Can a writer hide part of his identity for a whole life? Nataliia Peleshchenko seeks an answer to this question by exploring the work of Leonid Pervomayskyi — a Ukrainian writer of Jewish descent whose personal history is inextricably linked to the dramatic events of the 20th century.
Natalia Peleshenko is a candidate of Philological Sciences and a senior lecturer in the Volodymyr Morenets Department of Literary Studies at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NAUKMA).
“Leonid Pervomayskyi is a Ukrainian writer of Jewish descent whose personal and creative life was shaped by the complex and brutal history shaped by the totalitarian systems of the 20th century. As a result, some of the writer’s early works — which contain vivid Jewish markers of national identity — have not been republished, and he has self-censored his own texts to eliminate specifically Jewish identifying features.”
Despite this pressure, the Ukrainian and Jewish elements of Leonid Pervomaysky’s work did not disappear. They manifested themselves in images, symbols, plots, and cultural references, though often in a veiled form.
Natalia Peleshchenko’s article demonstrates that Leonid Pervomaysky’s work serves as an important testament to the complex history of Ukrainian-Jewish relations and, at the same time, serves as a reminder of how political pressure can affect a person’s right to speak openly about their own identity.
The full article will be available this summer following the online publication of the project’s Imagological Collection on the website.
This publication was produced as part of the project "Jewish Heritage in Ukraine: Interdisciplinary Reflections through the Lens of Archival Documents, Culture, History, and Literature", implemented by the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with the support of UNESCO Ukraine and the European Union.
All publications are produced with the financial support of the European Union. Their content is the sole responsibility of the partners and does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union.