A Conversation with Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine

Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, visited Harvard to mark the 50th anniversary of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI). Welcomed by Director of the Institute of Politics Setti Warren, introduced by HURI Director Serhii Plokhii, and moderated by Belfer Center Senior Fellow Karen Donfried, Zelenska’s address to the Harvard community explored the connection between scholarship and Ukraine’s fight for independence.

Alongside the Russo-Ukrainian war, there exists a parallel struggle: a battle of narratives. Russian domination of scholarly spaces has traditionally produced a monolithic perspective on Slavic studies. By investing in Ukrainian studies, academic institutions are fighting against this imperialistic vision. Through the work of establishments such as HURI, scholars, policymakers, and public citizens learn to recognize that the Slavic world is multifaceted, linguistically diverse, and culturally colorful. In the words of HURI director Serhii Plokhii, Zelenska’s visit acknowledges HURI’s past five decades of achievements, and helps launch its journey “for the next 50 years.”

While visiting the Widener Library and meeting university librarian Martha Whitehead, the First Lady donated books to Harvard’s Ukrainica collection, which is the largest collection of Ukrainian material outside of Europe. What makes Zelenska’s contribution unique is its context: three of the books were recovered after a Russian missile strike against the Kharkiv-based Factor Druk printing plant, Ukraine’s largest printing house. The attack killed seven staff members and destroyed a massive number of freshly published books. Existing as partly burnt evidence of Russian aggression, Zelenska’s gift commemorates the tragedy. She also donated the art album “Ukraine and Ukrainian’s,” published by the Ivan Honchar museum.

While addressing the Harvard community and discussing the destruction of the printing house, Zelenska said the “killing of books” was a “direct metaphor” for the carnage of war and imperialism. She compared the incident to the “killing of culture,” the “killing of science,” and ultimately, the daily killing of people. She referred to the missile strike as “dystopian,” and “something out of a Ray Bradbury story.”

Zelenska has maintained cultural preservation as a focal point of her advocacy. Her “Ukrainian Bookshelf” project involves the transfer of Ukrainian publications to the world’s leading libraries. She also started the initiative “Books without Borders,” which, according to Serhii Plokhii, printed and distributed over 260,000 Ukrainian books. The latter project was started to ensure that displaced Ukrainian children can still access literature from their native land.

On the occasion of the First Lady’s visit, HURI Books donated copies of its original publications to the Ukrainian Bookshelf project. Zelenska thanked Harvard for its work in preserving Ukraine’s besieged culture. “It is the same as saving a life… more than one life,” she declared in a speech at the Loeb house. “And to preserve a truth about one nation is to preserve the truth about the world.”

The First Lady noted that the Russian empire appropriates Ukraine’s classical writers and scientists, using them for propaganda purposes. This is referring to the Russian establishment’s tendency to expand its soft power, by way of mislabeling Ukrainian creatives and thinkers as Russian. “We need to fight to get our history back from the empire,” Zelenska said. Her eloquent statement goes as follows: “Many nations around the world have gone through a decolonization. This is our time. We need to wash the empire’s myths out of our history. This is a difficult job, but this is what we need to do to survive.”

Before the war, the First Lady promoted children's health, equal opportunities for Ukrainians, and cultural diplomacy. After the invasion, her work pivoted, while still maintaining a core focus on child welfare. She has extensively advocated for protecting the present and future of Ukraine’s youngest members. This incorporates supporting humanitarian aid, such as evacuating children with disabilities from war zones. She has also assisted in sourcing medical equipment for children’s hospitals, such as incubators. Her educational initiatives involve building shelters in schools and kindergartens, as well as providing laptops and tablets in regions where it is impossible for children to physically attend school. She has spoken about supporting foster families, including building homes of sufficient size to accommodate several children.

