This tribute is deeply personal. On Sunday, March 22, I had planned to call my longtime friend, Zaporizhzhia-based historian Liudmyla Turchyna, to wish her a happy birthday and share our traditional joke about being only three months apart in age. Instead, I received the devastating news that she was in intensive care. She passed away the following day, March 23.
Officially, Liudmyla Valeriivna Turchyna was a PhD of Historical Sciences and an Associate Professor who dedicated many years to the Department of Ukrainian Studies at the National University “Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic.” But those formal lines barely scratch the surface of who she was.
Our journey began in 1999, during my first year of university. I still vividly remember that classroom in the second building of what was then ZNTU (Zaporizhzhia National Technical University). She was one of the few who pronounced my surname correctly the very first time she saw it on the class list.
Later, when we became colleagues, we often laughed about our nearly identical ages — a joke that sustained our friendship for over two decades.
Professionally, her research on Mykola Khvylovy was foundational. She was among those who revealed the depth of one of the most significant figures of Ukraine’s “Executed Renaissance” to the world. We spent countless hours in spirited debate; I would argue that Khvylovy’s communist convictions made him unworthy of such devotion, yet she remained his steadfast and principled defender. As a scholar who was truly “in the know,” she always had the evidence to back her position. Her passion for her subjects made her an exceptional mentor to generations of students.
Liudmyla loved life, her work, and the people around her. Most of all, she smiled. She smiled even when facing hardship, and even when met with despair.
Though a long illness eventually claimed her life, I refuse to write that she is gone. Her legacy lives on through her scholarship and in the collective memory of those she taught and inspired.
Thank you for every moment, Liuda. Rest in peace.