A Graduate of LTSNU Presented Her Own Book

13.5.2025

Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University is proud to announce a new creative achievement of its graduate, Lena Liahushonkova.

She graduated from the Faculty of History with a degree in Social Work (now the Educational and Research Institute of Social and Humanitarian Sciences) and became a famous Ukrainian playwright, screenwriter, and writer.

Her new book with an unexpected and at the same time symbolic title — “My Flag Was Pissed on by a Cat” — leaves no one indifferent. This is not just history — it is life, seen through the prism of personal experience, irony, pain, and love for her native land.

Born in the village of Stanytsia Luhanska, Lena was fascinated by theater during her student years. Later, her first play was presented at the “Week of Actual Play” festival in 2018. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, she was forced to evacuate for the second time and stayed at artistic residencies in Warsaw and Helsinki.

In 2023, Lena became a participant in the IV Drama Laboratory of the National Union of Theater Workers of Ukraine – a project that explored how to talk about war in the language of the stage.

“My Flag Was Pissed on by a Cat” is not just a memoir, but rather a socio-psychological portrait of an era and a place. The text is full of metaphors, contrasts, and painful truth. This book is about all of us. Sometimes on different sides of the wall. Sometimes in the same house. But always in search of light. This is a text in which laughter borders on tragedy, and humor borders on reflection on war and identity.

You can purchase the book at this link. 

We congratulate Lena Liahushonkova on her creative success and wish her further inspiration, new stories, and a wide readership! The staff of LTSNU is proud of everyone who glorifies their university and their country — in word, deed, art.

Marketing Department of LTSNU