In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas
In this exceptional collection of dispatches from occupied Donbas, writer and journalist Stanislav Aseyev details the internal and external changes observed in the cities of Makiïvka and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Aseyev scrutinizes his immediate environment and questions himself in an attempt to understand the reasons behind the success of Russian propaganda among the working-class residents of the industrial region of Donbas.

In this work of documentary prose, Aseyev focuses on the early period of the Russian-sponsored military aggression in Ukraine’s east, the period of 2015–2017. The author’s testimony ends with his arrest for publishing his dispatches and his subsequent imprisonment and torture in a modern-day concentration camp on the outskirts of Donetsk run by lawless mercenaries and local militants with the tacit approval and support of Moscow. For the first time, an inside account is presented here of the toll on real human lives and civic freedoms that the citizens of Europe’s largest country continue to suffer in Russia’s hybrid war on its territory.

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In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas
In this exceptional collection of dispatches from occupied Donbas, writer and journalist Stanislav Aseyev details the internal and external changes observed in the cities of Makiïvka and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Aseyev scrutinizes his immediate environment and questions himself in an attempt to understand the reasons behind the success of Russian propaganda among the working-class residents of the industrial region of Donbas.

In this work of documentary prose, Aseyev focuses on the early period of the Russian-sponsored military aggression in Ukraine’s east, the period of 2015–2017. The author’s testimony ends with his arrest for publishing his dispatches and his subsequent imprisonment and torture in a modern-day concentration camp on the outskirts of Donetsk run by lawless mercenaries and local militants with the tacit approval and support of Moscow. For the first time, an inside account is presented here of the toll on real human lives and civic freedoms that the citizens of Europe’s largest country continue to suffer in Russia’s hybrid war on its territory.

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In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas

In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas

In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas

In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas

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Overview

In this exceptional collection of dispatches from occupied Donbas, writer and journalist Stanislav Aseyev details the internal and external changes observed in the cities of Makiïvka and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Aseyev scrutinizes his immediate environment and questions himself in an attempt to understand the reasons behind the success of Russian propaganda among the working-class residents of the industrial region of Donbas.

In this work of documentary prose, Aseyev focuses on the early period of the Russian-sponsored military aggression in Ukraine’s east, the period of 2015–2017. The author’s testimony ends with his arrest for publishing his dispatches and his subsequent imprisonment and torture in a modern-day concentration camp on the outskirts of Donetsk run by lawless mercenaries and local militants with the tacit approval and support of Moscow. For the first time, an inside account is presented here of the toll on real human lives and civic freedoms that the citizens of Europe’s largest country continue to suffer in Russia’s hybrid war on its territory.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674268791
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 04/19/2022
Series: Harvard Library of Ukrainian Literature , #1
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 1,055,390
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Stanislav Aseyev is a Donetsk-born Ukrainian writer and journalist. In addition to two books recounting his experience under Russian occupation in eastern Ukraine, he is the author of a collection of poetry, a play, and a novel. Under the pen name Stanislav Vasin, he published short reports in the Ukrainian press on the outbreak of Russian-sponsored military hostilities in Donbas. Arrested and unlawfully imprisoned by separatist militia forces for “extremism” and “spying,” Aseyev was held captive and subjected to intermittent torture. In 2021, he was awarded the prestigious Taras Shevchenko National Prize for In Isolation.

Table of Contents

From the Editors ix

Preface xi

The Lost Generation of the "Fabled Novorossiia" 1

How I Became a Shadow in My Own Land 10

Who Has Joined the DPR Militants and What Are They Fighting for? 14

Executed as an "Enemy of the People" of the DPR 22

The Checkpoint: "I'm Alive because of the War" 28

How to Defeat the DPR 35

Young People in the DPR and the LPR: What Does the Future Hold? 39

The Donetsk "Uprising" a Year Later: The Future of an Illusion 46

An Excuse to Pull the Trigger 52

The Voice of the Donbas: How Five Thousand Victims Are "Heard" 56

Chronicle of Decline and Fall: The Donetsk Oblast State Administration Building 61

Grenades Aren't a Big Deal Anymore: Everyday Tragedies in Makiïvka 69

Why They Like "Tsars" in the Donbas 74

What Is Ukraine to Me? The View from Makiïvka 78

A Letter to the Russians 83

Who Lives off the Residents of Occupied Donbas? 87

The "Esperanto" of Vladimir Putin 93

A Letter to My Country 97

The Half-life of the Sovok 101

Irreconcilable Differences 108

A Few Fairytales about the DPR 111

Donbas: Seven Hundred Days of Solitude 115

What Comes Next? 126

Lower Than Rock Bottom 130

Cultural Life under Occupation: The City of Donetsk 133

Citizens without Citizenship 136

Homo Donbasus, or The Changes Brought by the War 142

About Easter… and More 149

Chaos in Their Heads: How the War Is Perceived in the Occupied Zone 153

What Pygmalion Left Unsaid 157

Evening Strolls through an Empty City 162

Quid Prodest? 166

The "Remainers": The Undiscovered Bosch of the DPR 174

Screeching in the Thorns 183

"Primaries" under the Occupation 190

Propaganda on the Streets of Donetsk 193

Occupation as It Is: Khartsyzk 195

That Sweet Word, "War" 197

Where the Elite of Occupied Donetsk Take Their Leisure 202

Donetsk: A Tour of Expropriated Places 205

Immersed in War 207

The Donbas in 2017: Three Variations on a Theme 213

The DPR and Religion 224

How the Militants Prepare Children to Join Their Military Organizations 227

"I Fought in the War": Life after Leaving the DPR Militia 230

Back in the USSR: Soviet Themes in Donetsk Eateries 232

"Looking for a Tusk to Buy": Ads in Occupied Donetsk 235

Following the Path of Crimea? 238

Us and Them 247

A Knack for Losing Things 251

Notes 257

Illustration Credits 291

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