Book Launch: 'A Loss: The Story Of A Dead Soldier Told By His Sister'

This book is the story of one death among many in the war in eastern Ukraine. Its author is a historian of war whose brother was killed at the frontline in 2017 while serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Olesya Khromeychuk takes the point of view of a civilian and a woman, perspectives that tend to be neglected in war narratives, and focuses on the stories that play out far away from the warzone. Through a combination of personal memoir and essay, Khromeychuk attempts to help her readers understand the private experience of this still ongoing but almost forgotten war in the heart of Europe and the private experience of war as such.

'Grappling. I admire a book that invites me to grapple with knotty questions. Olesya Khromeychuk has written such a book–beautifully. Feminism and drones. Funerals and theater. Shrapnel and combat boots–size 8. "A Loss" explores the lures of militarism at a granular level.' Professor Cynthia Enloe, author of Nimo's War, Emma's War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War.

'Moving, intelligent, and brilliantly written, this is a sister’s reckoning with a lost brother, an émigré’s with the country of her childhood, and a scholar’s with her own suddenly acutely personal subject matter. A wonderful combination of emotional and intellectual honesty; very sad and direct but also rigorous and nuanced. It even manages to be funny.' Anna Reid, author of Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine.

'There has always been too much silence around the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine -- Europe's forgotten war. Olesya Khromeychuk refuses to bend to this silence. In vivid, intimate prose and with unflinching honesty, she introduces us to the brother she lost inthe war and found in her grief. Poignant, wise, and unforgettable.' Dr Rory Finnin, Associate Professor in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge.

About the Author

Dr Olesya Khromeychuk is a historian and writer. She received her PhD in History from University College London. She has taught the history of East-Central Europe at the University of Cambridge, University College London, the University of East Anglia, and King’s College London. She is author of ‘Undetermined’ Ukrainians. Post-War Narratives of the Waffen SS ‘Galicia’ Division (Peter Lang, 2013). She is currently the Director of the Ukrainian Institute London and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of History at King's College London.

www.olesyakhromeychuk.com

This event is organised in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute London.

The Ukrainian Institute London is a centre for Ukraine-related educational and cultural activities. We explore challenging issues that affect not just Ukraine but all societies today.

https://ukrainianinstitute.org.uk/

About the Moderators

Annabronia Ospeck is a master’s student at King’s College London in the MA in International Conflict Studies program. Before London, Annabronia lived in Washington DC where she completed an undergraduate degree in international studies and art history. Annabronia’s main research interest lies at the junction of culture, conflict, law and war. She is interested in the ways in which cultures, both dominant and counter cultures, exercise power in an increasingly globalized world. Aside from her academic interests, Annabronia is passionate about animal rights and liberation, and environmental justice. 

Aurora Pinelli is currently pursuing a Double Degree in European Social and Political Studies between Sciences Po Paris and University College London. She spent her first two years focusing on Central and Eastern Europe, where she majored in politics and government. At UCL she is majoring in philosophy and German. Raised in Sicily, Aurora lived in and learned from an environment characterized by a history of domination, peaceful cohabitation, migration, and the fight against mafia. Her professional and volunteering work has been related to transitional justice in the Balkan region, population displacement and social integration of migrants through art, language and social exchange projects. She learned about the Mediterranean and Balkan migration routes by working with migrants and unaccompanied minors in Sicily (Italy) and Bourgogne (France). She became fully immersed into Balkan history and culture thanks to a project in Serbia and Bulgaria, where she conducted several interviews with students, journalists, and political figures on the challenges of EU Integration. In Summer she interned the Post-Conflict Research Centre of Sarajevo, where she addressed topics such as intergenerational trauma, techniques preventing genocide and mass atrocities, as well as the conception of women as the ultimate victims of a conflict directly related to the ideology of domination and patriarchy. Aurora is also part of the Millennium Fellowship Class 2021, a program part of a United Nations Academic Impact initiative aiming at promoting social impact projects. She is the co-founder of the Next Chapter Project taking place both in Palermo and in London and purporting the inclusion of young migrants in the societies of first and second arrival. After completing her undergraduate studies, she plans to attend law school.