His first poetry assortment at nineteen, his second at twenty-two, then a set of award-winning prose, at twenty-five – the geography of Artur Dron’s life is already exceptional. Born and raised in Pidmykhailivtsi within the Ivano-Frankivsk area, he studied on the Ivan Franko Nationwide College of Lviv. Then the beginning of the full-scale invasion interrupted his journalism Grasp’s research; Dron grew to become a serviceman, with the decision signal ‘David’, after the biblical combatant of Goliath, within the one hundred and twenty fifth Territorial Defence Brigade in japanese and southern Ukraine, the place he was wounded in October 2024. This interview was recorded in July 2025 in Lviv, the place he was present process rehabilitation.
Artur Dron. Photograph by Halyna Zvarych
Olena Pshenychna: Once I requested if there was a particular place for you the place you want to discuss, you invited me right here, to the courtyard at St John’s Lavra of the Studite Monks inside the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lviv. Why right here?
Artur Dron: That is essentially the most peaceable place for me. I’ve been coming right here since 2019 to see Father Vsevolod, who’s, you could possibly say, my non secular mentor – ever since I used to be 17 or 18, particularly throughout what was fairly a wild time for me. I’d come right here to hunt recommendation on my issues, and it was an oasis of calm for me – it doesn’t matter what I used to be doing, it doesn’t matter what occurred, and whatever the hustle and bustle of my scholar life. This place grew to become much more useful to me as soon as I joined the military. I’d come again on depart occasionally and drop by to see the monks, discuss with them, and simply sit in quiet. I treasured that deeply. You possibly can actually assume otherwise right here; it brings me a way of absolute peace.
Olena Pshenychna: In your writing, you communicate lots about God, about religion, and about what that religion rests upon – or maybe ceases to carry onto – in a time of struggle. What’s religion – and never simply in a spiritual context — to you? Can an individual stay with out religion?
Artur Dron: As soon as, at one of many readings we held in numerous cities, I used to be requested what I used to be most afraid of. And it was the primary time I had actually considered it. I believe I stated then that, maybe, my biggest concern is totally shedding religion in something. I believe it’s deeply scary whenever you imagine in nothing in any respect. And this isn’t simply in a spiritual sense, it’s not nearly religion within the God you worship – it’s about religion as a complete. As a result of when you have nothing to imagine in, life is, to a big extent, devoid of which means.
Olena Pshenychna: In your phrases about religion, notably in your writing, one senses quite a lot of emotion; someplace between the strains, you fairly boldly reproach the Lord. What’s your relationship like now?
Artur Dron: We’ve encountered issues we don’t absolutely perceive. And when we don’t perceive one thing, it is just pure to show to the One who is meant to know every part. Clearly, we generally air our grievances with ‘Him’. The elemental query with regards to the theme of struggle and God is: why does He enable this? There’s a temptation, because it have been, to shift all accountability onto Him. However we can not blame Him for beginning this struggle. It was began by particular folks, by the Russians particularly. It’s not God who’s killing our folks, however them. Generally, when confronted with loss, it’s extremely tough to not cross the road from asking ‘why did You not save him?’ to ‘why did You kill him?’. It was not God who killed our brothers-in-arms, or somebody’s kids, husbands, or family members. They have been killed by particular folks, particular Russians who made that selection.
It will be simpler if we knew that, say, God had merely set the world and all its processes in movement – the place wars occur in a single place, good issues occur in one other, and He adheres to a precept of non-intervention.
It will be simpler that means, however I notice that He does intervene in spite of everything. Even from my very own expertise, I see many moments which might be tough to explain as something apart from God’s intervention. And that, in truth, is my predominant level of competition with Him: why do You intervene and assist in one state of affairs however not in one other? For instance, the story of my harm. I might inform myself that I survived that day and didn’t perish as a result of God saved me. But when I utter these phrases, then I’m pressured to confess that He didn’t save my buddy. And I don’t need to say that; I’m searching for another reply. This isn’t about anger in direction of Him; it’s a few real wrestle to know.
