202: Nina Kuryata

Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Nina Kuryata. Nina is a journalist, editor, media consultant and writer who, from 2011-19, was Head of the BBC News Ukrainian Service. I spoke to Nina on Ukrainian Independence Day in August to talk about her first novel Dzvinka (The Call) and to learn about what it means to be Ukrainian in the last days of the USSR and to discuss the role of independence.
Nina refers to the trauma in not being allowed to be oneself and about how her creative journey has followed through since childhood. She talks about various stereotypes and reflects on why so many people who have read her novel, whose main character always has to prove that she exists, say that the story is about themselves!
We talk about what happens when our identity is defined through the lens of someone else, and we learn that Nina’s ancestors are from Poland. She refers to her family background, and what happens when there is a tension between what one’s parents say vs. what the ‘official’ educators are promulgating.
Nina refers to what comprises the largest collective trauma for Ukrainians and why her generation are the grandchildren of survivors. We learn why there are monuments to famine and why food and language are so important. We also find out why Nina’s novel amounts to a work of ‘autofiction’ and the reason that she changed the names of negative characters.
Nina discusses what she initially thought other people, including those from her home town in the Odessa region, would think of her book and how she initially wrote just a few pages per year. She wasn’t sure if anyone would publish it, only for the publisher to say it would be a best seller. It is now on its second edition, and we find out what Nina’s son, who was aged from 2-17 while the book was being written, makes of it.