Let us tell you the story of how it all came together
The idea of creating a magazine by Ukrainian artists was floating in the air — it only took catching it with a net. But at that time — the beginning of 2022 — there was not enough strength to even hold that net.
The founder of the magazine, Viktoriia Spalek, who contemplated this idea every evening in bed, like many other Ukrainians who had gone through forced emigration after the start of the full-scale invasion, was piecing herself back together in a foreign country. Having left everything 2,000 km behind — family, career, leisure, property, and language — she had to build a future on barren land.
In the second year of forced emigration, arms strengthened by bureaucracy, foreign language, and international connections were finally able to hold the net.
And when you have enough strength — it becomes your duty to help others.
They say that if you’re doing something right, the whole world will support you. And so a meeting of universal scale happened when Viktoriia, instead of walking home, decided to wait for the bus and wondered who could help translate literary works into proper English. She was deep in these thoughts when Richard Pettifer — a critical writer, native speaker, and a person who had been helping Ukrainians since the beginning of the full-scale invasion — walked past her.
“Hi, Richard! I have an interesting idea for you.”
Sometimes it’s good not to walk.
Sometimes it’s useful to see such moments as part of a global plan.
Together with Richard, they worked through the darkness of the coming rainy autumn, going through every word of each writer and poet to find the most precise expression.
And in March 2025, they presented the first issue of the magazine at Café Kyiv.
We won’t sugarcoat the printing and transportation stages — moving the magazine from Kyiv to Berlin on deadlines, with a hopefully friendly Universe. It was pure stress. The boxes arrived just one day before the event, and when we opened them — we found mistakes.
We are all human. But as a Kharkiv native, Viktoriia couldn’t sleep for two weeks at night, thinking how it was possible to let “Kharkov” instead of “Kharkiv” go to print. When that happens, you start learning to accept imperfection in life without having to go to Tibet, because you still need to sleep — and without a second print run, you simply can’t fix the mistake.
Another challenge was presenting the project to the audience. It was done “by hand”, or rather aloud, to every person who stopped by our table at the market. And then they had to do the hardest thing — let their creation go from their hearts and not take it personally that not everyone wanted to buy the magazine.
There were just two of them in Berlin at the time.
Richard and Viktoriia took part in every market, trying different ways to present the gathered artists to the world. They sat in the rain in two sweaters and ponchos, on a rooftop with techno music, at the birthday of a Ukrainian event, and on Ukraine’s Independence Day — basically what’s called “no days off”, because both of them had their own jobs, and markets usually take place on weekends.
There were two of them in Berlin, but they understood that it wasn’t enough. Their shoulders, like Atlas’, could no longer hold email, communication with bookstores, planning special marketing events, and (oh dear God) social media .
So they started looking for like-minded people. And again, the Universe became kind to them.
That’s how they met Yaryna Yanchak — a woman who keeps Google Sheets in perfect order and has no fear of picking up the phone and calling someone directly. Yaryna became our push towards international bookstores. At last, we began receiving replies — even if not all of them were positive, it was better than silence.
That’s how we met Viktor Portwineov — a musician and a naturally creative person, who took on the organization of the very events we hold in Berlin.
And it was thanks to Veronika Horielova that we were able to launch a book club — where we don’t just read and discuss Ukrainian books in translation but also compete for prizes in quizzes that Veronika prepares for the readers.
Viktor Aleshchenko (Events and production), Viktoriia Spalek (Editor-in-Chief), Yaryna Yanchak (Communications and Marketing), Richard Pettifer (Assistant Editor), Heiko Jungnitz (Playlist Editor)
It has become much easier to move forward, because in this team we are all looking in the same direction — “to promote Ukrainian culture in Europe” —
and so the idea and the people have finally come together.
