Solutions from Ukraine: teenagers under occupation form secret book club to read Ukrainian literature
In the temporarily occupied territories, teenagers have covertly established a "most dangerous" book club, where they bravely gather to read Ukrainian literature away from the eyes of Russian occupiers.
The British publication, The Guardian, has uncovered details about one such underground "book club."
"It must be one of the most dangerous book clubs in the world," write journalists Peter Pomerantsev and Alina Dykhman, who prepared the material.
17-year-old Mariika (name changed for security reasons) said that there are no more than three people at such meetings. Before starting to read, the teenagers close all the doors and windows, hiding from potential informers.
"Informants frequently report anyone studying Ukrainian in the occupied territories to the Russian secret police. Ukrainian textbooks have been deemed "extremist" – possession can carry a sentence of five years.
Parents who allow their children to follow the Ukrainian curriculum online can lose parental rights. Teens who speak Ukrainian at school have been known to be taken by thugs to the woods for "questioning," the journalists say.
They note that under the conditions of occupation, it is difficult for teenagers to find books in their native language. In Mariika's hometown, the occupiers have seized and destroyed Ukrainian books from several libraries.
Young people can only read online books, and then they must carefully clear their browser history because the occupiers check phones and computers.
"They don't teach us knowledge at school, but to hate other Ukrainians. They've taken down all Ukrainian symbols and have hung portraits of Putin everywhere. History is all about 'great Russia' and how it's always been under attack by others," Mariika said.
The favorite works of Mariika's club are the poetry of Lesya Ukrainka. The dramatic poem "Boiarynia" ("The Boyar Woman") has become especially close to the teenagers, where the main character reproaches a Ukrainian who has fallen under the influence of Muscovy and praises the humiliating peace with the tsar. "Is this peace?" she asks. "Or ruin?".
The Guardian journalists draw a parallel between this "peace" and the one that, according to the Trump administration, Ukraine should have concluded with Putin – with the renunciation of Ukrainian territories.
One of the reasons why Mariika and her friends continue to gather for a book club is the desire to show:
- Even under occupation, there are people who fight for the right to remain Ukrainians.
Not all the books read in the underground club have a political subtext. Among them are ordinary stories about Ukrainians' lives—dates, shopping, everyday things. But journalists say that under occupation, even these simple plots help people stay connected to free Ukraine and feel part of a community.
"But still, there is no getting away from the all-too-relevant ideas of Ukrainka's writing. One of her main themes was to meditate on the relationship between personal freedom – the freedom of the imagination and to define your life – and the political freedom of the nation. "Whoever liberates themselves, shall be free," she wrote..
Mariika's book club turns these words into reality every day," the British journalists sum up.
For reference:
Instances of the destruction of Ukrainian books and cultural heritage by Russian forces have been well-documented. In Mariupol, for instance, invaders demolished the central library and confiscated vast numbers of books from universities and schools.
Rubryka also told the story of the villagers who united and turned the destroyed library into the cultural center of their village. In 2022, the village of Novopetrivka, located in the Mykolaiv region, was occupied. For almost eight months, the Russian military abused the locals, tortured people, and robbed their homes. The occupiers used the cultural center as a height.
In Kharkiv, in 2024, the Russians struck the largest printing house, "Faktor-Druk." The Russians destroyed almost half of the company's production lines. 7 people died and 22 were injured. On March 25, it became known that the printing house had been restored in Kharkiv.
According to the Language Ombudsman, as of September 2024, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian occupiers have destroyed or damaged almost 1,000 libraries.
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