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| A Craftsman of Russian Verse Helps Ukraine Find Its New Voice | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| ODESSA, UKRAINE — EVERY morning at 6, Boris Khersonsky turns on the computer in his dacha. Under the gaze of the dusky icons covering the walls, one of Ukraine’s most famous literary bloggers — a 64-year-old psychiatrist, former Soviet dissident and acclaimed poet — logs onto Facebook to conduct what has become something of a daily symposium on the identity of the new Ukraine. | ODESSA, UKRAINE — EVERY morning at 6, Boris Khersonsky turns on the computer in his dacha. Under the gaze of the dusky icons covering the walls, one of Ukraine’s most famous literary bloggers — a 64-year-old psychiatrist, former Soviet dissident and acclaimed poet — logs onto Facebook to conduct what has become something of a daily symposium on the identity of the new Ukraine. |
| There, in political essays, poems, jokes and surreal diary entries where the only individual whose psychological health can be trusted is a talking cat, Dr. Khersonsky makes his case. “Ukraine can only become a whole state by admitting its differences,” he said. “Admitting, and admiring.” | There, in political essays, poems, jokes and surreal diary entries where the only individual whose psychological health can be trusted is a talking cat, Dr. Khersonsky makes his case. “Ukraine can only become a whole state by admitting its differences,” he said. “Admitting, and admiring.” |
| A tall, white-haired man who radiates calm, Dr. Khersonsky — an increasingly influential voice in Ukraine’s intellectual circles — has for years advocated moving away from the idea that Ukrainian nationality should be determined by ethnicity. | A tall, white-haired man who radiates calm, Dr. Khersonsky — an increasingly influential voice in Ukraine’s intellectual circles — has for years advocated moving away from the idea that Ukrainian nationality should be determined by ethnicity. |
| But watching the pro-European protests in 2013 in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, and the change in leadership in 2014, he became increasingly aware of something else. While his mother tongue, the bulk of his cultural heritage and most of his artistic fame have come from Russia, he felt he was Ukrainian at heart. | But watching the pro-European protests in 2013 in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, and the change in leadership in 2014, he became increasingly aware of something else. While his mother tongue, the bulk of his cultural heritage and most of his artistic fame have come from Russia, he felt he was Ukrainian at heart. |
| Now, say many, the poet, who made a name for himself at age 55 with a series of verses tracing the fate of his Jewish family over five generations in Odessa, has come to embody a new kind of Ukrainian citizenship. “He’s a very important figure because of his mixed background,” said Iryna Slavinska, literary critic at Ukrainska Pravda. “He is Ukrainian, in the modern sense. It doesn’t depend on the language you speak. It’s not like in the Soviet passport, where you were Russian or Ukrainian or Jewish. It’s your choice.” | |
| In Ukraine, added Ms. Slavinska, much debate takes place on social media platforms. Online, writers exchange poems, news and opinions as they grapple with current political events. However, traditionally these conversations have been balkanized — with a clear divide along language lines. Fellow poets credit Dr. Khersonsky with being the first and most important Russian-language poet to reach across the aisle. | In Ukraine, added Ms. Slavinska, much debate takes place on social media platforms. Online, writers exchange poems, news and opinions as they grapple with current political events. However, traditionally these conversations have been balkanized — with a clear divide along language lines. Fellow poets credit Dr. Khersonsky with being the first and most important Russian-language poet to reach across the aisle. |
| Now he has struck up collaborations with prominent Ukrainian-language poets to translate one another’s poetry. “It’s very important for me, that we come together,” said Serhiy Zhadan, a Ukrainian-language poet who has worked with Dr. Khersonsky. “Everyone who writes in Ukraine is a Ukrainian poet. Also if they write in Russian.” | |
| A generation older than most of the blogging Ukrainian literati, Dr. Khersonsky traces some of his sang-froid in the face of death threats and the recent, victimless bombing of his officially registered apartment to experience. “Terrible things happened to members of my family, and it really called me to justice,” he said. “Not only my experience, but the experience of my father and my grandfather.” | A generation older than most of the blogging Ukrainian literati, Dr. Khersonsky traces some of his sang-froid in the face of death threats and the recent, victimless bombing of his officially registered apartment to experience. “Terrible things happened to members of my family, and it really called me to justice,” he said. “Not only my experience, but the experience of my father and my grandfather.” |
