Over the years of independence, Ukrainian society has undergone drastic changes, which have, unsurprisingly, affected the cultural life in the country. Contemporary Ukrainian literature, young and dynamic as it is, is both a product and a driving vehicle of these transformations. Ukrainian culture, much like its society, is heterogeneous and multilingual. A significant phenomenon of the past two decades is the emergence of new authors who write in Russian. The situation in Ukraine is thus quite unique insofar as there has never been so many authors, and of such caliber, writing in Russian. Is it enough grounds to speak of the formation of Ukrainian literature in the Russian language? If so, what are its functions in the multicultural Ukrainian society? What is its scale? And is it possible to predict how these processes will unfold in the next few decades and in the current political climate?
Alexei Nikitin, born in Kyiv, Ukraine, is a prose writer and a member of the Ukrainian center of the International PEN-club. His books have been translated and published in Ukraine, Russia, United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland and the United States. Nikitin is the author of several novels and numerous short stories including Рука птицелова (The Bird Catcher’s Hand, 2000), awarded the Korolenko prize of the National Writers Union of Ukraine, for the best Ukrainian prose written in Russian; the novel Три жизни Сергея Бояршинова, банкира и художника (The Three Lives of Sergey Boyarshinov, a Banker and Artist, 2003), a collection of short prose Окно на базар (A Window to the Market, 2004), as well as Istemi (2011), Mahjong (2012), and Victory Park (2014). In 2014 Victory Park was awarded the Russian Prize, which honors extraordinary prose works written in Russian by authors not living in Russia. In 2016 the Ukrainian publishing house “Lyuta Sprava”, based in Kiev, published his short novel entitled Санитар с Институтской (A Paramedic from Institutska St.). The same year Druzhba Narodov, due to political reasons, published it under a different title Shkil-Mozdil. The setting for most of Nikitin’s writings is Kyiv, Ukraine where he lives.