Yanush Panchenko

Yanush Panchenko (; born 26 June 1991 in Kherson; also published as Janush Panchenko) is a Ukrainian researcher of Romani origin and a specialist in Romani culture, history and language.

He is a research associate at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He has served as an expert on the expert councils of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and as a member of the advisory body of the EVZ Foundation.

A civic activist, Panchenko is the founder of the Romani youth centre and formerly headed the working group on the creation of a writing system for the Romani language in Ukraine under the .

Biography Yanush Panchenko was born on 26 June 1991 in Kherson into a traditional Vlaxurya–Servurya Romani family that had become sedentary in the first generation. The Panchenko family led a nomadic way of life and travelled throughout southern Ukraine, but after the 1956 decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union "On involving in labour Gypsies engaged in vagrancy", which prohibited a nomadic way of life for Roma, Yanush's grandfather settled in the village of Mala Oleksandrivka and later moved to Kakhovka.

In 2016 Yanush Panchenko graduated from the National Aviation University, after which he obtained a master's degree from Kherson State University. In 2018 he became a postgraduate student at Zaporizhzhia National University in speciality 032 – History and Archaeology (supervisor: Professor , Doctor of Historical Sciences). He is also an alumnus of the scholarship programme of the Roma Education Fund.

In 2017 Panchenko founded and headed the Romani youth organisation "Society of Gypsies of the Southern Region – Romano Than", whose activities are aimed at increasing the accessibility and improving the quality of education among Romani teenagers of Kherson Oblast. In 2021, together with like-minded colleagues, he began creating a Romani youth centre of the same name, Romano Than. The idea was supported by the International Renaissance Foundation, and it was ultimately included in the list of the Foundation's 60 best initiatives of 2021. Romano Than became the first Romani youth centre in Ukraine and in the post-Soviet space. However, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the occupation of Kherson Oblast, the Romani youth centre was broken into and taken over by Russian forces. In 2025 he became a co-founder of two new structures: the Ukrainian Centre for Romani Studies at Kherson State University and the German non-governmental organisation Ukrainian Roma Advocacy Alliance (AURA).

Yanush Panchenko is one of the founders of literature in the Vlaxicko dialect. He writes poetry and translates Ukrainian, Russian and world poetry into the Vlaxicko dialect, for which he developed a codification based on the Cyrillic script. He was awarded first and second places at the Bronisława Wajs International Competition of Romani Poetry and Literary Translation in 2019 and 2020. In 2023, in Montreal, he received the Ronald Lee Award for his contribution to the development and preservation of the Romani language. He also took part in the project "Dasha Reads" by , in which he presented his own poem "1944" in Romani. He has worked as a social pedagogue at School No. 6 in Kakhovka, as a broadcaster at Sveriges Radio, and as a monitor for the OSCE.

Main works Books Panchenko, Ya. Словарь влахыцкого диалекта цыганского языка [Dictionary of the Vlaxicko dialect of the Romani language] (ed. ). In preparation.

Translations Panchenko, Ya. (2025). Мэрни англуйи Библия андэ картинкэ [translation into the Vlaxicko dialect of the Romani language]. By K. N. Taylor, My First Bible in Pictures (original work published 2005). Sweden: International Bible Society (IBS) Europe. 264 pp.

Articles Panchenko, Ya.; Kyuchukov, H.; Homanyuk, M. (2025). "Зміст, сприйняття та практики використання етнонімів роми і цигани у сучасній Україні" [Meanings, perceptions and practices of using the ethnonyms Roma and Tsyhany in contemporary Ukraine]. Ekonomichna ta Sotsialna Geografiya (94): 28–52. Zharonkin, Valentin; Panchenko, Janush; Danylenko, Igor; Homanyuk, Mykola (2024). "Decline in xenophobia towards Roma in Ukraine: An analysis of recent public opinion trends". Ekonomichna ta Sotsialna Geografiya (92): 104–113. Panchenko, Yanush; Homanyuk, Mykola (2023). "Servur'a and Krym'a (Crimean Roma) as indigenous peoples of Ukraine". Etnografia Polska 67 (1–2): 155–173. Homanyuk, Mykola; Panchenko, Janush (2023). "From a Pilfered Nail to a Stolen Tank: The Role of a Media Event in the Consolidation of the Ukrainian Political Nation". Dossier No. 1: War, Migration and Memory. Berlin: Forum Transregionale Studien. Makhotina, I.; Panchenko, Ya. (2020). "Календарная обрядность цыган-влахов и сэрвов во второй половине XX — начале XXI века" [Calendar rites of the Vlaxurya and Servurya Roma in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries]. Revista de Etnologie și Culturologie XXVII: 54–64. Makhotina, I.; Panchenko, Ya. (2019). "Традиционный костюм цыган-сэрвов и влахов" [The traditional costume of the Servurya and Vlaxurya Roma]. Scriptorium Nostrum 1 (12): 254–267. Makhotina, I.; Panchenko, Ya. (2019). "Традиционное жилище и элементы неоседлого быта цыган-влахов и сэрвов" [Traditional dwellings and elements of non-sedentary life among the Vlaxurya and Servurya Roma]. Revista de Etnologie și Culturologie XXVI: 22–30.

Textbooks Panchenko, Ya.; Makhotina, I.; Dorokhmanov, N. Адиной тай пистрой рроманэс. Dnipro: Seredniak T. K. 36 pp. Dorokhmanov, N.; Panchenko, Ya.; Makhotina, I. Чити ай скрии рроманес. Dnipro: Seredniak T. K. 34 pp.

Book chapters Zharonkin, Valentin; Panchenko, Janush; Homanyuk, Mykola (2024). "Ukrainian Roma: Facing the challenges of the Russian-Ukrainian war and displacement". In Muratova, E.; Zasanska, N. (eds.). Minorities at War: Cultural Identity and Resilience in Ukraine. Chapter 13, pp. 262–287. London: Routledge. Chernykh, A.; Kozhanov, K.; Tsvetkov, G.; Makhotina, I.; Panchenko, Ya. (2018). "Календарные праздники и обряды; Одежда" [Calendar festivals and rites; Clothing]. In Demeter, N.; Chernykh, A. (eds.). Цыгане [The Roma]. Series "Peoples and Cultures", chapters 6 and 9, pp. 218–233, 251–273, 336–360. Moscow: Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences.