Biography

Intellectual portrait: writer, historian, public thinker and spokeswoman for Ukrainian memory and pain

Education and scientific career

Born in Lviv, Olesya Khromeychuk has been living in Great Britain since 2000. Her academic career began at University College London, where in 2011 she defended her doctoral dissertation in history, devoted to the post-war narratives of Ukrainians who served in the Galicia division. This experience resulted in the first scientific monograph "'Undetermined' Ukrainians. Post-War Narratives of the Waffen SS 'Galicia' Division" (2013).

After that, she taught at leading British universities: Cambridge, UCL, King's College London, University of East Anglia. Her research focuses on identity, memory, feminism, post-war experience, particularly in the context of modern Ukraine.

Public activity and cultural diplomacy

Khromeychuk heads the Ukrainian Institute in London — one of the key cultural institutions of the Ukrainian diaspora. In her work, she combines academic competence with a cultural mission, actively promoting the Ukrainian topic in the world: at symposia, at universities, at international conferences, and in the media.

In 2023, she became one of the Voices of Ukraine at TED, where her speech caused a wide resonance: she spoke about dignity, trust and long-term challenges facing the Ukrainian nation.

"Death of a Soldier": Personal as Public

Her most famous work is "The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister" (2022) — an autobiographical and deeply emotional story about the loss of her brother, who died at the front in the Russian-Ukrainian war. The Ukrainian translation ("Death of a soldier. The story told by his sister") appeared in 2023.

This book has become a memorial essay, which combines personal experiences, the bitterness of loss and reflections on how civil and historical challenges change a person and a country. She touches on the themes of memory, the politics of war, identity, as well as the importance of an honest dialogue about death and heroism.

Journalism and world resonance

Khromeychuk is actively published in the leading Western media, in particular:

  • The New York Times
  • The Guardian
  • New York Review of Books
  • Spiegel
  • CNN Opinion
  • Prospect
  • NATO Review
  • The New Statesman

The topics of her texts are Ukrainian war, experience of loss, feminism, cultural politics, national identity, memory as a form of resistance.

The essence of the activity

Olesya Khromeychuk is spokeswoman for Ukraine in the intellectual world of the West, her voice combines personal and political, scientific and literary, humanistic and heroic. It not only tells about Ukraine, but also creates a field of international understanding, in which the Ukrainian experience of pain, resilience and dignity becomes an important part of European memory.