Zelenska’s agenda regarding child safety is not limited to the context of war. In her address, the First Lady pointed out that even within the family unit, domestic violence and kidnapping of children can take place. Furthermore, the digital world provides opportunities for cyberbullying and the exploitation of children for cybercrimes. Environmentalism is also a part of the picture, as governments consider the type of world they leave for the next generation. Though these concerns exist even in peacetime, war exacerbates the problems. For example, war destroys environmentally protected areas, wiping out endangered flora and fauna.

The Ukrainian government has treated the protection of children not simply as a matter of physical safety, but also as an issue of psychological wellbeing. Zelenska has been a powerful ally in the fight for mental health awareness, particularly when it comes to the rehabilitation of traumatized children. While speaking to the Harvard community, she mentioned seeking donors for an ambitious mental health initiative targeted toward children, adolescents, and young people. The First Lady said the project is expected to last a few years, and hopes that in the end, “it will not be related to the war.” Zelenska concluded that Ukraine’s methods of protecting children during wartime may set a model for other countries in crisis.

In a public conversation with Zelenska, Karen Donfried reflected on the unusual role of First Ladies. Noting that the position doesn’t necessarily come with formal power, Donfried commended Ukraine’s First Lady for being an “example of the effectiveness of soft power.” She emphasized how Zelenska had organized annual summits for first ladies and gentlemen to discuss issues, share experiences, and elevate one another’s voices.

In this same spirit of encouraging discourse, the First Lady met with university leadership to discuss HURI’s work, and the need to support Ukrainian studies. This involved speaking with University Marshal Katherine O’Dair, Vice Provost for International Affairs Mark Elliott, FAS Dean Hopi Hoekstra, and Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein. Scholarly establishments such as HURI are tasked with providing information about history, literature, culture, and national identity. HURI itself was founded by Omeljan Pritsak and Ihor Ševčenko at a time when Ukrainian studies within the Slavic world were stifled by Russian imperialism and dogmatism. In this way, institutions such as HURI bear responsibility for informing the public about Ukraine, its people, and its struggle.

After the Loeb house address, HURI hosted a private meeting at the Harvard Faculty Club, where the First Lady, faculty, scholars, and donors could talk about global Ukrainian studies. This included discussing the expansion of Ukrainian studies programs at American universities.

HURI is proud to be a part of the Global Coalition of Ukrainian Studies, which Zelenska supports. The Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Foundation for Support of Education, Science and Sports, the Ukrainian Institute, and the Office of the Crimean Platform participated in creating this joint initiative.

The goal of the project is to get educational centers around the world to spread knowledge about Ukraine. Zelenska impressed upon the Harvard community the need to bring Crimean studies into this conversation. “Crimean Tatars have earned the right to have an honest history,” she said. As Ukraine fights for its independence, accurate information is necessary to combat Russian propaganda. Or, as the First Lady put it, in a “world of fakes and disinformation, the truth is needed.” Bringing the topic back to the youth, Zelenska referred to students as the “intellectual hope for the world.”

Suggesting that the 21st century ought to be a progressive age, the First Lady observed that Russia behaves like a “rusty time machine, dragging us back to the past.” She pointed to the empire’s totalitarian control of civil society, its mass violence against civilians, its propaganda machine, and the “powerlessness of the international community.” She warned the crowd that any unpunished crime would undermine the common world order, implying that threats to Ukraine are threats to civilization at large.

The First Lady cautioned the Harvard community about the futility of appeasing aggressors such as Russia. She said it simply gives them more time to launch further attacks: “We don’t want the enemy to catch their breath.” Though she acknowledged that the war would end in negotiations, she qualified that the terms must be dictated by Ukrainians. Zelenska said this was necessary for Ukraine to reassert its borders, and by doing so, protect its children from needing to fight in future conflicts.

Zelenska’s address to the Harvard community was co-sponsored by the Institute of Politics and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. HURI also extends a special thank you to the First Lady's team and the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, who made this visit possible, and to our colleagues at the Ukrainian Institute in Kyiv, who lay the groundwork for this momentous occasion.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE (English translation)

WATCH ON YOUTUBE (Original Ukrainian)