Behind the Scenes of the Empire

In this 360-page Ukrainian-language study, Professor Vira Aheieva—Shevchenko Prize laureate and feminist scholar—analyzes centuries of Ukrainian-Russian relations through the lens of anti-colonial discourse. Tracing voices from Kotliarevsky and the Kharkiv romantics to modernism and statehood, she reveals how Russian imperialism appropriated Ukrainian achievements and how domestic literature resisted by affirming cultural identity. Aheieva’s rigorous archival research and cultural critique offer a powerful revision of patriarchal narratives and underscore the enduring struggle for collective memory