Ben Skliar-Ward
@benskliarward.bsky.social
Author. Exploring how Ukraine endured a century of empire, famine, and exile.
The Quiet That Remains - out now.
The Quiet That Remains - out now.
A torn portrait of Yevhen Konovalets, kept inside an old OUN handbook.
Whatever one thinks of his politics, the fragment speaks to how memory survived in 20th century Ukraine: quietly, and often in pieces small enough to hide.
#UkrainianHistory #CulturalMemory
Whatever one thinks of his politics, the fragment speaks to how memory survived in 20th century Ukraine: quietly, and often in pieces small enough to hide.
#UkrainianHistory #CulturalMemory
December 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
A torn portrait of Yevhen Konovalets, kept inside an old OUN handbook.
Whatever one thinks of his politics, the fragment speaks to how memory survived in 20th century Ukraine: quietly, and often in pieces small enough to hide.
#UkrainianHistory #CulturalMemory
Whatever one thinks of his politics, the fragment speaks to how memory survived in 20th century Ukraine: quietly, and often in pieces small enough to hide.
#UkrainianHistory #CulturalMemory
This embroidery belonged to my great-grandmother, likely hand-stitched in the Zbarazh–Ternopil area of western Ukraine.
Traditional vyshyvanka: patterns and colours tied to local identity.
Quiet work passed down when much else was lost.
#Vyshyvanka #UkrainianEmbroidery #CulturalMemory
Traditional vyshyvanka: patterns and colours tied to local identity.
Quiet work passed down when much else was lost.
#Vyshyvanka #UkrainianEmbroidery #CulturalMemory
December 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM
This embroidery belonged to my great-grandmother, likely hand-stitched in the Zbarazh–Ternopil area of western Ukraine.
Traditional vyshyvanka: patterns and colours tied to local identity.
Quiet work passed down when much else was lost.
#Vyshyvanka #UkrainianEmbroidery #CulturalMemory
Traditional vyshyvanka: patterns and colours tied to local identity.
Quiet work passed down when much else was lost.
#Vyshyvanka #UkrainianEmbroidery #CulturalMemory
A wonderful evening launching The Quiet That Remains - with music, dance, community, and more book sales than expected.
Evenings like this show how strongly Ukraine’s stories continue to resonate.
Thank you to everyone who came and supported the night.
#Ukraine #Author #BookLaunch
Evenings like this show how strongly Ukraine’s stories continue to resonate.
Thank you to everyone who came and supported the night.
#Ukraine #Author #BookLaunch
November 30, 2025 at 12:18 PM
A wonderful evening launching The Quiet That Remains - with music, dance, community, and more book sales than expected.
Evenings like this show how strongly Ukraine’s stories continue to resonate.
Thank you to everyone who came and supported the night.
#Ukraine #Author #BookLaunch
Evenings like this show how strongly Ukraine’s stories continue to resonate.
Thank you to everyone who came and supported the night.
#Ukraine #Author #BookLaunch
Fragments. Most of the story in The Quiet That Remains comes from scraps like this; torn, partial pieces of paper that survive almost by accident.
At first glance it doesn’t look like much.
A few names. A stamp.
“2 horse, 1 wagon.”
At first glance it doesn’t look like much.
A few names. A stamp.
“2 horse, 1 wagon.”
November 24, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Fragments. Most of the story in The Quiet That Remains comes from scraps like this; torn, partial pieces of paper that survive almost by accident.
At first glance it doesn’t look like much.
A few names. A stamp.
“2 horse, 1 wagon.”
At first glance it doesn’t look like much.
A few names. A stamp.
“2 horse, 1 wagon.”
Today is Holodomor Remembrance Day; a moment to remember the millions who died in the man-made famine of 1932–33, and the generations who lived with its silence.
November 22, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Today is Holodomor Remembrance Day; a moment to remember the millions who died in the man-made famine of 1932–33, and the generations who lived with its silence.
A 1931 Soviet poster imagined collectivisation as abundance and progress; golden grain, harmony, inevitability. But by 1931–32, that world was already fiction.
#SovietHistory #UkraineHistory #Collectivisation #HolodomorContext #NarrativeNonfiction #HistoryThroughImages
#SovietHistory #UkraineHistory #Collectivisation #HolodomorContext #NarrativeNonfiction #HistoryThroughImages
November 19, 2025 at 5:37 PM
A 1931 Soviet poster imagined collectivisation as abundance and progress; golden grain, harmony, inevitability. But by 1931–32, that world was already fiction.
