fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Stanislav Volodymyrovych Aseyev (Ukrainian: Станіслав Володимирович Асєєв, romanized: Stanislav Volodymyrovych Asieiev, also Stanyslav Asieiev, Stanislav Vasin Ukrainian: Станіслав Васін; born October 1, 1989) is a Ukrainian writer and journalist, founder Justice Initiative Fund.[2] His best known work is the novel The Melchior Elephant (2016). In May 2014 his native city of Donetsk fell under control of pro-Russian militants and he remained there. During the period of 2015–2017 Aseyev was publishing his reports (writing under the pen name Stanislav Vasin) for Mirror Weekly newspaper and other Ukrainian media, before 2 June 2017, when he disappeared. On 16 July, an agent of the DNR's “Ministry of State Security” confirmed that he was kidnapped by militants from so-called Donetsk People's Republic.[3][4][5]

Stanislav Aseyev
Born	(1989-10-01) 1 October 1989 (age 33)[1] Donetsk, Ukraine SSR, Soviet Union
Pen name	Stanislav Vasin
Occupation	Novelist, journalist
Nationality	Ukrainian
Notable works	The Melchior Elephant
Notable awards	Free Media Awards 2020 National Freedom of Expression Award 2020 Shevchenko National Prize

Despite huge international support Aseyev was sentenced for 15 years[6] and spent 962 days in Izolyatsia prison. He was released as part of a prison exchange and handed over to Ukrainian authorities on 29 December 2019.[7]

Biography

Aseyev born in Donetsk in 1989. In 2006 he graduated from secondary school in the town of Makiivka and started courses in Institute of Informatics and Artificial Intelligence of Donetsk National Technical University. There he earned a Masters of Religious Studies with Honors in 2012.

His philosophical interests include 20th-century French and German ontology.

According to a biography published in Yunost magazine, after attending university Aseyev travelled to Paris, where he applied for service in the French Foreign Legion, then came back to Ukraine and tried many professions such as a loader, intern at the bank, grave digger, operator in a mailing company, and shop assistant.[8]

Journalism in occupied Donetsk

Aseyev has stayed in Donetsk since it was captured by pro-Russian militants in 2014. He described the war in Donbass and his life under occupation in his novel and journalistic reports.

Aseyev used the pseudonym Stanislav Vasin to report from territories occupied by the Russian military and pro-Russian militants. The reason was widespread persecutions by the so-called Ministry of State Security and different militants’ groups of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. Aseyev's position wasn't clearly pro-Ukrainian (he was often accused by commentators of "a lack of patriotism" or "immaturity of political views"). His reports exposing crimes in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic consisted of reports of war crimes of the Republic's militants, Russian activities in Donbass, and pro-Ukrainian resistance.^{[citation needed]}

In 2015 his reports was published by Ukrayinska Pravda. Between 2016 and 2017 he was a correspondent of Mirror Weekly, a notable Ukrainian newspaper where he published 14 articles. Also in 2016 — 2017 he create about 50 articles and photo-reports for US government outlet Radio Liberty.

Kidnapping

His last report was for RFE/RL's project Donbass Realities, sent on June 2, 2017 (disputable if it was really written by him or, maybe, under pressure of kidnappers). His Facebook page was active for a while but probably managed by another person.

Aseyev's mother (living in Makiivka near Donetsk) visited his apartment and witnessed traces of illegal enter and search there.[9]

His fellow student and former MP Yehor Firsov reported Aseyev's disappearance on June 6 blaming Russia-backed militants of kidnapping. Later this fact was commented by Security Service of Ukraine, UN Monitoring Mission on Human Rights to Ukraine, Ukraine Journalists Union.[4]

On July 16, 2017 an agent of the DNR's “Ministry of State Security” confirmed to Aseyev's mother that her son was in their custody and that he is suspected of "espionage". Independent media is not allowed to report from the "DNR"-controlled territory.[5]

In July 2018, Aseyev reportedly began a hunger strike while being imprisoned.[10]

In October 2019 the Supreme Court of the DPR found Aseyev guilty in charges of organizing an extremist community, espionage and incitement to espionage, and public actions aimed at violating territorial integrity, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. #FreeAseyev an international campaign for journalist's release supported by authorities, professional communities and human rights activists was active since 2017 to 2019. Last events of the campaign were held few weeks before his release, November 15, 2019. People gathered on "Empty chair day" in Kyiv,[11] Lviv, Kramatorsk, New York,[12] Rome and London.[13]

Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, Human Rights Watch, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, PEN International, Reporters Without Borders and the United States Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have called for his immediate release.[5][14][15][16][17][18][19] The US Senators Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio have also voiced their support for Aseyev.[20]

Stas Aseyev and his less-known colleague Oleh Halaziuk were released (as part of a controversial[21] prison exchange between the Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic and Ukraine) and handed over to Ukrainian authorities on 29 December 2019.[7]

