At the end of last year, a book was published, the very title of which sets a high intrigue: "The Far Eastern Odyssey of Ivan Svit." Odysseus in the Far East. It looks like an insanely exciting novel. But the new book is a thorough scientific study based on unique documents, and this is when actual history is more important than any fiction.

Who is Ivan Svit? Journalist and historian, whose name few people remember today. But from now on, it will be a shame not to know him, and it will not be easy to forget.

The famous Japanese Olga Khomenko wrote a detailed and in-depth book about the Ukrainian diaspora in the Far East, and Ivan Svit became its leader in this serious matter. Olga Khomenko worked at the Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University and in the archives of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences, where she received documents on the history of Ukrainian-Japanese diplomacy, which Ivan Svit brought to the United States, as well as personal files of people belonging to the Ukrainian Representative Committee. in Shanghai. Ukrainian immigrants on the Green Wedge and in Manchuria (up to a million people!) Organized their Ukraine, which they missed and longed for, created it as they remembered and aspired to. And all this is in the context of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Revolution of 1917, postwar reconstruction, and so on. It seems that Homer Odysseus could envy such an adventure.

The presentation of Olga Khomenko's book "The Far Eastern Odyssey of Ivan Svit" will take place on January 20, 2022, at 19.00 in kmbs.

The event will be moderated by Andriy Kulikov.

Olga Khomenko — Doctor of Philosophy, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Adjunct Professor of Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.

Andriy Kulikov — journalist, editor, radio host, media expert.