Making a Prosperous Country into a Wasteland

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Tuesday called the Russian attacks on civilians in Kharkiv a 'war crime' and 'state terrorism.' On Wednesday, the International Criminal Court said it would 'immediately proceed' to begin an investigation into Russian military war crimes in Ukraine after 39 countries petitioned it to do so. There are credible reports of cluster bombs being used in civilian areas." (Washington Post: "Opinion: Ukrainians in Kharkiv won’t let Putin break their will") 

Near Odessa, Ukraine, March 2, 2022. Odessa was a cultural center in Tsarist Russia.
(New York Times: "Anxiety Grows in Odessa as Russians Advance in Southern Ukraine")

As we all know, the Russians are waging a criminal war of destruction on the cities of their neighbor Ukraine. Watching this horror show unfold, I've been trying, as I read the news reports, to think about the accomplishments of people from Ukraine. Unfortunately, Ukrainians had little opportunity during the long era when the region was dominated by Russia until it achieved independence 30 years ago. And even more unfortunately, the Russians seem hell-bent on returning it to its unequal and unfavorable status again – after destroying the cities and productive capacity of the country.

Famous Writers Born in Ukraine

Sholem Aleichem's Ukrainian Village as interpreted by Hollywood:
"Fiddler on the Roof"

I must admit that I am not familiar with any literature that was originally written in the Ukrainian language. However, several writers who were born in Ukraine and wrote in Russian or Yiddish have made a big impression on me, and I'm thinking about them as I watch this week's devastating news. These are:

• Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916) was a Yiddish humorist and story-teller. He was born in a Ukrainian shtetl named Pereiaslay. He us most famous for the tales of Tevye the Dairyman. The Tevye stories are the basis for the musical "Fiddler on the Roof."
• Isaac Babel (1894-1940), a writer, was born in Odessa. His first language was Yiddish, but his literary work was in Russian. He is known for stories of the Russian Revolution and colorful tales of the criminal underground in Odessa.
• Nikolai Gogol (1819-1898), was a Russian writer born in the Ukrainian Cossak town of Sorochyntsi. His family were minor Russian nobles with an estate in that region. His famous works are the novel Dead Souls and several short story collections.
• Yevgeny Petrov (1902-1942) and Ilya Ilf (1897-1937) were both born in Odessa. They were journalists and collaborators on two novels: Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf. Their writing is in Russian.
• Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) was born in Kyiv. He wrote a novel, The White Guard, about Ukraine. I very much enjoyed his more famous novel, The Master and Margarita.

I haven't read the works of Kiev-born novelist Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967); Odessa-born poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966); or Nobel-Prize winning journalist Svetlana Alexievich (b. 1948) who lives in Belarus but was born in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. And there may be others.

Please tell me if I have missed out on reading any other important Ukrainian writers! I have already added Bulgakov to the list.

Other Famous Ukrainian-Born People

Quite a few people from Ukraine emigrated to the US or to Israel during the twentieth century. Among them are many highly accomplished individuals, both those who were educated in Ukraine, and those who received their educations elsewhere. 

Famous scientists who were born in Ukraine include the physicist George Gamow (1904-1968), born in Odessa, and aviation inventor Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972), born in Kyiv. 

A number of well-known Zionists and Israeli politicians were born in Ukraine, notably Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940), Golda Meir (1898-1978), and Natan Sharansky (b. 1948). The port of Odessa was the starting point for many of the earliest Israeli pioneers from Ukraine and Russia in the pre-World-War I era. In the 1980s and later, Israel was a refuge for many persecuted Jews from the Soviet Union including Ukraine.

Several famous economists were born in Ukraine. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), was born in Lviv, Ukraine. He was a leader of the Austrian school of economics, but fled the Nazis in 1940 and spent the rest of his career in American universities. Jacob Marshak (1898-1977) was born in Kyiv. He participated in the Russian Revolution, was later educated in Germany, fled to England to escape the Nazis, and finally became a prominent American academic.

What Next?

I have tried to think positively. That is crazy in these crazy times! As I write this, a Ukrainian nuclear power plant is on fire, a result of shelling by the Russian troops. Firefighters can't reach it. If the fire is not contained, the resulting disaster could be ten times as bad as Chernobyl, a Ukrainian site that the Russians already hold. I can't fathom how any humans could do this.