#  Russia’s Denial of Ukraine: Letters and Contested Memory 

 



    ![Image showing a stack of letters](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2025-03/2024.10.23_shpyliova-1-1200x600-web-email_1.png?h=c611e27e&itok=eTeSzhmt) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 23, 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://youtube.com/live/oxT2pIXjNxU) 

 



 

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A book talk by [**Dr. Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed**](https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/people/nataliya-shpylova-saeed), Preceptor in Ukrainian, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University.

Moderated by [**Bohdan Tokarskyi**](https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/people/bohdan-tokarskyi), Assistant Professor of Ukrainian Literature and Culture, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Harvard University.

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

## About the Book

   ![Russia’s Denial of Ukraine Letters and Contested Memory. Book cover](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/huri/files/contested_memory_cover.jpg?itok=BaBlMWU-) 

 

In 2022, Russia heightened its initial 2014 assault and launched its imperialist full-scale war against Ukraine. The Kremlin continued to perpetrate its denial of Ukrainians as a nation distinct from the Russians. *Russia’s Denial of Ukraine: Letters and Contested Memory* explores the gradual and long-lasting integration of contested memory in the cultural memory of Ukraine. It emphasizes how narratives, which formed the contested memory in the nineteenth century, appeared to come to the fore with the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian War. At the same time, it offers the theoretical premise for exploring contested memory, social forgetting, and remembering. The ambivalent nature of contested memory manifests in weakening national aspirations and strengthening resilience and resistance against violence. Contested memory nuances the discussion of undermining a metropolitan center and dismantling oppression. Letters reveal public discourses shaped by cultural and political developments centering on the Ukrainians’ endeavors to remember themselves as a nation distinct from the Russians. Epistolary expressions by Mykola Hohol, Taras Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, and Volodymyr Vynnychenko illustrate the circulation of contested memory sponsored and supported in many ways by Russia. Writers comment on their Ukrainianness and situate themselves in Ukraine’s entangled past in which empires clash and fall apart. \[[Source](https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666941814/Russia%E2%80%99s-Denial-of-Ukraine-Letters-and-Contested-Memory)\]


##   
About the Speaker

   ![Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/huri/files/shpylovasaeed_nataliya.jpg?itok=2jg-7RL-) 

 

Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed teaches Ukrainian at Harvard University and runs the Ukrainian language program in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. She holds a PhD in Slavic studies from Indiana University (2022) and a PhD in American Literature from the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2007). She has previously taught at Colgate University, Indiana University, University of Maine, and Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University.

Dr. Shpylova-Saeed’s research interest is memory studies, particularly contested memory with a focus on Ukraine and Russia. Her work has been published in journals and newspapers, including *The Ukrainian Weekly*, *Euromaidan Press*, *Times Higher Education*, *Small War Journal*, *PolitArena*, and *Forum for Ukrainian Studies*. Dr. Shpylova-Saeed is the author of *Russia’s Denial of Ukraine: Letters and Contested Memory* (Lexington Books Press, 2024). Her current research project “Russia’s Memory of the Past: The War Against Ukraine and the Forgotten Future” focuses on the intricate mnemonic matrix utilized by the Kremlin since the early 2000s to shape the collective memory in Russia that comfortably accepts the denial of Ukraine’s sovereignty and justifies the eradication of Ukraine and Ukrainian identity as Russia’s self-defense measure.

Dr. Shpylova-Saeed is an H-Ukraine review editor and a host on the New Books Network (Ukrainian Studies, East European Studies, and Literary Studies channels). As a series editor, she works with Arrowsmith Press on an anthology of contemporary Crimean Tatar literature forthcoming in 2025.

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*This event is organized by Harvard's* [*Ukrainian Research Institute*](https://huri.harvard.edu/) *(HURI) as part of the Seminar in Ukrainian Studies event series. and co-sponsored by* [*Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures*](https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/)*.*

*Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Hanna Leliv, HURI Events Logistics Coordinator, at* [*hleliv@fas.harvard.edu*](mailto:hleliv@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:- [ Book Talk ](/event-type/book-talk)
- [ Seminar in Ukrainian Studies ](/event-type/seminar-ukrainian-studies)
- [ History ](/fields-expertise/history)
- [ Memory Studies ](/fields-expertise/memory-studies)
- [ Modern History ](/fields-expertise/modern-history)
- [ Russia-Ukraine War ](/fields-expertise/russia-ukraine-war)
 
 

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