A Craftsman of Russian Verse Helps Ukraine Find Its New Voice (original) (raw)
Europe|A Craftsman of Russian Verse Helps Ukraine Find Its New Voice
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Boris Khersonsky, a psychiatrist, poet and former Soviet dissident, in his office in Odessa, Ukraine, last month.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
- April 10, 2015
ODESSA, UKRAINE — EVERY morning at 6, Boris Khersonsky turns on the computer in his dacha. Under the gaze of the dusky icons covering the walls, one of Ukraine’s most famous literary bloggers — a 64-year-old psychiatrist, former Soviet dissident and acclaimed poet — logs onto Facebook to conduct what has become something of a daily symposium on the identity of the new Ukraine.
There, in political essays, poems, jokes and surreal diary entries where the only individual whose psychological health can be trusted is a talking cat, Dr. Khersonsky makes his case. “Ukraine can only become a whole state by admitting its differences,” he said. “Admitting, and admiring.”
A tall, white-haired man who radiates calm, Dr. Khersonsky — an increasingly influential voice in Ukraine’s intellectual circles — has for years advocated moving away from the idea that Ukrainian nationality should be determined by ethnicity.
But watching the pro-European protests in 2013 in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, and the change in leadership in 2014, he became increasingly aware of something else. While his mother tongue, the bulk of his cultural heritage and most of his artistic fame have come from Russia, he felt he was Ukrainian at heart.
Now, say many, the poet, who made a name for himself at age 55 with a series of verses tracing the fate of his Jewish family over five generations in Odessa, has come to embody a new kind of Ukrainian citizenship. “He’s a very important figure because of his mixed background,” said Iryna Slavinska, literary critic at Ukrainska Pravda. “He is Ukrainian, in the modern sense. It doesn’t depend on the language you speak. It’s not like in the Soviet passport, where you were Russian or Ukrainian or Jewish. It’s your choice.”
In Ukraine, added Ms. Slavinska, much debate takes place on social media platforms. Online, writers exchange poems, news and opinions as they grapple with current political events. However, traditionally these conversations have been balkanized — with a clear divide along language lines. Fellow poets credit Dr. Khersonsky with being the first and most important Russian-language poet to reach across the aisle.
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