Home » Ukraine » Olena Stiazhkina » Смерть Лева Сесіла (Cecil the Lion Had to Die)
Olena Stiazhkina: Смерть Лева Сесіла (Cecil the Lion Had to Die)
The book opens with the sentence In honour of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ernst Thalmann, new mothers in the Lenin District have chosen to name their children after that heroic German Communist viciously murdered by the Fascists in Buchenwald. As Thälmann was born in 1886, we know that the book starts in 1986, i.e. in the latter years of the Soviet Union. The area in which it takes place is in the Donetsk region of Ukraine where there are lots pf families of German origin. The project is organised by Fink. He was born in 1940 and given the first name Heinrich, which made him a Fascist the following year, He took the name Gennady. He is also called Henya but throughout this book he is invariably known simply as Fink. Though very much involved in this project involving families and children he never marries but will remain involved in the project for the rest of his long life.
There is discussion among the pregnant women as to whose child will take the name Ernst. The situation changes when various organisations decide to offer donations to the winner, including rugs, a TV and even a flat. For various reasons it does not work out as planned. In the end the son of an unfortunate winner who died was one winner and was named Ernest (but not Ernst) son of Bohdan Korniyenko while also a winner was a girl who was called Thelma, near enough to Thälman, surname Pahutiak. The rest of the book follows this group of children, their parents, siblings and, eventually, their children.
The group remains close and a few get heavily involved in helping out, Fink in particular, who seems to make it his life’s work. In many cases whey look out for one another.Sometimes, however, they fight, squabble, argue and disagree. Inevitably many have problems – financial, love and so on, as well as, of course, changes caused by the political situation,in particular the fall of the Soviet Union and, latterly, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bohdan is very much a case in point. He has lost his wife and is left to bring up a son. He struggles because He didn’t call anyone for help because there wasn’t anyone to call.. Fink does help. His mother-in-law visits twice from m Alma-Ata but does little while his mother comes once from Damascus but only as far as Moscow. Moreover, it was very easy not to love Ernest. He screamed, shat, peed his diapers, belched, got his hands or feet stuck in the bars of the crib. He himself had been raised by his grandmother. He tries to be a good father but sometimes strays. One morniong he wakes up in a strange bed with a strange woman. Fink had looked after Ernest and had had to deal with the prodigious amount of waste matter Ernest produced. Fink will continue to do this. Much later in the book we find him,now eighty, looking after a three year old.
The stories are very complex and, of course, intertwine with one another and also continue till well into the twenty-first century. Take the Lischkes. Maria was very pregnant at the the beginning and she and Fink were sure that she was going to have twins and at least one would be a boy whom they would name Ernst. SHe turned out to be carrying a girl and only one. She is Halya aka Halyuska and Haska. She becomes a successful writer at a very young age. However her father was an inveterate gambler and built up a large debt which he owed to the gangsters. Owing money to these gangsters and not paying them promptly was not a good idea as Petro finds out the hard way. His daughter is eventually able to help him pay off the debt. Petro, when not gambling, is a trolley driver and we get a few colourful tales about that while his wife is a into multilevel marketing. As this seems less than useful in a time of war, she takes up shooting, which, of course, proves more useful.
Tanya Nefyodova wants a son and daughter but only manages a son and not till she is thirty. He has a variety of names, starting with Lyosha and ending with the more Ukrainian Les. Tanya has a husband Nefyodov. Even he has forgotten that his first name is Andrey and so his last name is used by everyone, including his wife and his parents.
The mother of Thelma is Angelina. Her husband is soon go off with someone else. Her parents divorce and both remarry and Angelina will remarry and produce another child. Angelina will also have an affair with Nefyodov but it does not work out well. There a are a lot more intertwined stories.
The key date is 2015. This is when tthe Donetsk People’s Republic is formed. This was a breakaway republic created by pro-Russian separatists, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Stiazhkina left Donestsk following these events.
If you had been wondering, as I had, why this book is called Cecil the Lion Had to Die this is the point where all is revealed. Stiazhkina lists many events that also occurred in 2015, mainly not connected with events in Ukraine. One is the killing of Cecil the lion. Apart from the date when it occurred, the murder of Cecil by an American dentist (but legal under local Zimbabwe laws) was significant as it led to changes in the law both in the US and elsewhere on the protection of wild animals, particularly endangered ones.
The creation of the separatist state has an effect on our characters. Many leave the area, going elsewhere in Ukraine or abroad, particularly Germany. A few stay and one even becomes decidedly pro-Russian. Some change their name to a more Ukrainian version and start speaking Ukrainian rather than Russian.
This is a first-class novel. It is very complex with numerous stories criss-crossing. I imagine Stiazhkina must have had a detailed chart on her wall keeping track of all the people and their stories. However, it gives a wonderful portrait of the people and their region, their problems, both the usual problems people have as well as those because of their political and geographical situation.
Publishing history
First published in2021 by Видавництво Старого Лева (Old Lion Publishing House), Lviv
First published in English in 2024 byUkrainian Research Institute Harvard University
Translated by Dominique Hoffman