To a Kurdish Brother)[2] is an Aesopian[3] poem written by the Ukrainian Vasyl Symonenko in March 1963 and disseminated clandestinely in samizdat until 1965 when it appeared posthumously in the German journal Suchasnist.
By the end of the fourth stanza, Symonenko introduces the word "our" and asserts that chauvinism and its deceits are the worst foes of both Kurds and Ukrainians.
[4] Svitlana Kobets of the University of Toronto argues that the poem became "a symbol of national resurrection and resistance to Soviet oppression".
[4][8] Symonenko himself asserted that historical parallels were needed because the common denominator was chauvinism,[9] and argued that Ukrainians would end up in the same situation as the Kurds regarding statelessness if they did not fight the Soviet regime.
[11] The inspiration is seen at the first stanza: Into the fragrant valleys, scarred and wounded, Comes the invader, hungry chauvinism.