Tag: Russian invasion of Ukraine

Postage stamps : the Ukrainian item(s) of the month

On By europeancollectionsIn New Acquisitions, Slavonic, UkrainianLeave a comment

Books about stamps are not a huge business in modern purchasing at the University Library, but they can be incredibly interesting to more than the dedicated philatelist.  We recently bought two volumes about Ukrainian stamps more for the principles and attitudes reflected in the stamps than for the images themselves.  What inspires a government agency in its selection of images?  It’s a particularly keen question when it comes to a country whose last 10 years have seen parts of its territory overtaken by illegal annexation and ruined by a growing war.

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24.02.2022 in the words of Ukrainians

On By europeancollectionsIn English, New Acquisitions, Slavonic, UkrainianLeave a comment

Today Ukrainians remember the shock of the air strikes in the early hours of 24 February 2022 that heralded Russia’s full-scale invasion of their country and mark the appalling destruction and loss that continue to this day.  A great deal has been written across the world about Russia’s move from the previous 8 years of conflict to this open war (“special military operation”) but in this post we focus on what has been written specifically by Ukrainians, including new translations into English.

Interest in the Ukrainian language outside the country leapt following Russia’s assault, as awareness of Ukrainian culture and identity grew and as those working with and hosting refugees from the war worked to gain at least basic knowledge of the language.  But the many resources we collect in the UL in Ukrainian to capture Ukrainians’ experience of the devastating war will still have a fairly small audience, so we try to pick up translations into English as much as possible too, so that all our library readers have the chance to hear directly from those facing the attack.

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Ukraine, 20 February 2014, and a decade of the Russo-Ukrainian War

On By europeancollectionsIn English, Slavonic, UkrainianLeave a comment

The 20th of February is full of significance for Ukraine, and this post looks at new library material about the events it recalls.

February 2014 saw the culmination of the Euromaidan protests in the Revolution of Dignity and also the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War.   The 20th specifically saw both the greatest loss of life in Kyïv during the Revolution with over 20 protestors killed by the security services and also the start of Russia’s armed invasion of Crimea which would soon be followed by the outbreak of war in the east of Ukraine.  With the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine coming this Saturday, it would be easy to roll the anniversaries together but it’s important to acknowledge separately the events of 2014 and contemplate the fact of a decade of war, occupation, and lost lives.

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Lev Rubinshteĭn (1947-2024) : an anti-war Moscow poet with Ukrainian Jewish roots

On By europeancollectionsIn Russian, SlavonicLeave a comment

This week saw the death following a road accident of the poet and activist Lev Rubinshteĭn (Rubinstein).  Rubinshteĭn is most closely associated with Russia and especially Moscow, where he lived and died and and whose son he was most famous as through his status as one of the founders of Moscow conceptualism.  Yet while Russia’s dissident and artistic scenes have lost a shining light through his death, Ukraine has also lost a friend (he consistently spoke out against Russian aggression again Ukraine) and a son too: Rubinshteĭn was born in Moscow to Jewish parents who both came from Ukraine. Continue reading “Lev Rubinshteĭn (1947-2024) : an anti-war Moscow poet with Ukrainian Jewish roots” →

Changes to Ukraine-related bibliographic subject headings

On By europeancollectionsIn New Acquisitions, Slavonic, Ukrainian2 Comments

Every month, the Library of Congress publishes new additions and changes to their subject headings (LCSH).  The October 2023 list of approved changes focused on Ukraine, and this post gives a quick summary of them.  They all relate to the events of 2013 and 2014 onwards, to the present day.

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Offensive purchases : ebooks in favour of the Russian war against Ukraine

On By europeancollectionsIn ebooks, New Acquisitions, Russian, SlavonicLeave a comment

As the latest newsletters from our department and from the Cambridge University Libraries Decolonisation Working Group show, the questions of how best [a] to handle and catalogue and [b] instruct our readers about the offensive material in our libraries is a very live one.  Of *course* we have such material – research libraries inevitably acquire titles that represent the negative aspects of the world our academics and students research and not only the positive ones.  A big issue lies in making sure that our readers understand that the presence of a particular book or other item in Cambridge collections does not equate with the endorsement of its contents by library or academic staff.

This issue has been in my mind as I’ve been undertaking the distasteful task of selecting and cataloguing various pro-war Russian books (all ebooks, since they are easier to buy at the moment than print books).  It would be easiest of all not to buy them in either form, but it is important that our readers can see what is being published in Russia during the all-out war against Ukraine, to get a feeling for the kinds of material being pushed at the Russian reading public. Continue reading “Offensive purchases : ebooks in favour of the Russian war against Ukraine” →

(Non)final words : Ukraine in Russian political trials

On By europeancollectionsIn ebooks, New Acquisitions, Russian, Slavonic1 Comment

Among the 23 largely Russian ebooks we bought this week is Neposlednie slova – “Not the final words”, referring to the “final word” that a defendant in Russia has after judgement has been passed down in their trial.  While they have no impact on the defendant’s sentence, the fact and content of these final words, or final statements, are significant, as the following text explains:

“In recent years and, particularly, in recent months in Russia, a distinct oral/literary genre has re-emerged — the “final statement” of a defendant.   Paradoxically, the “cage” in a court room (in today’s Russia, the accused are put in a bullet-proof glass booth) appears as the only remaining place where a person can still speak freely. Thus, it can be said, without exaggeration, that the courtroom, where people are tried for dissent, is a last bastion of freedom of speech in today’s Russia.” [from the blurb for a lecture by Anna Narinskaya at the Harriman Institute in April this year] Continue reading “(Non)final words : Ukraine in Russian political trials” →

Ukraine-related acquisitions in 22/23

On By europeancollectionsIn English, New Acquisitions, Slavonic, UkrainianLeave a comment

The University Library’s financial year runs from August to July, so the 2022/23 year has finished only recently.  After the frenzy of last-minute chasing for invoices in late July, this is now a good time to look back on what we have acquired over the year.

In order to look at books the UL has acquired about Ukraine, I performed various searches based on a subject search for Ukrain* – the asterisk at the end allows the search to find Ukraine and Ukrainian, etc.  That search does depend on the cataloguing being complete which won’t be the case yet for everything acquired during the year just finished.  My searches also included the 1st of August 2022 as the creation date for the physical item record (for print material) and for the electronic portfolio (for electronic material). Continue reading “Ukraine-related acquisitions in 22/23” →