian ones.  

The discussion The End of Empires was dedicated to scrutinizing how empires fall, and what future awaits Russia as one of the last imperial powers in the world. French historian Thierry Piel expressed the argument that after the Second World War Russia, in the form of the Soviet Union, not only gained back its empire, but also significantly expanded its imperial influence. French writer and analyst Nicolas Tenzer reflected on the end of the Cold War and why Russia did not transform its defeat into a productive force for change, like many European colonial forces did before. Former EU Ambassador to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli spoke about the evolution of relations between the EU, Ukraine and Russia, from Russia being a strategic partner of the EU to the EU increasing its support for Ukraine. Closing out the focus theme program that he and Tetyana Ogarkova curated, Volodymyr Yermolenko argued that empires fall when they do not have ideas to support them, and since Russia does not have such an idea, it is nearing its decay.  

Selected recordings of the focus theme discussions are available to watch online on the website of the festival, as well as on Suspilne Kultura YouTube channel.