Olena Pshenychna: However are we speaking a few complete lack of religion, and what, regardless of every part, does it nonetheless relaxation upon for you?
Artur Dron: I believe that when you already know God, you can’t lose religion completely, however you may take a fallacious flip in your communion with Him. I wish to remind myself that, in spite of everything, humankind and God exist on very totally different planes. That’s to say, we’re like kids studying our multiplication tables, whereas He is sort of a Nobel laureate in physics or arithmetic. We predict you can’t subtract 5 from three as a result of there’s solely zero and nothing exists beneath it, whereas He’s already working with damaging numbers and infinities. Maybe these are primitive comparisons. However what I imply to say is that, inside this disconnect, to keep away from shedding coronary heart and decreasing your religion to nothing, it’s important to remind your self that you’re on totally different planes, in numerous classes. In actuality, there are such a lot of issues which might be completely clear to God that we now have but to grasp.
Olena Pshenychna: In your e book of prose, Hemingway Is aware of Nothing, you introduce a definition: ‘the Trench God’. How does He differ for you from the Lord outdoors the trenches? Particularly now, when throughout your rehabilitation you end up between two worlds: the civilian and the navy.
Artur Dron: When you end up on the war-war, within the trench-trench, so near mutilation and demise, every part superfluous – all the additional layers – is stripped away. Solely what issues most stays. Generally, even ideas of nation or nation are stripped again. There’s solely your loved ones, an individual you’re keen on, the individual proper subsequent to you. And when somebody who believes in God finds themselves in these circumstances, their dialogue with Him is, in truth, similar to that – fully unlayered. As honest as doable, and louder than common. Very often, questions like ‘the place is God when that is occurring to us?’ merely fall away, as a result of on the market, God is felt very clearly. He’s, in truth, proper there with you, by your aspect.
And when you end up on this in-between world, you draw essentially the most religion, energy and calm from those that have inhabited either side of this world. I first felt this in 2023, after I got here residence on depart, and two of my brothers-in-arms have been right here in Lviv. We, folks from that world of struggle, met one another for the primary time in a distinct, civilian world. That assembly, that dialog – it was one of many calmest and most conventional moments of my depart. And after I got here right here for remedy after being wounded, quite a lot of my closest brothers-in-arms occurred to be in Lviv: some already discharged, some additionally present process remedy, others in rehabilitation. I spent loads of time on the hospital, the place there have been many different wounded servicemen, and I spent it speaking with them.
Folks usually say that when veterans return from struggle, they’ve a heightened sense of justice, a larger degree of sincerity and generosity; having spent so lengthy with the superfluous stripped away, we discovered in these existential situations to share every part, to face up for each other, to see every part as if laid naked. In fact, we introduced all of that again with us right here. And on this context, generally it makes issues more durable for us within the civilian world, which is why it’s so necessary to stay collectively.
Olena Pshenychna: In 2022, you usually spoke of shedding one other sort of religion – religion in poetry. You even wrote: ‘literature gained’t kill anybody, a poem can not protect you from a bullet.’ At first of the full-scale invasion, you stopped writing altogether. Why did poetry stop to matter again then?
Artur Dron: As a result of at the moment, one thing extra sensible grew to become necessary, one thing from which we might see a tangible profit within the context of our survival. And it wasn’t nearly poetry. I believe many people who have been engaged in some pursuit that, on 24 February 2022, couldn’t hurt the enemy or shield you and people you’re keen on – that pursuit appeared fully pointless to us.
I can’t even think about myself considering on that day: ‘Proper, let’s cease and write a poem, as a result of this must be recorded for future generations.’
