Contemporary Crimean Tatar Poetry and Fiction

Though often in the headlines, the ancient land of Crimea remains something of a terra incognita to most. A mythic space with an enchanted landscape, it appears in Herodotus, features in fiction, and offers the backdrop to "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Site of clashes between Russia, Britain, France and Turkey in the 19th century, in the 20th it served as host to the international peace conference at Yalta which forged a new world order following the Second World War. Lost in the struggle between the so-called "Great Powers" has been the story of its indigenous population.

Following Stalin's forced deportations in 1944, Crimea became, for the first time in eight hundred years, a land without Crimean Tatars. The dissolution of the Soviet Union offered a reprieve under Ukrainian rule. The Russian occupation of 2014 once again turned the Crimean Tatars into strangers in their own home. Nevertheless, the spirit of resistance endures. Literature has become, as it is elsewhere, a fundamental instrument in the struggle for cultural survival.

This event introduces the first ever English-language anthology of contemporary Crimean Tatar poetry and prose. The volume encapsulates the story of indigenous resistance to injustice, violence, humiliation, and eradication as chronicled by those who continue to endure it.

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This event is organized by Arrowsmith Press and co-sponsored by The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University and the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University.