On the Independence of Ukraine

On the Independence of Ukraine (Russian: На независимость Украины) is a controversial poem by Joseph Brodsky written in the early 1990s, on the occasion of the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Ukraine and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In the poem, Brodsky, in angry and insulting words expressed his feelings about the breach between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. The poem was never officially published; Brodsky himself read it in public only a few times.[1][2][3][4][5] Known only from private manuscripts, it received publicity after it was published by Ukrainian nationalists as a demonstration of Brodsky's Russian nationalist views.[4]

For quite some time, the authorship of the poem was disputed due to striking differences in style, e.g., by human rights activist Alexander Daniel, though Daniel admitted his mistake.[6] Eventually, a video of Brodsky's public reading of the poem in the Palo Alto Jewish community center on October 30, 1992 was published online by a Boris Vladimirsky.[7]

References
  1. Grudzińska-Gross, Irena (2009). Czeslaw Milosz and Joseph Brodsky: Fellowship of Poets. New Heaven: Yale University Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 978-0300149371.
  2. Loseff, Lev (2012). Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life. Translated by Miller, Jane Ann. New Heaven: Yale University Press. pp. 241–242. ISBN 978-0300181609.
  3. Haven, Cynthia (23 May 2011). "If we have all this here, why do we need Europe?". The Book Haven. Stanford University. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  4. Gessen, Keith (21 August 2011). "A Note on Brodsky and Ukraine". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  5. Bertelsen, Olga (2015). "Joseph Brodsky's Imperial Consciousness" (PDF). Scripta Historica. Columbia University. 21: 263–289. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-03-31.
  6. Daniel, Alexander (11 February 2005). "Тщета гуманитарного знания" [The Vanity of Human Knowledge] (in Russian). Polit. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  7. "Впервые доказано авторство "На независимость Украины" Бродского" [For the first time, authorship of Brodsky's 'Independence of Ukraine'] (in Russian). Colta. 9 April 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
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