Oles Ulianenko. Stalinka

Oles Ulianenko

Work proposed for translation:

Stalinka 
A novel (1994)
Length: 160 pp.
Copyright: Contact: filmplemya@gmail.com

Oles Ulianenko (real name Oleksandr Ulianov, 1962–2010) after graduating from school studied at a medical school, worked as an electrician. Then he served for two years in the airborne troops of the Soviet Army: first in the GDR, then participated in the war in Afghanistan. Combat experience had a significant impact on him, this war became the subject of two of his stories. After demobilization, he travelled around Russia for some time: he visited Yakutia, lived in the Leningrad punk environment. Later he returned to Ukraine, settled in Kyiv, where he led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, while simultaneously writing fiction. Ulianenko’s first significant work was the novel Stalinka, published in 1994. In his texts, the writer naturalistically depicted the life of the lower social classes, raised political and social issues, while at the same time rising to the philosophical and religious levels of understanding. Despite their niche nature, Ulianenko’s works are among the most iconic texts of Ukrainian literature of the 1990s and 2000s. Stalinka has been translated into Polish and English, Ulianenko’s other novels have been translated into Polish and Czech.

Stalinka is not only a district of Kyiv, the main place of events in the novel, but also a vivid image of the totalitarian system. The novel tells about how the rule of the Soviet system led to the moral degeneration of a society that, having lost its moral guidelines and taking the laws of the Stalinist regime as a model, plunges into the abyss of sin and receives punishment for this. The novel is based on two storylines. One tells about the degeneration of the Piskariov family, which begins with the grandfather — a loyal Stalinist, a former employee of the Soviet secret service. The greatest attention among the family members is focused on the grandson Horik, who succumbs to the influence of the ruling system and chooses the path of violence, becoming a physical and moral monster. The second storyline tells about the fate of Lord-Jonah, who finds the strength to go through the difficult path of going beyond inhumanity and regains spiritual integrity. The novel Stalinka brilliantly depicts a society that is declining due to the influence of the Soviet totalitarian system, creating vivid images of people who make different choices in these circumstances.