Vasyl Semenovych Stus was a Ukrainian poet and publicist, one of the most active members of Ukrainian dissident movement. For his political convictions, his works were banned by the Soviet regime and he spent 23 years (about half of his life) in detention.
Stus' poetry is an act of resistance and the naked soul of a man who did not knuckle under. Each poem is like the confession of a man who was tried to be broken but could not be. His poems are complex, full of stoicism, philosophical reflections on freedom and the inevitability of fate. It is a reflection of Ukraine, which fights and defends itself. Reading Stus is like going through a fire purification; it is poetry for those who seek inner verticality and true honesty with themselves.