Writer, poet and musician Serhiy Zhadan is known as an advocate of Donbas in Ukraine. Thanks to Zhadan’s work, many people have come to know this eastern region of the country - with its working men, slag heaps, steppe and love of freedom where, as one of his poems puts it, “everything that passes through your conscience beats in time with your heartbeat”. Zhadan’s 2010 novel Voroshilovhrad, titled after the old Soviet name for the city of Luhansk, was seen as a manifesto of Ukraine’s 1980s and 1990s generation.
In the spring of 2014 Zhadan was an active participant in Euromaidan support rallies in Kharkiv,. Since the start of the war in eastern Ukraine, he has given frequent concerts and performances on the front line and its nearby areas. He is now busy co-writing a book with graphic novelist Pavlo Makov entitled A Permanent Place of Residence, dedicated to Kharkiv.
Kateryna Iakovlenko spoke to Serhiy Zhadan about Donbas today, humanitarian politics and Kharkiv’s special history.
