#  Between Oblivion and Remembrance: How Ukrainian Literature Reflected on the Holocaust in the 1940s–1960s 

 



    ![Image: Detail of Vasyl Ovchinnikov, Road of the doomed, 1947 from his Babyn Yar Triptych](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2025-04/6.png?itok=AKexyR2u) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **July 10, 2024** 

 05:00PM - 06:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS-Knafel/North Building, 3rd Floor, Room K-354, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138**  



 

 [ Watch on YouTube arrow\_circle\_right ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Uo9z5Exls&ab_channel=HarvardUkrainianResearchInstitute%28HURI%29) 

 



 

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A lecture by **Hanna Protasova**, Ukrainian literary scholar and journalist, PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature at Western University, Canada

Moderated by [**Serhiy Bilenky**](https://ukrainianstudies.org/serhiy-bilenky/), Research Associate at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Editor-In-Chief of *East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies,* and Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI)

**IN-PERSON and ONLINE** via Zoom Webinar (live). Registration is required to attend online.

## About the Lecture

The lecture focuses on the representation of the Holocaust in Soviet Ukrainian and Ukrainian émigré fiction of the 1940s – 1960s. Witnessing the Holocaust was an integral part of the Ukrainian experience in World War II, over the course of which 1.5 million Jews perished in what is now known as “the Holocaust by bullets”. Despite the official Soviet policy to refer to the victims of the Nazis as “peaceful Soviet people” and thus to obscure the experience of the Jews in occupied territories, Ukrainian writers spoke directly about the tragedy of the Holocaust. However, was there a substantial difference between the literary texts written in Soviet Ukraine and those written in post-war emigration? By analyzing Soviet Ukrainian (Varvara Cherednychenko, Iurii Smolych, Iurii Ianovskyi, and Mykola Bazhan) and postwar émigré (Iurii Klen, Eva Biss) fiction, the lecture reveals the complexity of the issue of Holocaust representation in postwar writings and shows how the authors oscillated between compassion and indifference towards their neighbors – thus, between remembrance and oblivion.

## About the Speaker

   ![Hanna Protasova](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/huri/files/protasova.jpg?itok=6UEAGtA-) 

 

Hanna Protasova (1984) is a Ukrainian literary scholar and journalist. In 2021, she earned her candidate of sciences degree from the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with specialization in Ukrainian literary modernism and Ukrainian émigré literature. She is currently a second-year PhD student in Comparative Literature in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Western University (London, Canada). She holds two MA degrees: one in Slavic Studies (University of Victoria, Canada, 2023) and another one in Theory and History of Literature (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine, 2007). Her second doctoral dissertation focuses on the Holocaust representation and Holocaust memory in Ukrainian fiction and, where applicable, non-fiction beginning from the mid-1940s and all the way to the 2020s. Hanna is a 2018 alum of the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI).

*This event is organized by Harvard's* [*Ukrainian Research Institute*](https://huri.harvard.edu/) *(HURI) as part of the HUSI Public Lecture Series.*

*Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Megan Duncan Smith, HURI Programs Coordinator, at* [*duncansmith@fas.harvard.edu*](mailto:duncansmith@fas.harvard.edu) *at least two weeks in advance of the session.*

*Watch videos of past HURI events on our* [*YouTube Channel*](https://www.youtube.com/user/huriyt) *and* [*subscribe*](https://web.lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/lists/huri-events-list.lists.fas.harvard.edu/) *to our email list to receive announcements about events and other activities.*



 

 



 

 See also:- [ HUSI Public Lecture ](/event-type/husi-public-lecture)
- [ Holocaust Studies ](/fields-expertise/holocaust-studies)
- [ Literature ](/fields-expertise/literature)
- [ Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute ](/program/harvard-ukrainian-summer-institute)
- [ 2024 ](/husi-year/2024)
 
 

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