Keeping Memory Alive: INDEX at the 32nd Lviv BookForum

This year’s BookForum, centred around the theme “Resilience and Endurance,” featured the Living Memory cluster curated by INDEX. It focused on memory that is not linear, but layered and intergenerational. The cluster included 18 events, from book launches and discussions to literary readings, seven of which involved the INDEX team and community.

All the events explored how we understand and work with the past, while always turning back to consider how we handle memory today and how we can make better use of it in the future.

”In a sense, culture is one of the main targets of this war, because without culture there would be no "problems" — no identity, no war,” — noted historian Radomyr Mokryk during the first panel of the cluster.

This is why every moment of this war must be documented to stop the enemy from erasing its memory and to give us a chance to look back and understand it, as highlighted in a discussion between Yevhen Shybalov, participant of INDEX’s Veteran Programme, and Tomica Bajsic, writer and veteran of the Croatian War of Independence.

“If we imagine our collective memory as a library, there’s already an empty shelf labelled ‘War 2014–2022.’ Something has to stand there. Such an experience as war cannot simply pass without leaving a trace in our collective national memory,” noted Yevhen Shybalov.

The opportunities to document through literature are greater now than they have been in a century, even greater than earlier in this one. We explored how Ukrainian literature is seen around the world, how we see it ourselves, and the potential of our publishing market at the discussion featuring Dr Fiona Greenland, researcher and INDEX’s Associate Fellow in July and August, and Natalie Nougayrède, former editor-in-chief of Le Monde and INDEX Fellow 2024.

“Until 2013, over 70% of books in Ukraine were published in Russian, with only around 20% in Ukrainian. Today, the situation is completely different, and the publishing market is developing well, despite the war. Most importantly, this change has happened in a remarkably short time,” said Fiona Greenland.

This change did not occur on its own. It reflects centuries of direct and indirect influence from Russia. The reality of oppression is especially clear in Ukrainian Crimea, which has been under Russian occupation for more than eleven years now.

“It is difficult for Crimea to remain visible in the information space as it was before the full-scale invasion. This is understandable. If just a few kilometres away families are being killed by missile strikes, it is hard for us to follow how people are being arrested and imprisoned elsewhere in Crimea. But it is very important to do so, because the incidents are often shocking. For example, in Sevastopol, a person was detained on charges of treason and sentenced to 17 years, their trial lasting only three hours,” said Crimean journalist Rustem Khalilov at the presentation of Free Voices of Crimea, an anthology co-edited by INDEX programme coordinator Olesya Yaremchuk.

The closing event of the Resilience and Endurance cluster featured a discussion about the challenge of Ukraine remaining visible to the international community. At a time when culture doubles as a shield, and partners declare their support, Ukraine still has to compete for attention and resources.

Addressing this matter, INDEX’s Sasha Dovzhyk said: 

“People cannot keep creating under shelling, waiting for their loved ones to return from the front or captivity, without even the basic support they can rely on. Our culture here is endangered by such everyday realities as the precarity of our environment. We need to address our international partners, whose resources are far greater. We must make it clear that our culture is not decoration or entertainment — it is one of the pillars of security, both our own and global.”