"Who will answer for it?" Lina Kostenko made an unexpected statement about the beginning of the Great War

To spread: 95-year-old poet and writer Lina Kostenko, who is called a living classic of Ukrainian literature, after a long silence gave a spreading interview with Sergiy Zhadan. From this conversation comes a wide palette of memories and reflections on the literary process of the last hundred years and the people who created it, about the challenges that determine us, and the issues that remain.

In the first of the three parts of the interview recorded in 2024-2025 for Radio Charter, Lina analyzes the role of the Ukrainian nobility and intelligentsia, which became the service of the Russian Empire or vice versa-resisted her; It seeks to understand the sources of imperial thinking, and also reminds of the need to distinguish between shame and tragedy, reading in history carefully and carefully. "If we look at this war (Russian-Ukrainian-ed. ), There are some local defeats.

For example, Mariupol, where our garrison was forced to be captured. How much did it unite?" Asked Interviewer Sergey Zhadan at the poet. Lina Kostenko immediately specified that the Ukrainian military did not capture. Like, the defenders of the city executed the order of the commander -in -chief - Vladimir Zelensky. "Our garrison did not give up. Kostenko asked. Sergei Zhadan added that this issue is rhetorical, open and very painful. "This is terrible.