| BORN in 1950, Dr. Khersonsky has spent most of his life in Odessa, a city on the Black Sea known for its humor, literature and multicultural tradition, as well as a once-thriving Jewish community that just after World War I made up nearly half the population. | BORN in 1950, Dr. Khersonsky has spent most of his life in Odessa, a city on the Black Sea known for its humor, literature and multicultural tradition, as well as a once-thriving Jewish community that just after World War I made up nearly half the population. |
| Dr. Khersonsky’s family suffered enormous losses during the Holocaust. But silence surrounded the topic, in both political and private life. Growing up, he had little notion of this family legacy. “I was a normal boy of Jewish doctors,” he said. “Ours was a completely assimilated Jewish family, without any traditions.” | Dr. Khersonsky’s family suffered enormous losses during the Holocaust. But silence surrounded the topic, in both political and private life. Growing up, he had little notion of this family legacy. “I was a normal boy of Jewish doctors,” he said. “Ours was a completely assimilated Jewish family, without any traditions.” |
| Soviet anti-Semitism was a fact of life, however. When he was 5, the K.G.B. picked up his grandfather, a neurologist. Released the next day, the doctor suffered a stroke that left him unable to read or speak. In a poem, Dr. Khersonsky wrote: | Soviet anti-Semitism was a fact of life, however. When he was 5, the K.G.B. picked up his grandfather, a neurologist. Released the next day, the doctor suffered a stroke that left him unable to read or speak. In a poem, Dr. Khersonsky wrote: |
| He ... has already been relieved | He ... has already been relieved |
| of his position as a way of combating | of his position as a way of combating |
| Jewish pre-eminence in science, | Jewish pre-eminence in science, |
| and lives in perpetual fear of arrest. | and lives in perpetual fear of arrest. |
| Dr. Khersonsky, who said he was always a good student, secured a spot in medical school despite an unofficial 2 percent admission quota for Jews. When he was caught telling anti-Soviet jokes in his first year, though, he risked expulsion. In a stroke of luck, Dr. Khersonsky said he was saved when he ran into the head of the school’s Communist youth organization at an Orthodox Church service. “I shouldn’t have been there,” he said. “But he doubly shouldn’t have been there.” | Dr. Khersonsky, who said he was always a good student, secured a spot in medical school despite an unofficial 2 percent admission quota for Jews. When he was caught telling anti-Soviet jokes in his first year, though, he risked expulsion. In a stroke of luck, Dr. Khersonsky said he was saved when he ran into the head of the school’s Communist youth organization at an Orthodox Church service. “I shouldn’t have been there,” he said. “But he doubly shouldn’t have been there.” |
| Fascinated by the Orthodox religious tradition, Dr. Khersonsky was eventually baptized by a dissident priest. While he said he now felt distant from the church, his poetry is rich in biblical symbolism, often delving into issues of morality, love and good and evil. | Fascinated by the Orthodox religious tradition, Dr. Khersonsky was eventually baptized by a dissident priest. While he said he now felt distant from the church, his poetry is rich in biblical symbolism, often delving into issues of morality, love and good and evil. |
| Last May during a demonstration in Odessa, Dr. Khersonsky surprised himself by ordering his taxi to drop him and his wife at the scene of deadly street fighting between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian groups. Mixing with the crowd, they saw masked snipers and chain-wielding hooligans, talked to participants and witnessed a fire that killed more than 40 pro-Russian demonstrators. He called it a tragedy. | Last May during a demonstration in Odessa, Dr. Khersonsky surprised himself by ordering his taxi to drop him and his wife at the scene of deadly street fighting between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian groups. Mixing with the crowd, they saw masked snipers and chain-wielding hooligans, talked to participants and witnessed a fire that killed more than 40 pro-Russian demonstrators. He called it a tragedy. |
| But, he said, risk-taking has always been a personality trait. Shortly after getting his degree in psychiatry, for example, he got a job at the Odessa Mental Health Hospital No. 1. Dr. Khersonsky collected information about dissidents wrongly incarcerated at the hospital on charges of being mentally ill. He said he passed on information to an underground publishing group for two years before a hospitalized acquaintance accidentally gave him away. | But, he said, risk-taking has always been a personality trait. Shortly after getting his degree in psychiatry, for example, he got a job at the Odessa Mental Health Hospital No. 1. Dr. Khersonsky collected information about dissidents wrongly incarcerated at the hospital on charges of being mentally ill. He said he passed on information to an underground publishing group for two years before a hospitalized acquaintance accidentally gave him away. |
