Oksana Zabuzkho (Оксана Забужко, 1960) is a writer, poet and essayist – one of the most important contemporary Ukrainian authors. Zabuzhko's first novel – “Field Studies in Ukrainian Sex” (Польові дослідження з українського секс), published in 1996, became the first bestseller in independent Ukraine and is recognised as the book that has had the greatest impact on Ukrainian society during the years of independence.
In 2004, Zabuzhko's article "Ukraine's Solidarity" was published in the Wall Street Journal, in which she predicted that large-scale protests would take place in Kyiv. After this publication, Zabuzhko was dubbed "Orange Cassandra". She calls herself an "imagination expert" and considers it her duty as a writer to contribute to society at turning points in history, when the old, well-developed order no longer works.
On 22 February 2022, Zabuzhko arrived in Poland to present her latest book, but on the morning of 24 February she learned that the Russians had opened fire on her native Kyiv and that she herself had been forced into exile, unable to return to her country. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zabuzhko has continued to publicly explain the context of the war, the history of Ukraine-Russia relations and Russia's imperial ambitions, and has given dozens of readings and hundreds of interviews in different countries. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, Zabuzhko spoke at the European Parliament and her essay "The Problem with Russia is Russia" was published by the New York Times on 20 February this year.
In the spring and summer of 2022, Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko wrote her latest book, a long essay entitled "The Longest Journey" (Найдовша подорож), while staying in Poland, at the request of the Italian publishing house Einaudi. “The Longest Journey” is written in the form of a hybrid memoir, interweaving poignant personal memories with critical analysis and historical background.
The questions the author faced reflected the shock of those around her at this turn of events. "Could this war have been prevented?" they wanted to know. Is Putin the sole cause of this madness? What does each side have at stake? What could the outcome of the war mean for the rest of the world? The fact that Russia's attack on Ukraine began in 2014 with the invasion of the Donbas and the annexation of Crimea had not gone unnoticed by most Westerners. How could Western politicians and intellectuals have failed to notice that a new Hitler had appeared in their midst? Why did they repeat the same mistakes that their predecessors had made in the 1930s? These are some of the questions Zabuzhko seeks to answer in his new book, which introduces readers to the Ukrainian-Russian problem and the context of the war in Ukraine – history from a Ukrainian perspective.
To understand the mystery of Ukraine's triumph over Russia's military superiority, the author invites us to delve into the events of European history over the last three hundred years. Zabuzhko's text reviews and debunks common myths and stereotypes propagated by countless Sovietologists and popular scholars of Russian history. Zabuzhko shows how Ukraine's invisibility to the world has been deliberately created, enabling atrocities such as those we saw in the videos and images taken in Buch last year.
The book's title is a play on words: Zabuzhko admits that being away from home for more than a year after the outbreak of the full-scale war to fight Ukraine's battle alongside the army on the frontline of public opinion was also her own longest journey.
Oksana Zabuzhko's “The Longest Journey” (Найдовша подорож), translated into Latvian by Kristaps Vecgrāvis, published in September 2023 as part of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art's translation series.
The discussion with Oksana Zabuzkho was moderated by Agra Lieģe-Doležko.