#SovietHistory #UkraineHistory #Collectivisation #HolodomorContext #NarrativeNonfiction #HistoryThroughImages
#SovietHistory #UkraineHistory #Collectivisation #HolodomorContext #NarrativeNonfiction #HistoryThroughImages
1. Before famine comes punishment.
Yesterday I looked at the man-made famine of 1921–23.
Today: what 1932 looked like in Ukraine before mass hunger; how coercion made the Holodomor possible.
Document: Kharkiv Regional Committee directive, 7 Nov 1932 (State Archives of Kharkiv Region, CC BY 4.0).
Yesterday I looked at the man-made famine of 1921–23.
Today: what 1932 looked like in Ukraine before mass hunger; how coercion made the Holodomor possible.
Document: Kharkiv Regional Committee directive, 7 Nov 1932 (State Archives of Kharkiv Region, CC BY 4.0).
November 18, 2025 at 5:40 PM
1. Before famine comes punishment.
Yesterday I looked at the man-made famine of 1921–23.
Today: what 1932 looked like in Ukraine before mass hunger; how coercion made the Holodomor possible.
Document: Kharkiv Regional Committee directive, 7 Nov 1932 (State Archives of Kharkiv Region, CC BY 4.0).
Yesterday I looked at the man-made famine of 1921–23.
Today: what 1932 looked like in Ukraine before mass hunger; how coercion made the Holodomor possible.
Document: Kharkiv Regional Committee directive, 7 Nov 1932 (State Archives of Kharkiv Region, CC BY 4.0).
Grain. Most people have heard of the Holodomor in 1932–33.
Far fewer know that Ukraine had already been through a man-made famine in 1921–23; one driven less by drought than by policy.
Far fewer know that Ukraine had already been through a man-made famine in 1921–23; one driven less by drought than by policy.
November 17, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Grain. Most people have heard of the Holodomor in 1932–33.
Far fewer know that Ukraine had already been through a man-made famine in 1921–23; one driven less by drought than by policy.
Far fewer know that Ukraine had already been through a man-made famine in 1921–23; one driven less by drought than by policy.
“The suitcase was never meant to be opened.”
I grew up with quiet stories. Fragments more than explanations. Years later the suitcase appeared, with papers that carried the outline of a century: famine, repression, war, exile.
The book grew from that.
#TheQuietThatRemains #UkraineHistory
I grew up with quiet stories. Fragments more than explanations. Years later the suitcase appeared, with papers that carried the outline of a century: famine, repression, war, exile.
The book grew from that.
#TheQuietThatRemains #UkraineHistory
November 16, 2025 at 5:27 PM
“The suitcase was never meant to be opened.”
I grew up with quiet stories. Fragments more than explanations. Years later the suitcase appeared, with papers that carried the outline of a century: famine, repression, war, exile.
The book grew from that.
#TheQuietThatRemains #UkraineHistory
I grew up with quiet stories. Fragments more than explanations. Years later the suitcase appeared, with papers that carried the outline of a century: famine, repression, war, exile.
The book grew from that.
#TheQuietThatRemains #UkraineHistory
The suitcase that began the book.
Inside it were the papers that traced a century of upheaval in Ukraine - and the quieter forms of endurance that carried people through.
#TheQuietThatRemains #UkraineHistory
Inside it were the papers that traced a century of upheaval in Ukraine - and the quieter forms of endurance that carried people through.
#TheQuietThatRemains #UkraineHistory
November 15, 2025 at 5:43 PM
The suitcase that began the book.
Inside it were the papers that traced a century of upheaval in Ukraine - and the quieter forms of endurance that carried people through.
#TheQuietThatRemains #UkraineHistory
Inside it were the papers that traced a century of upheaval in Ukraine - and the quieter forms of endurance that carried people through.
#TheQuietThatRemains #UkraineHistory
A short introduction for new readers.
I’m Ben, author of The Quiet That Remains.
I’ve spent three years tracing family papers found in a suitcase, and through them a century of upheaval in Ukraine - and the quiet that carried people through.
Here I share the objects and fragments behind the book.
I’m Ben, author of The Quiet That Remains.
I’ve spent three years tracing family papers found in a suitcase, and through them a century of upheaval in Ukraine - and the quiet that carried people through.
Here I share the objects and fragments behind the book.
November 14, 2025 at 3:39 PM
A short introduction for new readers.
I’m Ben, author of The Quiet That Remains.
I’ve spent three years tracing family papers found in a suitcase, and through them a century of upheaval in Ukraine - and the quiet that carried people through.
Here I share the objects and fragments behind the book.
I’m Ben, author of The Quiet That Remains.
I’ve spent three years tracing family papers found in a suitcase, and through them a century of upheaval in Ukraine - and the quiet that carried people through.
