Stanislav Aseyev, a native of Donetsk, Ukraine, began his writing career as a novelist, poet, and playwright. In 2015, using the penname Stanislav Vasin and operating in secrecy, he began publishing reports on events in Donbas and in his hometown, which had become the capital of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic. His identity was somehow discovered, resulting in his arrest and detention in an unacknowledged Russian prison, where he was kept in isolation and tortured for over two and a half years. His first book describing this experience, In Isolation, contains articles from the period leading up to his arrest, and others written during his captivity. It won the prestigious Taras Shevchenko Prize in Ukraine in 2021. A forthcoming follow-up volume, The Torture Camp on Paradise Street, gives a frank account of his harrowing imprisonment and confronts the reader with the darkest elements of human behavior.
Mr. Aseyev will be making two public appearances on campus, in conversation with William Nickell. The first, on Thursday, November 17, will focus on In Isolation and the problem of knowledge formation in the context of hybrid warfare during the Russian intervention in Ukraine dating back to 2014. The second, on Friday November 18, will address the experience described in The Torture Camp on Paradise Street and will be focused on human rights violations and the Justice Initiative Fund, which was founded by Mr. Aseyev. Each meeting will include readings from his books.
In Isolation: Thursday, November 17. Institute on the Formation of Knowledge (IFK) Building, 5737 University Ave, 12:00-1:30
The Torture Camp on Paradise Street: SSRC Tea Room, 2nd Floor of the Social Science Research Center, 2:00-3:30).
We thank our sponsors, the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge, Humanities Division, Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies, and Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures.