Hnatiuk Aleksandra (Olya)

In April 2019, the NaUKMA Scientific Library began receiving a new collection from our long-time friend and donor, Aleksandra Yevhenivna Hnatiuk (Polish: Aleksandra Hnatiuk). Ms. Hnatiuk had donated books to the Library for many years and subsequently decided to transfer her personal collection in its entirety.
Aleksandra (“Olya”) Hnatiuk is a renowned Polish scholar in the field of Ukrainian studies, translator, and promoter of Ukrainian literature. She is affiliated with the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, serves as Professor at NaUKMA, and is Chair of the Society for the Promotion of Ukrainian Culture in Poland and Polish Culture in Ukraine. She frequently publishes under the name Ola Hnatiuk.
Among her notable achievements are the publication in Poland of poetry collections by Ihor Kalynets and Vasyl Holoborodko, essays and prose works by Yurii Andrukhovych, and Natalia Yakovenko’s History of Ukraine.
Aleksandra Hnatiuk was born on November 11, 1961 in Warsaw, Poland.
She studied Ukrainian and Russian philology at the University of Warsaw and graduated with distinction in 1985. In 1992, she earned the degree of Candidate of Philological Sciences with a dissertation entitled Ukrainian Baroque Religious Song.
She served first as Associate Professor and later as Professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and was a recipient of the Shkliar Fellowship at Harvard University.
In 2004, she obtained her habilitation degree with the monograph Farewell to the Empire: Ukrainian Discussions on Identity. The book received the Jerzy Giedroyc Award (2003) and the Przegląd Wschodni Award (2004) and was published in Ukrainian translation in 2005. She also served as Advisor for Culture and Science at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Ukraine.
Professor Hnatiuk teaches at the University of Warsaw. Since October 2010, she has directed the joint Master’s Programme of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the University of Warsaw. She is also Professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
She is a member of:
• the International Bureau of the International Association of Ukrainian Studies;
• the Scientific Council of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences;
• the Editorial Board of the publishing series Modern Ukrainian Literature;
• Polish PEN;
• the Board of the International Renaissance Foundation (since 2011).
Professor Hnatiuk is also the editor of the publishing series Współczesna literatura ukraińska (Contemporary Ukrainian Literature).
In June 2018, she signed an open letter by cultural figures, politicians, and human rights advocates calling on world leaders to defend the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and other political prisoners held in Russia.
She serves as Vice President of Ukrainian PEN and has received numerous distinctions, including:
• the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2012);
• the Ksawery and Mieczysław Pruszyński Award of Polish PEN (2018).
Reflecting the donor’s professional interests and scholarly expertise, the collection consists primarily of works on translation studies and literary criticism. A substantial part of the collection is devoted to the history of Europe, particularly Poland, and includes a significant body of Polish-language periodicals.
As of January 1, 2026, the collection comprises 2,904 items representing 2,314 titles.

The collection is fully represented in the Electronic Catalogue.
Collection Profile.