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| Ukraine, War, Love: A Donetsk Diary / Olena Stiazhkina trans. from the Russian by Anne O. Fisher Cambridge, MA: HURI, c2024. 296 p. |
This is a powerful book, one that anyone unaware of the realities of the ongoing war against Ukraine, happening since 2014, should read. It's written as a diary, addressed to an unnamed "you", a you which feels like the Russian world that she had lived in prior to this invasion.
Stiazhkina is from Donetsk, and grew up speaking Russian, in the specific milieu of this underserved region. When Russians invaded in 2014, they were able to take advantage of the existing resentments against the Kyiv government, feelings that Donetsk and the region as a whole weren't being given the benefits that other regions were. And of course they took advantage of those who felt a longing for a simple Soviet past.
But Stiazhkina is not only a diarist, she's a fantastic writer. So this book has strong imagery and descriptions of things as they are happening; the locals who get involved (generally men) and the so-called "locals" who come in to stir things up as their day job, getting on a bus to head back to Russia at the end of the day. She also writes about emotion, the varied responses to what's happening -- disbelief, the expectation that it will blow over, anger, fear, and the growing realization of an occupation.
This is a vital read for understanding the beginnings of the current conflict, what people felt and experienced in the moment, and how things progressed. It gives readers a way to understand how one step can lead to many more, and how to recognize them when they are happening. It's such an important read, and one in which the style carries the reader as much as the content. Really good.
It sounds not only worthwhile but enjoyable. Did you find it compelling, because of the quality of the writing, or was it still difficult to read, because of the sorrow attached to the theme, so that you'd tend to avoid it slightly in the stack sometimes?
ReplyDeleteI did avoid it for a few weeks after getting it -- seemed hard to pick up again because of the topic. But the style & voice is very compelling, so I did end up being completely engaged by it. Definitely one to take a few breaks with though; while it doesn't get graphic it's hard to read knowing what was coming.
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