rc101 bookcase: my favorite Ukrainian frontline publisher.
6 must anti-colonial reads from a Kharkiv legend of Ukrainian cultural resistance.
“I began my anti‑colonial approach in education and publishing back in 2005 — more than twenty years ago now. Today, I understand that I was doing the right thing even when my work received little response.”
When in 2010 Oleksandr Savchuk opened his publishing house with a sole focus on the history of Kharkiv (the second-largest Ukrainian city), Ukrainian anthropological studies and rare works on Ukrainian art, many thought he was simply delusional.
Back then, the Ukrainian market was still flooded with cheap and low-quality russian books published in russia — even two decades of Ukrainian independence could not undo generations of imperial policies of suppressing Ukrainian books and erasing the Ukrainian language. Nobody believed Savchuk would ever find enough readers interested in these topics to break even. He told me that he had contemplated closing his publishing house several times since then. Yet, for Savchuk, it is always more than just about money: he is on a personal journey of cultural resistance, coming from a family in which several generations survived russian colonial repression.
Fast-forward to 2026: he is running one of the most respected, best-selling, and award-winning publishing houses in Ukraine; he has opened his own book shop in frontline Kharkiv, which has become a prominent centre of Ukrainian cultural resistance under daily bombing; and his books travel far beyond Ukraine.
‘Everything we had been doing for the past 15 years was as if we were preparing to tell everyone who wanted to know about our culture,’ Savchuk said in one of his recent interviews.
Today, Oleksandr mainstreams once-almost-erased Ukrainian traditions not only through books but also through music. Savchuk crafted his own bandura, an ancient Ukrainian music instrument, and often performs in the ancient indigenous tradition of the wandering kobzars, blind bards who performed folk songs about Ukrainian resilience and resistance. This tradition was criminalised during russian occupation of Ukraine.
I am proud to brag that Savchuk’s gorgeously designed books have been among the most prized possessions in our home library since before 2022. Soon they will occupy their own shelf — there are so many must-reads Oleksandr Savchook has been publishing lately.
For this edition of the Russian Colonialism 101 bookcase, I asked Oleksandr to share with you a couple of thoughts about why the Ukrainian book is and has always an act of anti-colonial resistance. Plus: why reading Ukrainian books is one of the best ways to enter the world of Ukrainian culture and support the Ukrainian resistance.
I will also share my SIX favourite books published by Savchuk with you. You can order any of them with global shipping on his website here or by leaving a request at savchook.buy@gmail.com.
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