| Dr. Khersonsky was in his 30s before he learned that more than 42 members of his parents’ families, including a respected Yiddish poet on his mother’s side, died in the Holocaust. Perestroika was in effect then, and Dr. Khersonsky began writing poems about these long-lost relatives — fleeting glimpses into the lives and fates of Rachel, Robert, Moses and the beautiful Shulamith. “Without perestroika, I still would have written it,” he said, but he would not have thought of publishing the poetry. | Dr. Khersonsky was in his 30s before he learned that more than 42 members of his parents’ families, including a respected Yiddish poet on his mother’s side, died in the Holocaust. Perestroika was in effect then, and Dr. Khersonsky began writing poems about these long-lost relatives — fleeting glimpses into the lives and fates of Rachel, Robert, Moses and the beautiful Shulamith. “Without perestroika, I still would have written it,” he said, but he would not have thought of publishing the poetry. |
| Published in Moscow as a collection called “Family Album,” in 2006, those poems eventually made him famous. | Published in Moscow as a collection called “Family Album,” in 2006, those poems eventually made him famous. |
| YOUNGER Ukrainian intellectuals look not only to Dr. Khersonsky’s experiences as a Soviet dissident for guidance, but also to his experiences with systemic collapse. While he said he initially welcomed capitalism, the economic turmoil that followed Ukraine’s independence was a disappointment. “What we received was a criminal capitalism,” he said. | YOUNGER Ukrainian intellectuals look not only to Dr. Khersonsky’s experiences as a Soviet dissident for guidance, but also to his experiences with systemic collapse. While he said he initially welcomed capitalism, the economic turmoil that followed Ukraine’s independence was a disappointment. “What we received was a criminal capitalism,” he said. |
| In 1992, to escape the dire economic situation, his parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece — Yelena Akhtiorskaya, now an American writer — emigrated to the United States. Dr. Khersonsky, who had a young son and daughter, thought seriously of joining them. But he feared he would be unable to continue working as a psychiatrist. | In 1992, to escape the dire economic situation, his parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece — Yelena Akhtiorskaya, now an American writer — emigrated to the United States. Dr. Khersonsky, who had a young son and daughter, thought seriously of joining them. But he feared he would be unable to continue working as a psychiatrist. |
| Like Pasha, the main character in Ms. Akhtiorskaya’s well-received debut novel, “Panic in a Suitcase,” published last year, Dr. Khersonsky ultimately decided not to trade Odessa for Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. | Like Pasha, the main character in Ms. Akhtiorskaya’s well-received debut novel, “Panic in a Suitcase,” published last year, Dr. Khersonsky ultimately decided not to trade Odessa for Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. |
| “We emigrated without even getting out of bed,” he wrote, in one poem, of remaining in Odessa as friends, family, and most of the city’s Jews left. But Dr. Khersonsky, who believes Ukraine’s war with Russia is lost, hopes political turmoil will not force him to leave the country. | “We emigrated without even getting out of bed,” he wrote, in one poem, of remaining in Odessa as friends, family, and most of the city’s Jews left. But Dr. Khersonsky, who believes Ukraine’s war with Russia is lost, hopes political turmoil will not force him to leave the country. |
| In the meantime, his work as a psychiatrist — a dark-red velvet couch sits in the corner of the dacha for patients — helps keep him calm. | In the meantime, his work as a psychiatrist — a dark-red velvet couch sits in the corner of the dacha for patients — helps keep him calm. |
| After taking a call from a pro bono client — a woman who fled the fighting in Donetsk — Dr. Khersonsky said that if the opportunity arose, he would be happy to psychoanalyze his country. | After taking a call from a pro bono client — a woman who fled the fighting in Donetsk — Dr. Khersonsky said that if the opportunity arose, he would be happy to psychoanalyze his country. |
| “If Ukraine came to lie on my couch, I would say, ‘You need a long process of integration,’” he said. “I might also tell her she needs to develop a better sense of reality. And of course I will remind her she should visit me twice a week for one hour. I won’t charge her much, because of her financial difficulties.” | “If Ukraine came to lie on my couch, I would say, ‘You need a long process of integration,’” he said. “I might also tell her she needs to develop a better sense of reality. And of course I will remind her she should visit me twice a week for one hour. I won’t charge her much, because of her financial difficulties.” |