Oleksandr Khomenko

About the show

Oleksandr Khomenko with a lecture “Ukrainian Culture vs. Charles Darwin: The Ones Who Survive Are Not the Ones Who Adapt”This lecture challenges the familiar Darwinian formula. Ukraine’s story demonstrates something different: nations do not survive because they adapt - they survive because they resist, reinvent, and stubbornly remain themselves even when the world demands the opposite.

From the 1920s to the 2020s, Ukraine has lived through repeated cycles of destruction and renewal. Cultural elites shot in forests. The Ukrainian language pushed out of schools and institutions. Writers, scientists, artists erased, exiled, or silenced - entire generations broken by famine, terror, and war.

And yet the country endures. Its culture evolves not through compliance, but through refusal to disappear.

Through key personalities and crucial historical episodes, Oleksandr Khomenko explores the paradoxes behind the “Ukrainian question”: why every attempt to erase Ukrainian identity ultimately fails; how cultural continuity survives systemic violence; and why Ukraine’s creative instinct becomes a survival mechanism stronger than any empire.

Prepared specifically for an international educational tour, this lecture is delivered in English to welcome both global audiences and Ukrainian expatriates, navigating the complexities of multiple cultural identities. It offers a sharp, emotionally resonant framework for understanding Ukraine as a phenomenon: a culture that survives not by adapting - but by refusing to surrender its essence.

A Q&A session will follow the lecture.
Oleksandr Khomenko is the co-founder and frontman of the creative collective “MUR.” He is the author and director of the historical musicals “Ty [Romantyka]” and “Rebelia [1991],” as well as the co-author of the music albums “Vol. 1,” “Zahaliavna Knyzhechka,” and “Pax Romana.” Beyond artistic work, “MUR”, together with Khomenko as its leader, is deeply involved in educational outreach, giving public lectures and producing cultural and historical video content for social media