Writing in The Millions, Timothy Walsh explores the diversity of Ukrainian literature from Anton Chekhov, Joseph Conrad and Nicolai Gogol to Isaac Babel, Sholem Aleichem, Mikhail Bulgakov and Vasily Grossman; and then to the modern day:
When Russia invaded Ukraine one year ago, the region of Sumy, just northeast of Kyiv, came under intense bombardment, endangering the house where Anton Chekhov spent two halcyon summers working on his play The Wood Demon, as well as several short stories. The house had been turned into a museum in 1960 and contained many irreplaceable artifacts, including Chekhov’s medical instruments and a portrait of Chekhov painted by his brother Nikolay…