{"id":10516,"date":"2025-08-22T00:17:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T00:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/?p=10516"},"modified":"2025-08-22T11:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T11:31:32","slug":"ukraine-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukraine-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Independence Day of Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/04\/CA57BFD0-AAD1-4202-9A0B-50764E3C79C0.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-6731 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/04\/CA57BFD0-AAD1-4202-9A0B-50764E3C79C0-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/04\/CA57BFD0-AAD1-4202-9A0B-50764E3C79C0-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/04\/CA57BFD0-AAD1-4202-9A0B-50764E3C79C0-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/04\/CA57BFD0-AAD1-4202-9A0B-50764E3C79C0-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/04\/CA57BFD0-AAD1-4202-9A0B-50764E3C79C0-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/04\/CA57BFD0-AAD1-4202-9A0B-50764E3C79C0.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>At the start of the war in Ukraine, we watched in horror the destruction (also shared widely on social media), which caught the attention of librarians concerned about disinformation and <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukrainesocialmedia\/\">information literacy<\/a> in general. We have been following what our Ukrainian librarian colleagues were doing to save and preserve Ukrainian culture, a task that we, as fellow librarians, take pride in and deeply appreciate.<\/p>\n<p>Adding August 24 \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Independence_Day_of_Ukraine\">The Independence Day of Ukraine,<\/a> \u2013 to our calendar was inspired by our friends at the<span style=\"font-size: 1rem\"> Ukrainian National Women\u2019s League of America (UNWLA). As <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1rem\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/holodomor-exhibit\/\">our guests at Rutgers in the Fall 2023<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 1rem\"> semester, we helped advocate and educate the public about Ukraine then and now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read our interview about their efforts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukrainian-books-to-library-1\/\">Bringing Ukrainian books to the library (Part 1)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukrainian-books-to-library-2\/\">Bringing Ukrainian books to the library (Part 2)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>First, we wanted to know &#8220;what people know&#8221; about Ukraine, and we also became interested in what <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/books-we-read-about-ukraine\/\">books were available about Ukraine in our libraries<\/a>. Additionally, we posted about <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/arms-muses-2\/\">poets<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/arms-muses-1\/\">poems<\/a> from Ukraine, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/war-poetry\/\">what war poetry is good for, <\/a>regardless of geography.<\/p>\n<p>Growing up so close to the Ukrainian border, I couldn&#8217;t help writing about a book that shares similar, <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/staff-picks-one-woman-in-the-war\/\">disturbing war experiences during WW II<\/a>, narrated by a survivor, who became a practicing thanatologist (a professional who studies death, dying, and grief), complemented by a list of Rutgers University Libraries titles on war crimes and rape.<\/p>\n<p>This post and many of the others related to Ukraine come with trigger warnings, such as &#8220;This post contains graphic content dealing with sexual assault and war crimes against civilians.&#8221; These are warnings that are still valid in 2025, on CNN, Reuters, and BBC News, with the usual \u201cViewer&#8217;s discretion advised\u201d or \u201cWarning! Graphic content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/arms-muses-1\/\">In an earlier post<\/a>, I also quoted \u201cWhen arms speak, muses are silent,\u201d the English paraphrase for an aphorism attributed to Cicero, albeit with a slightly different word order. <em>Inter arma enim silent l\u0113g\u0113s<\/em>\u00a0is Latin for, literally, \u201cFor among arms, the laws are silent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Laws and muses are still silent. But Kyiv is still under Ukrainian administration.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Related posts from Books We Read<\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6627\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6627\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukrposhta\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6627 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/03\/RussianWarshipFlag-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"sketch of warship in blue yellow background\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/03\/RussianWarshipFlag-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/03\/RussianWarshipFlag-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/03\/RussianWarshipFlag-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/03\/RussianWarshipFlag.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6627\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><br \/><em>Memorializing the Ukrainian heroes who faced the infamous Russian Warship. 5-minute sketch by Art Librarian Megan C. Lotts upon our special request. Click on the image for the post.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/books-we-read-about-ukraine\/\">Books We Read About Ukraine<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/arms-muses-2\/\">Arms and Muses: Poets from Ukraine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/arms-muses-1\/\">Arms and Muses: Poems from Ukraine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/staff-picks-one-woman-in-the-war\/\">Staff Picks: One Woman in the War<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/gallery\/ukrainian-dogs\/\">Pet Therapy: Dogs (Ukrainian edition)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/gallery\/ukrainian-cats\/\">Pet Therapy: Cats <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/gallery\/ukrainian-cats\/\">(Ukrainian edition)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukrainian-voices\/\">Librarians Speaking: Voices from Ukraine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukrainesocialmedia\/\">InfoLit 101: The War in Ukraine on Social Media<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/war-poetry\/\">War Poetry: What Is It Good For?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukrposhta\/\">InfoLit 101: Warship Stamp by Ukrposhta<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the start of the war in Ukraine, we watched in horror the destruction (also shared widely on social media), which caught the attention of librarians concerned about disinformation and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukraine-independence\/\" class=\"\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":447,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Independence Day of Ukraine - Books We Read<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/ukraine-independence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Independence Day of Ukraine - Books We Read\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the start of the war in Ukraine, we watched in horror the destruction (also shared widely on social media), which caught the attention of librarians concerned about disinformation and &hellip; 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