15 Quotes About Ukraine

Ukraine is an interesting country, to say the least. For many years, Ukraine served as a buffer between East and West. Then, in 1989, the Soviet Union broke apart, opening up the borders that had long been closed to westerners. Today, Ukraine is opening to the west Read more

What has changed since the fall of communism? It's now possible to travel freely throughout the country by land or air, and there are now several English-speaking bloggers writing about Ukrainian culture and history. From these perspectives it is possible to explore what makes this strange but beautiful country tick. We've gathered together some of our favorite quotes about Ukraine for your reading pleasure.

Here's a short list of some of our favorite quotes about Ukraine.

1
Peace is not so much a political mandate as it is a shared state of consciousness that remains elevated and intact only to the degree that those who value it volunteer their existence as living examples of the same... Peace ends with the unraveling of individual hope and the emergence of the will to worship violence as a healer of private and social dis-ease. Aberjhani
2
Як умру, Ñ‚о поховайÑ‚е Мене на могилі, Серед сÑ‚епу широкого, На Вкраїні милій, Щоб лани широкополі, І Дніпро, Ñ– кручі Було видно, було чуÑ‚и, Як реве ревучий. Як понесе з України У синєє море Кров ворожу.. оÑ‚ойді я І лани, Ñ– гори – Все покину Ñ– полину До самого бога МолиÑ‚ися.. а до Ñ‚ого Я не знаю бога. . Taras Shevchenko
3
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, historians have become both more accurate and more honest–fractionally more brave, one might say–about that 'other' cleansing of the regions and peoples that were ground to atoms between the upper and nether millstones of Hitlerism and Stalinism. One of the most objective chroniclers is Professor Timothy Snyder of Yale University. In his view, it is still 'Operation Reinhardt, ' or the planned destruction of Polish Jewry, that is to be considered as the centerpiece of what we commonly call the Holocaust, in which of the estimated 5.7 million Jewish dead, 'roughly three million were prewar Polish citizens.' We should not at all allow ourselves to forget the millions of non- Jewish citizens of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and other Slav territories who were also massacred. But for me the salient fact remains that anti- Semitism was the regnant, essential, organizing principle of all the other National Socialist race theories. It is thus not to be thought of as just one prejudice among many. Christopher Hitchens
4
Leave me, and go to another, but never stand alone Oliwier Ernest Brzezinski
5
That there is in this world neither brains, nor goodness, nor good sense, but only brute force. Bloodshed. Starvation. Death. That there was not the slightest hope not even a glimmer of hope, of justice being done. It would never happen. No one would ever do it. The world was just one big Babi Yar. And there two great forces had come up against each other and were striking against each other like hammer and anvil, and the wretched people were in between, with no way out; each individual wanted only to live and not be maltreated, to have something to eat, and yet they howled and screamed and in their fear they were grabbing at each other’s throats, while I, little blob of watery jelly, was sitting in the midst of this dark world. Why? What for? Who had done it all? There was nothing, after all, to hope for! Winter. Night. Anatoly Kuznetsov
6
Death wins nothing here, gnawing wings that amputate——then spread, lift up, fly. Aberjhani
7
Live your dreams, not your fears! A.Hume Albina Hume
8
Although they are often called cabarets, and occasionally there is even strip-dancing involved, you shouldn't associate them with merrymaking or extravaganza... Lola Smirnova
9
It is best if the guard is in love with America and wants to overawe the American by being a premium guard. This kind of guard thinks that he will encounter the American again one day in America, and that the American will offer to take him to a Chicago Bulls game, and buy him blue jeans and whitebread and delicate toilet paper. This guard dreams of speaking Englishwithout an accent and obtaining a wife with an unmalleable bosom. This guard will confess that he does not love where he lives. The other kind of guard is also in love with America, but he will hate the American for being an American. This is worst. This guard knows he will never go to America, and knows that he will never meet the American again. He will steal from the American, and terror the American, only to teach that he can. Jonathan Safran Foer
10
Eastward and westward storms are breaking, --great, ugly whirlwinds of hatred and blood and cruelty. I will not believe them inevitable. W.E.B. Du Bois
11
I remember the teacher telling us that Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, alongside Russia. “The Soviet Union is the largest and most glorious empire that the world has ever seen, ” the teacher lectured. “We’re all proud comrades. We’re all like brothers. We’re so lucky to be part of the greatest nation that has ever existed. We love our country and our country loves us like a mother loves her children. Carlito Sofer
12
Many young athletes joined the gangs instead of aspiring to gold medals in the Olympics. You could easily discern the kind of sport they did by their body shape and injuries. Well-built with a broken nose - a boxer. Broad shoulders with torn ears - a wrestler. Enormous muscles with little to no brain - a bodybuilder. Short with broad shoulders and a quadratic head - a weightlifter. Carlito Sofer
13
Last night I dreamt Moses and I were rowing underwater. We could breathe and talk to one another. We rowed past schools of fish and sea anemones and Moses named them for me.”– Jules Finn J. Dylan Yates
14
Mounting tensions in Eastern Europe send shivers down the spine. Barely a quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War we seem to be sliding inexorably towards another. Alex Morritt