One of the most published contemporary Ukrainian authors and military veteran Illarion Pavlyuk is leaving PEN Ukraine. The organization voted against the expulsion of another writer Yuriy Vynnychuk the day before.
He wrote about this on Facebook on March 27.
According to him, the decision not to expel Vynnychuk, as well as the discussion that preceded the vote
"You canʼt exclude people for texts just because they cause hysteria in those who canʼt read them."
"Yes, victims of harassment are usually unreliable witnesses. It probably doesnʼt matter at all in this situation what someone who is not a member of PEN and is not an expert thinks."
"I believe that the human rights role of PEN is to unite masters of the word to protect human rights. And that this is more important than uniting and protecting each other. But I am in the minority. PEN made a decision that would suit the trade union more. Which is also possible, why not. I just did not join the trade union. I am grateful to all those who fought," the writer wrote.
Following Pavlyuk, writer Larysa Denysenko also informed about her withdrawal from the organization.
"My act may be perceived as selfish, but I value my personal reputation. I work on the topic of protecting womenʼs rights and the inadmissibility of sexualized violence," she explained.
What is happening around Yuriy Vynnychuk
On February 26, writer Yuriy Vynnychuk wrote a column "There Was Once a Depraved Era" for the media outlet "Zbruch" — this is how he responded to the suspension of a lecturer at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Yosyp Los, who was accused of harassment.
In the text, Vynnychuk said that in his youth, no one "heard such words as sexism, misogyny, or abuse", and that "in the order of things" he allegedly had sex with a "drunk, almost unconscious girl".
"No one considered it rape back then: if the girl had filed a police report, they would have just laughed at her. Now, even ten or twenty years after the incident, you can report rape and get punished. And even in the absence of evidence. There is only her word against his," the column says.
This publication caused a wide discussion in the cultural community. On March 7, the executive board of the PEN Ukraine expelled Vynnychuk from the organization because of this publication. And on March 27, the PEN organization held a general meeting, at which 74 people out of 116 registered voted against the writerʼs expulsion, 42 supported it. So Vynnychuk remained in the organization.
The PEN Ukraine President and philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko explained that the decisions of the general meeting have higher force than the decisions of the executive board.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.