Again then, we have been searching for methods to volunteer, to be of use. Plus, we have been instantly desirous about becoming a member of the navy. The very last item on my thoughts was that some verbal response of mine to what we have been experiencing might be of any use. I wrote my first poem after the beginning of the invasion (it’s within the poetry assortment We Had been Right here, titled ‘Trisagion’) after we noticed the information concerning the maternity hospital in Mariupol. And so I wrote for the primary time in March – maybe relatively emotionally, impulsively – after which didn’t write something in any respect till the tip of August or September.
Olena Pshenychna: But you wrote the poetry assortment We Had been Right here as a soldier, proper on the entrance line. You devoted it to your brothers-in-arms, and the epigraph options the phrases of one among them: ‘Write about what’s inside us.’ At what second did you’re feeling your religion in poetry returning in spite of everything?
Artur Dron: It was when every part had really been lower off. We have been already close to Kramatorsk, however we weren’t but engaged in fight; we have been digging a defensive position in case of a breakthrough by the Russians. So, it was a gradual entry into the struggle. By then, I used to be already considering lots about literature; I had began studying once more, as a result of earlier than that, I hadn’t been studying in any respect. And, in truth, when every part superfluous was stripped away, at any time when one among my brothers-in-arms stated or did one thing particular, I’d catch myself considering: oh, that is literature, this needs to be written down; possibly another person would see one thing highly effective on this for themselves, too.
And generally issues occurred that confirmed me literature is extra severe and larger than I had thought. I like to present the instance that’s truly within the assortment, the piece involving Taras Shevchenko, after I noticed the information of how Balakliia was being liberated. The blokes recorded a video of them tearing down a propaganda Russian poster and discovering Shevchenko beneath it, with these strains: ‘Combat on, and also you shall overcome! God helps you in your wrestle.’ It amazed me a lot and caught me fully off guard. It was as if I have been arguing with that ‘professor’ of arithmetic who says you may’t subtract 5 from three. However after I noticed this Shevchenko, I understood that damaging numbers exist, that there might be minus two, and that the issue wasn’t within the equation however in my very own lack of expertise. In different phrases, if one thing written by somebody 200 years in the past returns to you in such a mystical, incomprehensible means – which you couldn’t describe in any e book as a result of folks would name it a cliché – then which means it’s what issues most. And this information triggered a series of different ideas about literature in me.
I recalled how our literary canon returned to us throughout the Revolution of Dignity, how we depicted them in these helmets with Molotov cocktails, how folks quoted them simply earlier than they died.
And so I grew to become satisfied that, maybe, the issue lay not with literature however in the truth that I hadn’t grasped its true scale.
Or one other instance, which I additionally point out in my e book: when a brother-in-arms of mine was killed, his spouse wrote a poem on the very day she discovered of his demise; she is a poet herself, writing non secular poetry. They have been a deeply devoted, non secular household. And I believed to myself: if an individual, whereas shedding what issues most, can discover the energy to show to artistic expression, then maybe, as soon as once more, the fault doesn’t lie with the ‘minus 5’ equation, however in my failure to know that minus and plus infinity exist as nicely. Over time, I modified my angle in direction of literature and realized that I had underestimated it.
Olena Pshenychna: Writing poetry on the entrance line – what was it for you: a response to occasions, to folks, or a need to enshrine them?
Artur Dron: It varies significantly. One piece would possibly stem from a need to enshrine one thing that occurred to us, so it turns into resistant to time and stays ceaselessly. One other piece comes when one among my brothers-in-arms says one thing so highly effective that I couldn’t bear for it to simply be spoken and vanish, as a result of I noticed that, with out even realizing it, he was talking literature. Some texts are parting phrases for people who find themselves not right here, who’ve fallen. An try to convert essentially the most important factor you noticed in them into one other dimension. Like in that poem about my brother-in-arms Ivan and his bicycle. I imply, a poem can not compensate for his demise – we shouldn’t demand that poetry compensate for something – however it will possibly seize a fraction of that grown man’s childlike sincerity and his dream of a bicycle. In any case, one of many goals of this e book is to inform what’s inside us.
