Olha Poliukhovych - Ukrainian Literature has been Influenced by its Complex History and Colonialism.

Today we are exploring the cultural aspects of the David and Goliath
struggle between Ukraine, a young democracy versus Russia an old
imperial autocracy. Russian propaganda ties to play up the similarities
between Ukrainian and Russian culture, because of some shared history
and cultural ties. However, there are significant differences between
the two literary traditions, due to the historical and cultural context
in which the two literary traditions developed. Ukrainian literature has
a strong tradition of folk tales and oral poetry, and it has been
influenced by the country's complex political and cultural history,
including periods of colonization and national struggle. Russian
literature, on the other hand, has been shaped by its own distinct
history, including periods of imperial expansion and revolutionary
upheaval. Ukrainian writers were persecuted in the 1920s during the
period of Soviet rule in Ukraine, as part of a process to suppress
Ukrainian national identity and culture and replace it with a new Soviet
identity; literature was a key tool for this, as it is also for Russia
today.

Olha Poliukhovych is a Writer, literary critic, and editor. She is an
Associate professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,
and also Managing Editor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal. Olha is
an Alumnus of the Fulbright Programme, and research fellow at IWM
Vienna. And finally, she participates in an NGO together with Mariia
Shuvalova. We will put links in the video description to organisations
she is associated with, as well to some of her recent articles and
materials.