She described how, in the 1930s, Soviets murdered Ukrainian writers and intellectuals, destroying their manuscripts and confiscating literary magazines that published their work. In an essay for the literary and free expression group PEN Ukraine last year, Amelina wrote that imperial and Soviet Russia had long suppressed Ukrainian culture. "At this moment, I felt my head spinning, thinking about all the Ukrainian manuscripts that have been lost over the past centuries, and this might be another one." "The moment when I thought we wouldn't be able to find this diary perhaps is still the scariest moment for me," Amelina said late last May. He usually wrote offbeat, deeply empathetic poems for children but his diary was about life under Russian occupation.Īfter hours of fruitless digging alongside the writer's father, Amelina felt a twinge of grief and panic. She was looking for a diary belonging to children's author Volodymyr Vakulenko. KAPYTOLIVKA, KYIV AND LVIV, Ukraine - Last fall, the novelist Victoria Amelina found herself frantically digging up a fellow writer's backyard in northeastern Ukraine. Victoria Amelina stands next to a cherry tree in the backyard of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a Ukrainian children's book author, where he buried his diary of living under Russian occupation in Kapytolivka before he was killed.
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