Here I share the objects and fragments behind the book.
A 1940s notebook: diagrams of engines, notes on combustion and motion.
After famine and war, repair and technology became a kind of hope.
Today, Ukraine’s engineers again work through the dark to keep things running.
Continuity written in ink and graphite.
#Ukraine #UkraineHistory #Україна
After famine and war, repair and technology became a kind of hope.
Today, Ukraine’s engineers again work through the dark to keep things running.
Continuity written in ink and graphite.
#Ukraine #UkraineHistory #Україна
November 10, 2025 at 6:50 PM
A 1940s notebook: diagrams of engines, notes on combustion and motion.
After famine and war, repair and technology became a kind of hope.
Today, Ukraine’s engineers again work through the dark to keep things running.
Continuity written in ink and graphite.
#Ukraine #UkraineHistory #Україна
After famine and war, repair and technology became a kind of hope.
Today, Ukraine’s engineers again work through the dark to keep things running.
Continuity written in ink and graphite.
#Ukraine #UkraineHistory #Україна
8 November 1932: 93 years today, Stalin orders that goods to Ukrainian villages be halted until grain quotas are met; deepening that winter's man-made famine.
A union card for an accountant in the milling trade survives from that world of ledgers and grain.
#Holodomor #UkraineHistory #Україна
A union card for an accountant in the milling trade survives from that world of ledgers and grain.
#Holodomor #UkraineHistory #Україна
November 8, 2025 at 5:46 PM
8 November 1932: 93 years today, Stalin orders that goods to Ukrainian villages be halted until grain quotas are met; deepening that winter's man-made famine.
A union card for an accountant in the milling trade survives from that world of ledgers and grain.
#Holodomor #UkraineHistory #Україна
A union card for an accountant in the milling trade survives from that world of ledgers and grain.
#Holodomor #UkraineHistory #Україна
Arras, France - c. 1950.
A small Ukrainian dance group - friends, siblings, and neighbours in exile - wearing vyshyvanky.
Each stitch carried a place, a pattern, a memory.
In exile, it became a quiet statement of remaining.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #UkrainianDiaspora #Vyshyvanka
A small Ukrainian dance group - friends, siblings, and neighbours in exile - wearing vyshyvanky.
Each stitch carried a place, a pattern, a memory.
In exile, it became a quiet statement of remaining.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #UkrainianDiaspora #Vyshyvanka
November 6, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Arras, France - c. 1950.
A small Ukrainian dance group - friends, siblings, and neighbours in exile - wearing vyshyvanky.
Each stitch carried a place, a pattern, a memory.
In exile, it became a quiet statement of remaining.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #UkrainianDiaspora #Vyshyvanka
A small Ukrainian dance group - friends, siblings, and neighbours in exile - wearing vyshyvanky.
Each stitch carried a place, a pattern, a memory.
In exile, it became a quiet statement of remaining.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #UkrainianDiaspora #Vyshyvanka
“The soul suffers. The trembita rings out.”
2 April 1950, Newhaven, England.
A Ukrainian poem, Ксеню, copied by hand in exile, echoing the folk song Hutsulka Ksenya, a Carpathian melody of love and belonging.
#HistBookChat #UkrainianPoetry #UkraineHistory #Україна
2 April 1950, Newhaven, England.
A Ukrainian poem, Ксеню, copied by hand in exile, echoing the folk song Hutsulka Ksenya, a Carpathian melody of love and belonging.
#HistBookChat #UkrainianPoetry #UkraineHistory #Україна
November 4, 2025 at 5:45 PM
“The soul suffers. The trembita rings out.”
2 April 1950, Newhaven, England.
A Ukrainian poem, Ксеню, copied by hand in exile, echoing the folk song Hutsulka Ksenya, a Carpathian melody of love and belonging.
#HistBookChat #UkrainianPoetry #UkraineHistory #Україна
2 April 1950, Newhaven, England.
A Ukrainian poem, Ксеню, copied by hand in exile, echoing the folk song Hutsulka Ksenya, a Carpathian melody of love and belonging.
#HistBookChat #UkrainianPoetry #UkraineHistory #Україна
c. 1945–48: Ukrainian print of a collage made in a Displaced-Persons camp in Bavaria.
Soviet newspaper clippings, repatriation appeals, political messaging - rearranged into new meaning.
The battle for language never ends; it only changes form.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #CulturalMemory
Soviet newspaper clippings, repatriation appeals, political messaging - rearranged into new meaning.
