Opening of a Ukrainian Library
After the war began in 2022, Oksana founded a Ukrainian library at the St. Barbara Church in Vienna. The library became a cultural hub for Ukrainians abroad, preserving the native language and preventing the assimilation of children. The collection grew to over 5,700 books and 15,000 loans. Renovations in January 2024 allowed for various events, strengthening the library’s role.
My Story of Cultural Volunteering in Vienna and the Founding of the Ukrainian Library at St. Barbara Church
I’ll start with the morning of February 24, 2022, when I woke up to a notification on my smartphone. It was a message from my mother, who, in just two sentences, described her last will and testament. That’s when I realized that war had started in Ukraine.
With the war came long days of intense volunteer work in a hastily organized “headquarters” at the Greek Catholic St. Barbara Church in Vienna. Marches, protests, fundraising for medical and humanitarian needs, and assisting newly arrived Ukrainians — the active phase of this daily, exhausting work lasted two months. When the Austrian government finally began addressing refugee issues, the volunteers at our headquarters organized into smaller groups and took on various roles. We understood that Ukraine needed our support both in the short and long term.
Father Taras Shagala asked me to help establish a Ukrainian library at the church, and I agreed without hesitation. This happened at the end of April 2022, and the development of the library continues to this day. Together with Olena Mazurina and her daughter Anastasia, we set up a functioning library in less than two weeks. They had fled from Sievierodonetsk, losing their home, and were just beginning to switch to speaking Ukrainian. This work helped them cope with the stress of relocation and the inability to return home.
We created a Google Sheets catalog of books and an online reader form, allowing readers to borrow books using a QR code. One unique feature of the library is that it is entirely free and contains no books in Russian. Visitors can borrow up to two books for three weeks. We started with a collection of 500 books donated by a diaspora library previously established by the Vitoshynsky family.
Our Goal – Integration into Austrian Society While Preserving Ukrainian Identity
We decided not to pursue commercial interests or charge fees, as not everyone could afford to use the library, especially vulnerable groups like pensioners or single mothers. Together with the priest, we set ourselves the goal of helping Ukrainians maintain their native language abroad and preventing the assimilation of Ukrainian children. Unfortunately, government policies regarding children are more assimilationist than integrative. That’s why volunteers come four days a week to open the library for visitors. I coordinate this process. The library operates on weekends and all holidays.
Speaking in numbers: The library catalog now includes over 5,700 books donated by patrons or purchased through crowdfunding. We even created our own merchandise — bookmarks, notebooks, and stickers. Over the library’s existence, more than 100 people have volunteered, some of whom continue to do so.
Currently, the user database contains over 7,000 entries. Considering that the average person borrows two books (we sometimes make exceptions and allow three), this means that books have been borrowed over 14,000 times.
Renovations and a New Life for the Library
Until January 2024, the library space wasn’t very appealing — incomparable to Kyiv’s bookstores. People came only to borrow books, and we couldn’t host any events due to a lack of space. I lobbied for the library’s renovation, and the parish provided the funds. The designer-architect Ihor Dopilko created a project, which was successfully implemented.
I personally went through the entire collection to update the catalog. Many donated books were not in high demand among readers. These and other items (e.g., duplicate books) I sold after Mass and at “Charity Coffee” events. With the proceeds, I purchased new releases that had recently appeared in Ukrainian bookstores. This way, I tried to meet demand and create new offerings.
In January, after the renovation, we relaunched the space, adding events. Over the past nine months, more than 45 events have taken place in the library — from literary to creative and artistic ones. Most events are free and creatively designed to attract as many people as possible. For example, at the Taras Shevchenko celebration, the audience danced to the song Sadowytschny by the band Mertvyi Piven. To promote the library’s Instagram account, I launched a giveaway of the Almanach of the Wizard.
I invest a lot of personal effort, energy, and resources to ensure that this project not only survives but also thrives. To be completely honest, my ultimate dream is to create a Ukrainian Cultural Center in Vienna. Step by step, our community is moving toward this goal. Through the library, I am gaining the necessary experience, and perhaps one day, this dream will come true.