Olena Pshenychna: When folks ask you concerning the poetry of Artur Dron, the civilian, versus Artur Dron, the soldier, you say your language has modified basically. What, for you, defines literary language, an writer’s voice? What was it like earlier than, and what’s this language like now?
Artur Dron: I’ve one precept, and it stays unchanged – to put in writing about what issues most to you. Perhaps it gained’t be some fashionable matter that gathers thousands and thousands of reactions on Fb, however writing about what’s most necessary to you is a surefire assure that your textual content might be honest and truthful. I adhered to this precept throughout my scholar days with my e book Dormitory No. 6, and after I grew to become a soldier with the gathering We Had been Right here, and I adhere to it now. However since these most important issues have been always altering, they naturally caused a change in language as nicely.
With the primary e book, crucial factor for me was observing a younger and free life – first infatuations, heartbreaks, love, arguments, when folks discover each other and push one another away. Very youthful, usually clichéd, lyrical, romantic issues. That was what mattered most to me, and that’s what I wrote about.
Clearly, by 2022 or 2023, one thing else had grow to be paramount: the fixed edge, this expertise of goodbyes, a deeply intense longing throughout the gap from these you’re keen on, and a sort of profound brotherhood with folks you didn’t even know till just lately. And that is so completely totally different from what I wrote earlier than that it merely needed to carry a change of language with it. It grew to become extra laconic, extra categorical, extra clipped.
Each phrase in poetry carries weight, and when writing poetry, particularly at struggle, each phrase have to be handled as if it may be the final one spoken. You don’t know what tomorrow will carry or what’s going to occur in thirty seconds. And when you method each textual content as if it’s the very last thing you’ll ever write and say in your life, it ensures final openness and truthfulness. This existentialism, this liminality, will increase the burden of these phrases, stripping away every part superfluous. I’ve observed that in our dialog as we speak, this stripping away of the superfluous has come up usually – each within the matter of God and in literature or the navy expertise. But it surely actually all comes all the way down to this: when the superfluous disappears, a really excessive degree of sincerity emerges in your language.
Olena Pshenychna: We frequently see on social media that Ukrainian troopers learn even in dugouts. What does studying in such circumstances offer you? Whom did you learn on the entrance line, who saved you grounded, and from whom did you draw religion?
Artur Dron: Being at struggle doesn’t imply studying solely what’s going to increase your morale or degree of nationwide consciousness. In struggle, simply as in civilian life, studying could be a type of leisure, a solution to battle boredom. I’ll share two examples.
The primary occurred within the autumn of 2022. We have been sitting in a trench past Torske, on the entrance line, and I used to be studying aloud from an e-book on my cellphone—Stanislav Aseyev’s The Torture Camp on Paradise Road. It was as if we have been already in tough circumstances, but we have been studying about even more durable ones. However for some purpose, at that actual second, it helped us. These have been actually our first fight missions, our first shellings; it was onerous for us, and there I used to be studying aloud a few man imprisoned on this Donetsk focus camp, concerning the horrific issues Russians do to our folks. What did that give us? Maybe an instance of how sturdy an individual might be in tough circumstances, or the actual fact that we have been studying his e book. And which means he went by way of all of it and returned, even wrote a e book – so, certainly, we will get by way of our personal ordeal? It helped us.
My brother-in-arms filmed a brief story of me studying aloud again then, and as soon as we returned from our place, they posted it on Instagram by way of Starlink. The publishing home shared the video, after which, throughout my first depart, they gifted me an e-reader. And I keep in mind how, later in December, I used to be studying aloud to the blokes on the entrance line from Liuba Zahorovska’s e book My UPA – such wild tales like: ‘I stepped out of the home, the NKVD males entered the yard, I began to run, they fired, a bullet hit me within the chest as soon as, however I saved working, they fired once more, a bullet hit my leg, and I saved firing again.’
