Serhiy Viktorovich Zhadan is a Ukrainian writer, translator, public figure, frontman of the bands “Zhadan and Dogs” and “Mannerheim Line”.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on August 23, 1974 in Starobilsk, Luhansk region.
In 1996, he completed his studies at the Faculty of Ukrainian-German Philology of Hryhoriy Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. During 1996 – 1999 he completed postgraduate studies at the same institution.
In 2000, he defended his PhD thesis on Ukrainian futurism.
Writer career
In March 1997, Zhadan was elected to the post of one of the vice-presidents of the Association of Ukrainian Writers (AUP).
Since 2000, he has been teaching at the Department of Ukrainian and World Literature at Hryhoriy Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. He held the position until 2004. It was then that his novel “Depeche Mode” was published, and on the eve of the Orange Revolution, he openly opposed the then government and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych.
Later, Zhadan decided to end his teaching career and devoted himself to literary creativity and social activism.
In 2006, Zhadan received the BBC Book of the Year literary award for Capital. He subsequently received this award twice more. It was at this time that his works began to be actively translated, and his popularity in Western Europe increased significantly.
In terms of creativity, Zhadan was sometimes compared with the work of Mykhailo Semenko, especially at an early stage. However, unlike Semenko, he did not resort to radical experiments with language or form.
In his texts , the writer touches on the themes of war, self-identification and life in the post-Soviet space. The characters of his works are often in search of their own place and go through the process of forming national consciousness. After the outbreak of hostilities in Donbas, the war became one of the leading motifs of his prose.
Zhadan is known not only as an author, but also as a translator. He translates works from German, English, Belarusian and Russian. His work includes the works of such writers as Paul Celan, Charles Bukowski, Andrei Khadanovich, Kirill Medvedev and Daniil Davydov.
Musical activity
“Zhadan and the Dogs”
The Ukrainian rock band “Dogs in Space” was founded in Kharkiv in 2000, and in 2007 Zhadan joined it.
The band’s debut album – “Choir of Mongolian Militiamen” – consisted of songs based on the poetic texts of the writer. The very next year, a joint work “Army Sports Club” was released, in which Zhadan performed poems to musical accompaniment.
In 2012, the band, together with the poet, presented the album “Weapons of the Proletariat”, in which the music acquired a more energetic sound and a clearer social content.
In 2014, the group changed its name to “Zhadan and the Dogs”. After that, four albums were recorded: “Fight for Her”, “Dogs”, “Madonna” and “Radio Beam”.
With the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the band began to hold charity concerts both in Ukraine and abroad, raising funds for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
In 2024, their new album called “Evil” was released.
“The Mannerheim Line”
Another musical project of Zhadan is “Mannerheim Line”, which he founded in 2017 together with Oleg Kadanov and Yevhen Turchynov. The project is distinguished by a combination of guitar and electronic sound. The first performance took place in February 2017 in Izyum on Lennon Square.
A year later, in February 2018, the band presented their first mini-album “Where’s Your Line?”.
Since 2022, the band members have joined the support of the Ukrainian army – some of them joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Marital Status
Zhadan was married twice.
His first wife is Svitlana Oleshko, director of the Kharkiv Arabesque Theater. They got married in 1996, and later the couple had a son, Ivan. After 12 years of marriage, the couple divorced.
Zhadan entered into his second marriage in 2009 with Iryna Kunitsyna, whom he met at the Folio publishing house in Kharkiv. The couple rarely shared details of their personal lives, leaving it out of media attention. The marriage gave birth to a daughter, Maria. In 2023, the couple filed for divorce.
In 2023, rumors appeared in the media about a possible relationship between Zhadan and singer Khrystyna Soloviy after the release of the video for the song “Heart”, in which they played the role of a couple in love. However, this information was later refuted.
Serhiy Zhadan: interesting facts
Here are some interesting facts from Zhadan’s life:
- He began to write his first poems in his school years. When the texts got to the teacher, she recommended him to be more attentive to the vocabulary and avoid obscene expressions;
- one of his most famous novels – “Voroshilovgrad” – was a literary breakthrough. The work has been translated into sixteen languages, including Hungarian, German, French, Polish, English, Italian, Latvian, and more;
- back in 1991, Zhadan, together with Rostyslav Melnykov, Andriy Kokotukha and Ihor Pylypchuk, founded the poetic association “Chervona Fira”. They staged grotesque performances in Kharkiv and sometimes spent the night in the Literary Museum;
- in 2009, there was a conflict with the mayor of Kharkiv, Mykhailo Dobkin. He excluded Zhadan from the list of contenders for the Boris Chichibabin Prize, explaining that the poet allegedly publicly burned Yevhen Kushnarev’s books during the Orange Revolution.
