The Wergeland Lecture 2026

Andrey Kurkov is one of Ukraine’s most central cultural and literary ambassadors. With titles such as Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees, he has gained readers across the world. But when Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, he was no longer able to write fiction. Instead, he has travelled widely to talk about the reality and brutality of the war, writing essays and a journal from his daily life in the war. Already in 2022, he published Diary Of An Invasion.

Growing up during the Soviet era, Kurkov discovered writers such as George Orwell and Aleksandr Solzjenitsyn through illegal copies. He has experienced first hand what a society without freedom of speech really entails, as well as the role of language and culture in establishing a national identity. Kurkov himself writes in Russian, Ukrainian and English. Part of what Putin is out do destroy is Ukraina as an independent nation, with a culture and a language of its own.

In what ways is Putin appropriating history and culture in his narrative about the invasion? And how has the war – ironically – fortified both Ukraine’s and the rest of the world’s view of Ukrainian language and culture?

The Wergeland lecture is an annual event. Each year, The House of Literature will invite an international voice who embodies Henrik Wergeland’s spirit in their work and writings.

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