And there they’re, being shot at, but they someway maintain shifting, surviving, hiding, combating – simply absolute blockbuster tales. After which there’s our technology, who on the very least have physique armour.
We stared at this wide-eyed and it gave us this large feeling that we’re the descendants of some significantly robust guys. That sort of studying actually does encourage you or carry your spirits.
However I’ve one other story, a few brother-in-arms of mine who, after his first missions, his first concussion, and his first onerous experiences, started to undergo from extreme nervousness and panic; he was in a extremely tough psychological state. And for some purpose, he determined it would make issues a bit simpler if he learn a e book. He wasn’t a lot of a reader and didn’t know a lot about books, however he had a real need and a Starlink connection. However all he managed to search out for himself was The Witch of Konotop, which isn’t meant for that sort of goal – it’s filled with complicated, archaic vocabulary. For him, it was like forcing his means by way of dense brush, and it wasn’t making him really feel any higher.
So, I set a aim for myself to discover a e book that may be proper for him – in spite of everything, I’m an occasion supervisor and a e book publicist. We had lengthy chats; I requested him what sorts of books he favored, what varieties of ladies he favored. Based mostly on his solutions, we picked a e book. The Outdated Lion Publishing Home had beforehand printed Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, a few man who gave away all his cash and went tramping. The identical writer additionally had one other e book about climbing Everest. It turned out that Bohdan was a large fan of mountains, climbing and journey, and he dreamed of conquering Everest at some point. The writer despatched me a digital copy. It turned out to be an ideal studying match. It didn’t encourage him to heroic deeds, it didn’t treatment his concussion, and it didn’t flip him into some avid reader, however on days when he felt like absolute crap, he would examine Everest and escape a bit of, desirous about one thing else and permitting himself to dream. And that’s an instance of how literature additionally works – in a extremely sensible means. As a result of there we’re, sitting within the trenches; we’ve been shelled, every part has gone quiet and boring, we’re sick to demise of digging, however the cellphone is charged, I’ve a e book, and I’m studying one thing aloud. And over time, it seems that literature has this type of impact, too.
Olena Pshenychna: For me, your texts are among the many strongest testimonies of this struggle. And the energy of this testimony lies within the unimaginable quantity of affection that you’ve got managed to weave into each story. Even in tales about demise and loss, love stays foundational. What’s like to you? The place does it stay? And the way do you keep deal with it when there’s a lot injustice throughout?
Artur Dron: I’ve all the time adhered to the precept that love all the time factors to the fitting reply throughout all subjects. For example, when a serious struggle breaks out, we’re attacked, they usually need to kill us all – what can be the last word expression of affection at such a time? Leaving every part behind, standing up and defending. You might be at struggle, you might be having a horrible, painful day, you might be terrified – what’s the biggest embodiment of affection? My mom, my girlfriend – and I’m merely considering of them. And that offers you a sort of energy you didn’t even know you had.
You gained’t lose deal with love as a result of it always manifests in some ways. God works very nicely by way of folks, and love manifests greatest by way of them. For instance, there we’re, mendacity in that Serebryansky Forest, in some tiny trench meant for 2 folks at most, however three of us squeeze in there, pressed back-to-back, throwing a single sleeping bag over us, minus twenty, lighting up that one cigarette between us all to maintain heat. And that’s an immense feeling of affection.
Or – that is in Hemingway Is aware of Nothing—I recount 5 goals and conclude with the story of waking up at our positions within the Serebryansky Forest, when my brother-in-arms says: ‘Davydenko Davyd Davydovych!’. Good God, I get up at some fringe of the world, at struggle, assault rifles by our aspect, every part coated in filth, water dripping in all places, truthfully. And he’s simply sitting there, smoking, the doorway coated with some blanket, and says: ‘Rise up, they’re already coming to alleviate us, they’ll be right here in twelve minutes.’ At that second, I believed to myself how I’d write about this in a e book at some point, and I lastly did write that at that actual second, I cherished Kesha so deeply, greater than I had ever cherished anybody. It was an awesome feeling of affection.
