Diary of an Invasion

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This journal of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a collection of Andrey Kurkov's writings and broadcasts from Kyiv, is a remarkable record of a brilliant writer at the forefront of a twenty-first-century war. Andrey Kurkov has been a consistent satirical commentator on his adopted country of Ukraine. His most recent work, Grey Bees, in which only two villagers remain in a village bombed to smithereens, is a dark foreshadowing of the devastation in the eastern part of Ukraine. We started talking every day, probably from November or December last year, about whether the war would come or not," Kurkov says. "I was sure there would be an escalation - that Russia would go for the whole of The Donbas - but not an all-out war. This is the first book of Kurkov I read, although I've heard of him before as one of the few Ukrainian authors who have a presence in the g From day one I stopped writing fiction. I couldn't concentrate on anything but reality. So, when I was asked to comment about events, I started speaking on radio and television then writing about what was happening." When war approaches your home you are left with a choice – to evacuate or accept occupation. A person starts thinking about this choice well before the first explosions are heard on the outskirts of their city or village. War is like a tornado. You can see it from afar, but you cannot easily predict where it is going next. You cannot be sure whether it will blow your house away or only pass nearby, whether it will uproot a few trees in your garden, or blow the roof off your house. And you can never be sure that you will remain alive, even if the house itself is only slightly damaged."

Diary of an Invasion by Andrey Kurkov | Waterstones Diary of an Invasion by Andrey Kurkov | Waterstones

Nothing is being published in Ukraine now and I cannot imagine much reading going on among Ukrainians either. I don’t read, although I try to. War and books are incompatible. But after the war, books will tell the story of the war. They will fix the memory of it, form opinions and stir emotions. Some people seem to need an extra rush of adrenaline to live a normal life. I do not need this. I would rather be in our village now, watching the onset of spring, the first flowers and cherry blossom. If I were in the village right now, I would visit my neighbours Nina and Tolik twice a day, maybe more often. We would listen to the distant explosions of shells and try to understand which side they were coming from." His voice is genial but also impassioned, never more so than when deploring Putin’s efforts to erase Ukrainian culture and history. Ukraine, he says, “will either be free, independent and European, or it will not exist at all”. That’s why the war has to be fought, with no concession of territory. And he remains quietly hopeful that it will be won. A few hours later, at 4.30am local time, Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles, air strikes and artillery rounds, and sent airborne forces and armoured columns on a smash-and-grab raid on Kyiv. In Diary of an Invasion, his own newly published account of the war so far, Kurkov wryly observes that at least Putin did not spoil his dinner party. Instead, Kurkov and his wife were woken by explosions in the small hours of the morning. Equally alarming, he recalls: "The Russians took Ukrainian children to summer camps and they were not returned. On Russian media, I read that a group of Ukrainian kids were taken to a Russian town and were making jokes about Putin, so the Russians started 're-educating' them." He pauses: "I wouldn't believe it if it wasn't happening."Kurkov's diary is beautiful, moving, inspiring, heartbreaking. It is not often that we get to read a diary in the middle of a war, in which the author of the diary gives an insider's view of things. I'm sad that this diary exists because of the war, but I'm glad that Kurkov decided to share his thoughts and insights with us and takes us deep into Ukraine in the middle of the war-torn zone and shows us how life is. We get a live account of events as history is being made. In Mariupol and other cities of the south and east, bookshops were destroyed along with their books. In other cities they were simply shut down. When they open again, it will mean that peace has come to Ukraine. When a bookshop opens again in Mariupol, it will mean much more. 4 April 2022 In a recent opinion piece for The Guardian, Andrey Kurkov writes about recycling. While over 3,000 Russian tanks have been destroyed since the beginning of the latest war in Ukraine, it’s the smaller scrap metal and artillery shell casings that artists have focused on painting for European auctions that have raised money for the Ukrainian military and humanitarian aid. The war offers other opportunities for recycling in the forms of historical figures, renamed places, and myths about national identity. Such are the adaptations of a culture at war, a thoroughly modern war that Kurkov examines through his own understanding of the history that led the Ukrainian people to where they are now. The army is now the most trusted institution in Ukraine," he says. "Something like 85 percent of Ukrainians believe in the army and only 60-something percent believe in Zelensky. The army is more important than the presidential office."

Diary of an Invasion,” Normal Life in Ukraine Has Become In “Diary of an Invasion,” Normal Life in Ukraine Has Become

The year before Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s former puppet prime minister and president, had stated bluntly that Ukrainians were Russia’s “vassals”. Kurkov is most famous for writing fiction. His novels have been translated into 42 languages. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, he felt unable to continue. Immediate and important ... This is an insider's account of how an ordinary life became extraordinary' Helen Davies, The TimesSurprisingly perhaps to a British audience, he is not an unalloyed supporter of Zelensky, whose leadership has won worldwide praise, drawing comparisons to Winston Churchill. Although he does believe the president has proved himself under fire. Recalling that night at the start of his new book on Ukraine, Invasion, Luke Harding notes that their host made excellent borshch; having reported on the former Soviet Union since 2007, the veteran Guardian/Observer correspondent is presumably in a position to know. Kurkov, Harding writes, was “an agreeable companion, the author of many playful and magically luminous books, and Ukraine’s most celebrated living writer. Also, remarkably, he was an optimist.” This is the first book of Kurkov I read, although I've heard of him before as one of the few Ukrainian authors who have a presence in the global literature community and has English translations. Some list called him the most well-known Ukrainian author. I must say neither I nor most of my Ukrainian friends have heard of him, though some Western friends have.