Yevgenia Belorusets

In a novel published in 2022 — though written before the current Russian invasion of Ukraine — Yevgenia Belorusets presents 32 pieces that highlight the lives of women affected by the Russian separatist movement in eastern Ukraine during the 2010s. Each profiles an individual woman, with each portrayal running just a few pages in length. What unifies their separate stories is the common thread of displacement. These women, fleeing the violence in eastern Ukraine, are migrants in their show more own country. The unnamed narrator of their life stories provides few clues to her own circumstances, but she is clearly a sympathetic ear in documenting their plights.

These women are outsiders experiencing difficulty fitting into their new surroundings, with most suffering the effects of post traumatic stress. But the author also presents most as possessing supernatural powers, giving the pieces a fairy tale quality. Considering the current events taking place in Ukraine today, they provide a glimpse into a country struggling to uncouple itself from Russian dominance, and the cost it has extracted from the populace.

While it’s not a straightforward documentary of the country’s current plight, Belorusets provides an insight into the spirit of the country’s present resistance to Russia’s invasion. In this novel, the women she highlights represent the country’s backbone. Even if the odds are stacked against them, their desire for a democratic country and their defiance gives proof to why the Russian troops continue to be stymied in their so-called liberation of Ukraine. show less

First published in the German newspaper Der Spiegel and then translated and released each day on the site ISOLARII, War Diary is written by Yevgenia Belorusets during the first forty-one days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I found an ARC of this book while working with Reader Services at my library and though I’ve been trying to read more nonfiction, I still find it a bit hard to get into. I flipped to the preface of this small book, read it, and immediately loved Yevegenia show more Belorusets’ voice and wanted to continue reading it. I finished this in a day. I was so fascinated by how Belorusets was describing what had happened in her hometown of Kyiv, Ukraine.

She brought up a lot of stuff I would have never thought of about a war in modern time with the internet. Such as the fact that the app that would alert them to places that have been striked won’t update things right away in case the wrong area or building was shelled and they would come back to attempt it again. Or how you have to be careful about posting videos or photos on social media, because even the slightest glimpse of something could alert the enemy to locations.

This also alerted me to how crazy it is to how well humans adapt and continue living, even in a warzone. Belorusets talks about grocery shopping and cafes opening back up once it was more “normal”.

Overall, this was an informative, personal collection of entries about the beginning days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and I can see this becoming something used in the classroom as study of these events happening. show less

I saw this in a bookstore in a display of Ukrainian writers and had to buy it. And I'm glad I did, because it was so, so good. A collection of short stories largely centered in impoverished Ukrainian coal country. This collection also centers women, and the unreality of living in the kinds of covert conflict that has been going on there for so long.

The translator's note at the end was so helpful in establishing context for the author and this work, for writing in Russian vs. Ukrainian, show more etc.

I got so much more than I expected here, this was wonderful. show less

This was a terrific account by photographer and writer Yevgenia Belorusets, in the form of a diary, covering the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian war. A war that is, sadly, still ongoing.