Sample from the e-book "Poklon Ukrajini" (An ode to Ukraine)

  Authors

Valenčič, Erik

  Item identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/11356/2368

 Date issued

2026-09-08

 Type

corpus, text

 Size

69 pages

 Language(s)

Slovenian

 Description

This entry contains the first part of the e-book "Poklon Ukrajini" (An ode to Ukraine) by author Erik Valenčič (COBISS ID: 277873667, ISBN: 978-961-272-877-9). Between March 2022 and January 2023, Erik Valenčič visited Ukraine four times, each time venturing closer to the front line. He returned again in May 2025, when his journey took him through Staryi Sambir, Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Sloviansk, to the front in Donetsk Oblast, as well as to Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Odesa. This time, he decided that he would not merely report on the war, but also help the side he sees as attacked and weaker. He transported humanitarian aid to Ukraine while getting to know its inhabitants and other volunteers along the way — up close. He witnessed how the war was (slowly) changing them. Boštjan Videmšek, the author of the foreword, who writes as one of the few people able to understand what returning to war like this means, concludes his text with these words: “Erik Valenčič is a journalist. He goes into the field. He tells the story. He helps people. He thinks. He reads. He checks. He doubts. He is constantly educating himself. And he returns home, where he is tormented by a sense of guilt; including survivor’s guilt with (at least) the beginnings of post-traumatic stress disorder — no, he never truly returns from the war. That is why he soon returns to the field. With a van full of aid and, time and again, a heart full of compassion. On every new journey into war, the world begins anew. We are most alive when death is closest.” In 2025, Erik Valenčič received a grant from the Ministry of Culture, which co-financed his activities that year and also helped make the preparation of this book possible. Before readers is a book that reveals a part of the world in which we live. A bitter reality that, because it is easier that way, we try to look past. And a light that can shine if we choose not to.

 Publisher

MIŠ d.o.o.

 Acknowledgement

Slovenian Book Agency JR1-RDZ-2025 "Development of Digital Publishing"

 Subject(s)

e-book

 Collection(s)

CLARIN.SI digital editions

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