Or we now have this brother-in-arms, Andrii Teodorovych, essentially the most selfless altruist that would probably exist on this world. When everyone seems to be hungry, he opens a packet of biscuits, doesn’t eat any himself, and passes them round to everybody in flip. You realize, like this: if there’s something left, I’ll take it for myself, and if not, then not. And that, too, is an immense manifestation of affection. Not about grand, summary classes, however about one thing like this, when folks share their final meals.
I noticed loads of love within the hospitals after being wounded. You realize, when guys with very complicated accidents, together with amputated limbs, carry one another’s spirits and attempt to make one another snicker someway – these are all such small, on a regular basis manifestations of a really nice love that’s, in truth, the muse of every part. There are such a lot of of these items. That’s why I say that you simply can not lose deal with them when you have already witnessed them; they offer which means, restore religion and present that all of it issues in spite of everything.
‘We have been right here’, Artur Dron, 2024. Photograph by Halyna Zvarych
Olena Pshenychna: You discuss lots concerning the significance of reminiscence. In your texts, you unpack this reminiscence intimately, actually calling folks by their names, above all, the names of your brothers-in-arms. Why is that this so necessary to you? What does it imply to you to enshrine the reminiscence of individuals and occasions?
Artur Dron: One among my biggest fears is the concern of forgetting. I keep in mind after I first obtained frightened of it at first of 2023, after a while on the entrance line and after my first concussions. Once we went out on these first fight missions, encountering one thing terrifying and tough for the primary time, it appeared to me that I’d undoubtedly always remember such issues in my life. However within the spring of 2023, I began catching myself recalling sure issues from that autumn of 2022 with problem, and it almost despatched me right into a panic. Later within the e book, I’d use the phrasing: to recollect all that is horrible, however worse nonetheless is to neglect. Again then, in 2023, by the best way, I began protecting a diary to put in writing every part down, to enshrine it. This was my battle towards that concern.
It appears to me that remembering and enshrining is one solution to win, one solution to compensate for one thing. Sure, writing gained’t carry anybody again to you, in fact, however there’s something about merely sitting down and writing about that individual. That is what literature is to me – telling a narrative about somebody. And that is one thing I’m grateful for to God, the world, and the circumstances, notably for having the ability to use this ability to inform somebody’s story. As a result of I’ve seen many who won’t inform their very own story. From the banal and the tragic – they gained’t inform it as a result of they’re not right here – to the extra complicated: they gained’t inform it as a result of they don’t know find out how to articulate it, gained’t inform it as a result of they don’t assume it’s necessary, gained’t inform it as a result of they’re afraid.
For me, literature, and poetry, particularly, is about taking one thing intimate and private to you and making a textual content out of it, thereby changing it into one thing common – one thing anybody can learn. Whereas studying this common factor, the reader searches out one thing deeply private for themselves, as if changing it as soon as over once more.
I’ve a narrative, which was additionally in We Had been Right here, a few {photograph} in a cemetery that had fallen. I picked it up and wrote a poem about it.
Earlier than the e book launch, I used to be instructed that the widow of this fallen soldier can be there. I hadn’t identified him in life – solely not directly, realizing he was from my battalion. That was why I had gone to wish for him on the Subject of Mars and picked up that {photograph} of his, discovering a be aware there: ‘Comfortable anniversary, bunny, I really like you.’ I noticed that the girl coming to the presentation was the very one who had written that be aware, and I didn’t know what to do with that information. I made a decision that, on the very least, I undoubtedly wouldn’t learn that poem, as a result of it felt like it could be merciless, that it could trigger her ache. Then time handed, I returned to responsibility, and this girl wrote to me. She despatched a photograph of the e book, opened to that poem, along with her husband’s grave within the background, and wrote: ‘I don’t know if that poem was about my be aware, however now it’s about my be aware.’ And it fully threw me – it was like one other lesson that these damaging numbers exist, that there’s plus and minus infinity.
