Dispatches from the Dnipro is the latest artistic offering from Kyle Jankowski—a poet and also a psychotherapist from the University of Chicago as well as a Jungian scholar from the Pacifica Graduate Institute. Mr. Jankowski lives and maintains his clinical practice and carries on his poetic work just outside Chicago.
This most recent collection poetically inquires into and dauntlessly exposes the structure and dynamics of the propaganda machine that the Soviet Union used to such (literally) hypnotic effect then at its very inception, and to such lamentable success as it is having by Russian social engineers for its same hegemonic purposes in its war in Ukraine now.
Anyone who lived through the Cold War on either side of the Iron Curtain and has been engaged in anything from casual reading to advanced academic Slavic Studies will appreciate the force and facticity of Jankowski's unsentimental yet also empathic account of the perennial problem of propaganda.
-Clifford Mayes, PhD. (editor), Professor of Educational Pedagogy, Bringham Young University (retired).
From the author's Introduction:
The Russian War in Ukraine began on my birthday, twice (2014 and 2022). Having been raised among many Ukrainians in Flint, Michigan, and as a historically informed Polonia, I immediately understood what kind of war this was. As thoroughly self-read student of WWII and the Holocaust (Jewish and Polish), I remain keenly, painfully aware of where this war is going, and what will be dug out of the ruins after armistice is signed.
From Winter 2022 to Summer 2023, I dedicated every evening (after attending to my own therapy patients and clinic duties) researching, writing and editing this collection. Dispatches from the Dnipro is a celebration of the triumph of the human spirit and resistance of freedom loving people while amidst great suffering, apocalypse, and some of the worse things we know human beings are capable of, especially during war. My father’s father worked in the war factories in Flint (WWII). My mother’s grandfather returned from WWII (CBI Theater) with unaddressed PTSD. His brother died liberating Europe. His wife’s brother, Joe, also died fighting in that war. Neither of my grandfathers ever seemed to have words to tell their war stories adequately. I do not feel this poetry collection is bound by the borders of Ukraine, and I hope that many veterans across the generations can see their own stories in these pages. Perhaps it can bring them some meaning, sadness, pride, closure.
As Norman Davies (lauded scholar of European and Polish History) recently said of the War in Ukraine, “what people learn of [Eastern European] history is often the Russian version of history”. Dear reader, as this war drags on, and later in the inevitable rebuilding, listen, learn, discern. Also remember, what Leon Trotsky, a leader in the Russian Revolution said, “you may not be interested in this war, but this war is interested in you.” As you read “Dispatches from the Dnipro”, no matter your traditions, remember the historical events of Fatima, Portugal 1917, “pray for the Heart of Russia”. Pray for all those harmed by this war. Pray for its end. Do real impactful work for the refugees of this war and others. See authoritarianism’s false comforts and true costs. Remember them when you use your right to vote, organize, speak and teach your children.
Slava Ukraini! Heroiam Slava!
Kyle Jankowski
November 2023
