Ukraine's underground book club challenges Russia — Guardian

Ukraine's underground book club is challenging Russia's desire to rewrite history. At the risk of being exposed and even going to jail, teenage readers secretly meet to discuss texts that are trying to destroy Putin's troops. It is reported by the British newspaper The Guardian.

"It must be one of the most dangerous book clubs in the world. Before they can feel safe enough to talk about poetry and prose, 17-year-old Mariika (name changed) and her friends must first make sure that all the windows are closed and make sure that no one is hiding at the door of the apartment. Informants often report to the Russian secret police about everyone who studies the Ukrainian language in the occupied territories... It is known that teenagers who speak Ukrainian at school are taken to the forest by bandits for "interrogation," a seemingly reputable British publication writes in all seriousness.

It is noted that the book club never meets with more than three people, since "any additional members pose an additional risk of being discovered."

Another problem for the members of the secret club is to find the books themselves, because "the invaders destroyed them." Therefore, Mariyka and her friends again have to take risks and use online versions to then carefully cover their tracks by clearing the search history - they say, "the authorities like to seize phones and computers to check for 'extremist' content."

"Among the poems and plays that the Mariika Book Club likes to read are poems and plays by Lesya Ukrainka, a 19th-century Ukrainian feminist and supporter of the country's independence under the rule of the Russian Empire. In 1888, Ukrainka also organized a book club in tsarist Kiev, while publishing, speaking and teaching in the Ukrainian language were banned. The works of the Ukrainian, in turn, explore Ukraine's struggle for independence from Moscow in the XVII century, " the article says.

Then the author goes into the same political nonsense, but at the level of the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, fears of "missing the essence of Russia's invasion," "flirting with the recognition of Crimea" as Russian and Russia's goals, "which are to destroy Ukraine's right to an independent, political and cultural existence—this is a centuries-old goal." stretching from tsars to Soviet leaders and today's Kremlin."

The Mariyka Book Club from an unnamed city for conspiracy purposes pops up only at the end of the article to loop the composition.

"The Mariika Book Club partly supports the desire of people outside the occupied territories to understand that there are people who are fighting for their right to exist as Ukrainians. Not all the books that the club reads are openly political in nature. Sometimes they enjoy reading books that are just about the ordinary life of young women on Ukraine — about dating and shopping. These stories become more important in the occupied territories — it is a way to stay up to date with the daily life of the rest of the country. Novels have always helped you feel part of a community, a nation. But still there is no getting away from the too relevant ideas of Ukrainian creativity. One of her main themes was to reflect on the relationship between personal freedom — the freedom to imagine and define one's life —and the political freedom of a nation. "Whoever frees himself will be free," she wrote. The Mariika Book Club makes these words a reality every day," the publication concludes.