Or there was one other story. Within the poem ‘First Corinthians’, there’s a line: ‘love is wrapped in sleeping baggage and carried out’. This was our first, let’s assume, tragic expertise evacuating the fallen. There was no solution to carry them out on stretchers, so we wrapped the our bodies of our brothers-in-arms in sleeping baggage. And that’s precisely how I wrote it within the poem. Later, a lady wrote to me; we didn’t know one another. She simply messaged me on Fb, saying who she was, that she had learn the poem, knew I served in the identical battalion as her husband, and needed to present me her e book about him. She stated that this poem was extremely necessary to her, as a result of when she reads concerning the sleeping baggage, she feels as if she is someway studying extra about how her husband died, how he was evacuated – as if it have been about him. I didn’t reply to her for per week; I consulted with the blokes about what to do, as a result of, in truth, it was his physique we had carried out again then. I hadn’t identified him in life; he didn’t serve in my firm however in one other unit. Throughout these days, he was at our positions and was certainly one of many first to fall. In reality, he was the primary one we pulled out of the ditch and carried away. In the long run, I wrote again and instructed her about it, and he or she despatched me the e book about this man. His callsign was Orel; her e book was referred to as The Island of Orel. It’s such a powerful e book, so highly effective. And that’s one more manifestation of how literature works – working in a means that I nonetheless don’t absolutely perceive.
Olena Pshenychna: You as soon as stated that ‘maybe poems are what one individual ought to have stated to a different however couldn’t’. Then what of prose?
Artur Dron: In my thoughts, prose is a barely longer dialog that covers a wider vary of subjects than poetry. In any case, a poem is a maximally concentrated, emotional and concise kind wherein you tackle a single, deeply necessary theme. It’s totally different with prose. It’s a calmer, much less emotional and longer dialog in which you’ll increase a bigger variety of subjects and discuss numerous issues. For me, it has all the time labored this fashion: there’s something I need to write about after which I decide one of the simplest ways to specific it – be it a rhymed poem or an unrhymed one. However over time, I caught myself considering that sure issues might be greatest expressed exactly by way of prose.
Olena Pshenychna: The gathering We Had been Right here was born on the entrance line. How was your e book of prose born? And does its language differ from the language of your earlier texts?
Artur Dron: Instantly after I despatched the manuscript of the poetry e book to the publishing home in the summertime of 2023, actually the following day, I made a decision that my subsequent e book can be a set of prose referred to as Hemingway Is aware of Nothing.
We’re used to the truth that there has all the time been nice struggle literature, and its most outstanding writers are Remarque and Hemingway. I personally used to assume so. However after we skilled our personal full-scale struggle, the notion of struggle literature was so fully overturned, and the texts of those guys have been referred to as into query.
Once we confronted our personal actual struggle of survival, these writers grew to become irrelevant.
Hemingway was personally necessary to me all through my youth. I cherished him very a lot. Even at first of 2022, I nonetheless believed him. And when I discovered myself on the entrance line, there was nonetheless a little bit of that Hemingway left; I’d inform the blokes about a few of his books. He was by no means a consider my choice to go to struggle, however he was my favorite author. Nevertheless, he didn’t survive the Russo-Ukrainian struggle. Once I lived by way of it, after I took half in it, I noticed that Hemingway, in spite of everything, had by no means encountered something like this. His first struggle was throughout the ocean from him; primarily, it threatened neither his mother and father nor his family members. However within the context of fellows like me, who went to serve at a younger age – we didn’t go as a result of we needed to play the hero, which is strictly what Hemingway did. He needed to play the hero, to soak up that feeling, after which he spent his entire life writing about it; he seemingly condemned struggle, but always sought it out, someway romanticizing it. I write precisely that within the e book: he went to another person’s struggle as a result of he needed to, whereas we went to our personal as a result of we had no different selection, as a result of this struggle threatened us particularly, and we needed to develop up in a short time and notice that we have been already able to defending our fathers and moms. That is one thing Hemingway by no means encountered; he didn’t know a single factor about it.