The battle for language never ends; it only changes form.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #CulturalMemory
November 2, 2025 at 5:12 PM
c. 1945–48: Ukrainian print of a collage made in a Displaced-Persons camp in Bavaria.
Soviet newspaper clippings, repatriation appeals, political messaging - rearranged into new meaning.
The battle for language never ends; it only changes form.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #CulturalMemory
Soviet newspaper clippings, repatriation appeals, political messaging - rearranged into new meaning.
The battle for language never ends; it only changes form.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #CulturalMemory
1944: A Ukrainian Arbeitskarte.
The war’s paperwork outlived the war.
In every stamp and fingerprint; an uneasy record of control and endurance.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #TheQuietThatRemains
The war’s paperwork outlived the war.
In every stamp and fingerprint; an uneasy record of control and endurance.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #TheQuietThatRemains
October 31, 2025 at 5:06 PM
1944: A Ukrainian Arbeitskarte.
The war’s paperwork outlived the war.
In every stamp and fingerprint; an uneasy record of control and endurance.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #TheQuietThatRemains
The war’s paperwork outlived the war.
In every stamp and fingerprint; an uneasy record of control and endurance.
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #TheQuietThatRemains
What remains of a nation when its history is silenced?
The Quiet That Remains traces Ukraine’s turbulent twentieth century through the lives of one ordinary family - from empire and famine to exile and renewal.
skliar-ward.com
#TheQuietThatRemains #HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #NarrativeNonfiction
The Quiet That Remains traces Ukraine’s turbulent twentieth century through the lives of one ordinary family - from empire and famine to exile and renewal.
skliar-ward.com
#TheQuietThatRemains #HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #NarrativeNonfiction
October 29, 2025 at 3:56 PM
What remains of a nation when its history is silenced?
The Quiet That Remains traces Ukraine’s turbulent twentieth century through the lives of one ordinary family - from empire and famine to exile and renewal.
skliar-ward.com
#TheQuietThatRemains #HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #NarrativeNonfiction
The Quiet That Remains traces Ukraine’s turbulent twentieth century through the lives of one ordinary family - from empire and famine to exile and renewal.
skliar-ward.com
#TheQuietThatRemains #HistBookChat #UkraineHistory #NarrativeNonfiction
“If a nation’s culture survives, then so too does the nation.”
From Prague’s Museum Kampa - a sentiment that could have been written in any century Ukrainians fought to preserve their words and songs.
#Ukraine #HistBookChat #CulturalEndurance #TheQuietThatRemains
From Prague’s Museum Kampa - a sentiment that could have been written in any century Ukrainians fought to preserve their words and songs.
#Ukraine #HistBookChat #CulturalEndurance #TheQuietThatRemains
October 27, 2025 at 3:37 PM
“If a nation’s culture survives, then so too does the nation.”
From Prague’s Museum Kampa - a sentiment that could have been written in any century Ukrainians fought to preserve their words and songs.
#Ukraine #HistBookChat #CulturalEndurance #TheQuietThatRemains
From Prague’s Museum Kampa - a sentiment that could have been written in any century Ukrainians fought to preserve their words and songs.
#Ukraine #HistBookChat #CulturalEndurance #TheQuietThatRemains
1940: Viktor’s conscription papers, issued just before the front shifted again.
One of thousands of fragments tracing Ukraine’s century between empires.
Read more: www.skliar-ward.com
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory
One of thousands of fragments tracing Ukraine’s century between empires.
Read more: www.skliar-ward.com
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory
October 25, 2025 at 4:50 PM
1940: Viktor’s conscription papers, issued just before the front shifted again.
One of thousands of fragments tracing Ukraine’s century between empires.
Read more: www.skliar-ward.com
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory
One of thousands of fragments tracing Ukraine’s century between empires.
Read more: www.skliar-ward.com
#HistBookChat #UkraineHistory
A fragment from the 1930s: the Soviet passport of Evdokiya Skliar, born near Poltava — nationality listed as Ukrainian.
One of the earliest traces behind The Quiet That Remains, a history of Ukraine built from ordinary lives and fragile records.
www.skliar-ward.com
One of the earliest traces behind The Quiet That Remains, a history of Ukraine built from ordinary lives and fragile records.
www.skliar-ward.com
October 22, 2025 at 7:18 PM
A fragment from the 1930s: the Soviet passport of Evdokiya Skliar, born near Poltava — nationality listed as Ukrainian.
One of the earliest traces behind The Quiet That Remains, a history of Ukraine built from ordinary lives and fragile records.
www.skliar-ward.com
One of the earliest traces behind The Quiet That Remains, a history of Ukraine built from ordinary lives and fragile records.
www.skliar-ward.com