Political activity

After his release, Aseyev took an active social and political position, dealing with the rights of captives of illegal prisons in Russia and on occupied territories. On January 29, 2020, Aseyev delivered a speech at the Council of Europe in which he asked the member states to put pressure on Russia to release the captives.[22] On February 15, 2020, the journalist spoke at the Munich Security Conference, where he spoke about the inhumane treatment of captives by militants.[23] On February 14, 2020, Aseyev met with a group of US senators at Radio Liberty's Prague office to discuss the release of the remaining captives in the occupied territories of Donetsk region.[24]

Literature

Before his illegal capture and imprisonment, Aseyev published a work of prose—the autobiographical novel The Melchior Elephant, or A Man Who Thought (in Russian). It was published for the first time in Moscow in Yunost magazine (#1 — #6, 2015) and in the next year it came out in hardback in publishing house Kayala (Ukrainian: Каяла) in Kyiv. According to Yunost's editor Yevgeniy Malevich: «his perspective is not a journalist-like, nor a writer-like but he's the young philosopher. In his novel Stanislav turns himself inside out, showing the world of a small town and the war that tore the country in half».[25]

While remaining in his native Donbas region from the beginning of Russia-sponsored hostilities there, Aseyev contributed short dispatches on the situation on the ground to prominent Ukrainian and international media, writing under the pen name of Vasin. A book of collected dispatches entitled In Isolation (in Ukrainian and Russian) appeared while he was still in captivity.

Following his release, Aseyev published an autobiographical work entitled The Torture Camp on Paradise Street (in Ukrainian), describing his time in the illegal prison Izoliatsia and the mistreatment and torture prisoners experienced there at the hands of the Russian-controlled administration.

Awards

• Free Media Awards 2020[26]
• National Freedom of Expression Award 2020[27]
• Taras Shevchenko National Prize (Shevchenko Award) 2021[28]

Works

• Шестой день: сб. поэм, рассказов и стихов / Станислав Владимирович Асеев. — Донецк: Норд-Пресс, 2011. — 207 с. — ISBN 978-966-380-480-4[29] (in Russian)
• Андерхилльские ведьмы: драма: в 2 ч. Проза / Станислав Владимирович Асеев. — Донецк: Донбасс, 2011. — 228 с. — ISBN 978-617-638-065-8[29] (in Russian)
• Мельхиоровый слон, или Человек, который думал: Роман-автобиография / С. Асеев // Юность. — 2015. — No. 1—6.(in Russian)
• Мельхиоровый слон, или Человек, который думал: роман-автобиография / Станислав Асеев. — Киев : Каяла, 2016. — 267 с. — ISBN 978-617-7390-05-2[29] (in Russian)
• В ізоляції / Станіслав Асєєв, тексти, фото; передм. Мар'яни Драч, Сергія Рахманіна, Дмитра Крапивенка; ілюстр. Сергія Захарова // К.: Люта справа, 2018. — 208 с. — ISBN 978-617-7420-18-6
  • Stanislav Aseyev (2022), I n Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas, translated by Lidia Wolanskyj. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. ISBN 9780674268784 (hardcover), ISBN 9780674268791 (paperback), ISBN 9780674268814 (epub), ISBN 9780674268807 (PDF)
• Stanislav Aseyev (2020). Svitlyĭ Shli͡akh: istorii͡a odnoho kont͡staboru [Light Path: the history of a concentration camp] (in Russian). Translated by Viktoriia Stakh (1st ed.). Lviv: The Old Lion. ISBN 978-617-679-854-5. Wikidata Q107392599.
  • Stanislav Aseyev (2021), The Torture Camp on Paradise Street, translated by Nina Murray; Zenia Tompkins, Lviv: The Old Lion, Wikidata Q107392497
  • Stanislav Aseyev (2022), The Torture Camp on Paradise Street, translated by Zenia Tompkins and Nina Murray. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. ISBN 9780674291072 (hardcover), ISBN 9780674291089 (paperback), ISBN 9780674291096 (PDF), ISBN 9780674291102 (EPUB)

References

External links

• Stanislav's author page on Mirror Weekly web-site
• list of Stanislav's publications on RFE/RL and editorial message about the disappearance of journalist
• the first interview after

На других языках

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- [en] Stanislav Aseyev

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[ru] Асеев, Станислав Владимирович

Станисла́в Влади́мирович Асе́ев (псевдоним Станисла́в Ва́син, род. 1 октября 1989[1], Донецк) — украинский писатель, журналист и блогер, основатель Justice Initiative Fund[2]. Автор романа «Мельхиоровый слон, или Человек, который думал». Под псевдонимом Станислав Васин работал внештатным корреспондентом «Радио Свобода» в Донецке[3][4]. Задержан 11 мая 2017 года МГБ ДНР по обвинению в шпионаже и содержался в тюрьме Донецкой Народной Республики до 29 декабря 2019 года.mw-parser-output .ts-Переход img{margin-left:.285714em}. Был обменян в рамках обмена между Украиной и ДНР 29 декабря 2019 года.

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