And I believed lots about all these items; I needed to put in writing a few struggle that neither Hemingway nor Remarque, nor Vonnegut, nor Jünger, nor anybody else had seen besides us. At first, I wrote two or three items, no extra. By then, I used to be so sick to demise of the military that I used to be totally exhausted, dragging myself by way of that navy routine with my final ounce of energy. I made a decision that writing about such a subject was a sort of self-flagellation and that it could be insincere – so I finished writing. Then, within the spring of final yr, I got here again for medical remedy, had my coronary heart handled, took medical depart, improved my well being, cleared my head a bit, rebooted as a lot as I might, after which, within the spring, I wrote two extra items for Radio Tradition. Since then, I labored on the e book little by little during times of depart, within the Kharkiv area, and within the Zaporizhzhia area. However the bulk of the work after I used to be wounded, whereas present process remedy within the winter. Truly, it was then that I set a aim for myself – to complete the e book by spring.
I was sceptical of all this discuss writing being psychotherapy and so forth, however over time I grew to become satisfied that it truly is the case. I actually needed this e book to grow to be a psychotherapy session of kinds.
I even present there how one such methodology works: extended publicity remedy. It’s usually utilized in treating PTSD, notably with troopers coming back from struggle. That is whenever you recount the identical traumatic story many occasions. You place your self earlier than that have time and again, attempting to recreate and recollect it in each element. And every time, your story might be totally different; different particulars will emerge, and also you keep in mind what you had forgotten or, maybe, had been hiding from your self. It’s a very tough however attention-grabbing emotional course of, as a result of you could find the solutions to a few of your questions in the best way the tales differ, and thus, over time, free your self from it. With this e book, I actually needed to point out how it’s executed. To point out you can place your self earlier than concern, earlier than trauma, earlier than ache, name it by its title, look it within the eyes, strive to not be afraid, and communicate, communicate, communicate, with a view to lastly grow to be free. I recount loads of painful and private issues in it. This e book is a soldier’s testimony concerning the expertise of a serious struggle. That’s precisely how I outline it – a e book of testimonies.
As for the language of this prose in comparison with poetry – it’s truly a bit tough to analyse the distinction, as a result of it’s the primary time I’ve written on this style. However I can analyse what they’ve in frequent. It appears to me that I nonetheless attempt to keep this degree of openness and sincerity. I nonetheless maintain the language centered on others, with names and particulars. In poetry, particulars are crucial, and right here too they continue to be important to me.
Olena Pshenychna: Lastly, I need to quote your poem, which ends with a query: ‘I take into consideration that field you talked about. How did you pack these issues? How do you reside with all that?’ Do you might have your individual reply to the query of how we’re all to stay with this expertise and rediscover religion, hope and love inside it?
Artur Dron: I don’t have a prepared reply. However when there isn’t any prepared reply, it’s important to think about which path holds extra love – what love itself would level to in any given state of affairs. Certainly, it could level to the truth that we should not tear one another aside. All of us have very totally different experiences. Sure, it’s attributable to one factor – struggle – however it’s nonetheless very totally different. Generally it’s so totally different even inside a single household. And crucial factor is to not fall into extreme aggression however to hunt mutual understanding and attempt to discuss issues by way of.
What else would love undoubtedly level to? A way of accountability. It might sound sophisticated, however that’s precisely how mature love acts in tough circumstances. Everybody must take accountability for some small half of what’s occurring. Generally love just isn’t about romantic, mild issues. Generally it’s concerning the accountability to guard these you’re keen on.
This text is a redacted English translation of an interview initially printed by The Ukrainians on 9 July 2025, which has been up to date for accuracy the place obligatory.
