The owner of an enormously long braid and the nickname “Kyiv witch,” Lada Luzina is one of the best-selling Ukrainian authors.
“I still meet people, who seriously ask me if I ride a broom,” says Luzina, who turned 39 on Oct. 21, and seals it with a smile that she doesn’t – “unfortunately.”
Fiction novels “I am the Witch” and “Witches from Kyiv” lent the aura of mysticism to the author. Her real name is Vladislava Kucherova, and she is a former journalist.
“I am the Witch!” is a collection of novels, where a former TV-star turns to magic after her lover betrays her. “Witches of Kyiv” is a series of 10 novels about three women, who inherit magic powers from a dying witch. In her writing Luzina combines fiction, detective tricks, mystic stories and the actual history of Kyiv, which she loves and regrets that some unique Kyiv traditions have been lost.
She says that she found in archives the description of a day when women were “officially” allowed to go nuts and do whatever they want to their husbands. Coincidentally, this freedom holiday was celebrated on March 8, today known as International Women’s Day thanks to German socialist politician Clara Zetkin. Luzina says women were allowed as much as enslaving their men on this day, which was apparently celebrated last in the 1880s.
“There was a cult of sorcerers, who used to meet on Kyiv hills at certain times of the year picking herbs. Because they have been doing it regularly for a long time, people got used to hearing their laughs and voices and invented this myth about Kyiv being the city of witches.”
“The other Kyiv thing was to decorate a thistle bush on the New Year’s Day, which by the old calendar was celebrated on Sept. 1. Women at market places used to put candles and beads on its branches,” she says.
Intertwining fact with fiction, she described these rituals in detail in “The revolution of Amazons.”
The author also claims that Kyiv back in the centuries was known to some as the city of witches.
“The most probable version has been suggested by Kyiv historian Anatoliy Makarov,” she says. “He wrote that there was a cult of sorcerers, who used to meet on Kyiv hills at certain times of the year picking herbs. Because they have been doing it regularly for a long time, people got used to hearing their laughs and voices and invented this myth about Kyiv being the city of witches.”
These are the kind of myths and legends that Luzina is in love with, digging through dozens of historical books and archives. Writing about this type of witchcraft has influenced Luzina’s personality to a degree.
“I have split myself into four parts,” she says.
During socials and networking parties, she puts on the skin of the writer Lada Luzina. When she actually sits down to write, she is a sexless Gene B. “The female factor bothers me the most when I start writing. I would never write anything wearing make-up,” she explained.
When Luzina is not writing or partying, she turns into her third persona – Vladislava Kucherova, her real name. “That’s who I am with my husband, parents and friends,” she says playing with her braid. “Vladislava Kucherova is the one who will never betray; you can rely upon that one.”
The fourth side of her character, or “the falling in love” one, has been imprisoned for four years.
“That part of me was uncontrollable, aggressive and unproductive,” says Luzina.
With 16 books published already, she is full of fresh ideas and plans, although she doesn’t deny she might give it up tomorrow.
“I studied in a construction college and a theater school. I worked as a theater critic and a scandalous journalist, so nothing can stop me from changing everything again if I want to,” she says revealing her demonic fervor.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
