Life and Death Fatigue: A Half-Year Review of the Russian-Ukrainian War | Jinma Fund Announcement No.50

On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine on the grounds of "demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine", and the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out. August 24 is not only the half-year anniversary of the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, but also the 31st anniversary of Ukraine's separation from the Soviet Union and becoming an independent country. Half a year later, there is still no sign of a ceasefire in the war, and the world seems to be slowly getting used to the "largest war in Europe since World War II".

Matty had published two issues of the Kinmadaw Fund announcement on the Ukrainian War ( "Ukrainian War: Say No To War" & "Ways to Watch War" ) at the beginning of the war, and also followed the Ukrainian and Russian-speaking communities on Matters ( " Ukrainian War: Say No To War" & "Ways to Watch War"). A few in the community, all in the lives of others” ). This week, Jin Ma selected the good articles of Matt City in the past six months, and invites you to review the separation and persistence, pain and redemption in the war.

She/they are on the record front

Poland-Ukraine Border Live Series & Poland Live Series - @李雨梦

I'm a driver who tried three times to get into Ukraine to bring people over to the Polish side. On the Ukrainian border, the line of people who have been waiting in Poland is very long. There are more than a thousand people queuing there. It is really crazy. Children can be seen crying everywhere. There are even two ladies who were in the queue because of their physical condition. Go bad and die. Also, my wife is from eastern Russia but currently lives in Ukraine. Three days after the war, she called her sister who lived in Russia, and my wife said, "Did you know that your soldiers are bombing Ukraine?" Her sister said, "What are you talking about?" But three days had passed by then.

In Medyka, on the Polish border, Hong Kong citizen journalist Li Yumeng brings you first-line interviews and reports. The mother of her daughter who is a soldier in Ukraine, a man who picks up refugees on and off the border between Poland and Ukraine, is going to return to Kyiv to take the owner of two dogs at home, the fate of ordinary people, and tell the cruelty of war. Li Yumeng believes that "citizen journalists should speak out for the oppressed, so that they can be 'seen' by the public." Clicking on her homepage, you can "see" more stories about the border between Poland and Ukraine.

In Poland, the double exile of Ukrainians - by @陈宇源

"My mother only started to realize in the past few days that the world she once was can't come back," Natalie took a puff of e-cigarette, shaking her shoulders in the cold wind. "What is her world?" "The Russian-speaking world," Natalie said. "She has lived in the Soviet era for half her life and is used to speaking Russian. She thinks Ukraine and Russia..." "Are you brothers and sisters?" I see Nata Li was pondering the choice of words and sentences, and she blurted out. "No, no, no," she hurriedly denied. "She knew about the famine in Ukraine, experienced Chernobyl... She just felt that we were deeply connected culturally. She felt that these were irrelevant. She continued to speak Russian even after Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014."

In Kraków, Poland, one of the cities with the largest number of Ukrainian refugees, Shen Yuyuan documented the lives of several refugees. Due to martial law during the war, most Ukrainian men could not go abroad, and women became the main group in exile. What does an infinite war mean to them? How did they start a new life in the distance, and what did the rebirth bring? The author not only records "individual panic and suffering", but also "reconstruction and resistance, and hope of return".

129 | If In Wartime: A Female Reporter (with Tracklist) —— by @World Walks seh seh

Between the halo and the shadow, the professionalism of a war correspondent can be roughly reduced to: getting where others can't go, and telling what others don't know. Making a record for history is the inner calling of all journalists, men and women alike. But female journalists took longer than men to reach the battlefield. Just like joining the military, field reporting was once regarded as a job "only for men". Female reporters with a news mission kept colliding, trying to join the ranks of their male colleagues, witnessing every conflict as a woman, and leaving more than one kind of war reporting. figure.

The dangers of war reporting are not comparable to ordinary reporting, and female war correspondents face threats of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and even sexual violence. And they've proven time and time again that female journalists can go where men can't, changing people's imaginations about war reporting in the past. The article discusses the obstacles and contributions faced by women journalists in the field, and provides a list of women journalists on the front lines of the Russian-Ukrainian war, whose coverage can be tracked through social media.

The sound of distant artillery fire

Replies from Ukrainians (1) & (2) - @Kime

The bombing has spread to my hometown, usually about ten explosions. The world seems to be slowly getting used to this terrible war, and it doesn't help the war in any way. There was a humanitarian disaster in Mariupol, people died without water and food, and their families had no chance to bury their deceased loved ones, sometimes they (including children) had to sit next to the dead on heavy bombs. The stories of those who managed to escape the battlefield are heartbreakingly painful.

At the beginning of the war, Kime found some Ukrainians on the Internet and asked about their current situation. Two of them have long replies, and Kime also shared two replies on Matters, so let's read the letters in the sound of gunfire together.

[Russian-Ukrainian War] Retirement and War of Ukrainian Sexuality / Other Minority: "Being Ruled Will No Longer Have Gay Pride" —— by @G Dot TV

At present, Ukraine's "National Mobilization Order" prohibits most male nationals from leaving the country. Some trans women are forced to stay in the country because the gender on their ID cards is still "male"; There is concern that neighboring Eastern European countries may not fully accept them. On the other hand, quite a few Ukrainian gender/gender minorities organized themselves, went to the front lines, acted as logisticians, and fought in various positions to defend the country. Perhaps there is a gloom in everyone's heart: If Ukraine eventually loses to Russia, will Putin, who is known for suppressing domestic gender/different minorities, bring them the "darkest hour"?

In the exceptional state of the country, the first to be sacrificed are often the minority and disadvantaged groups. G-spot TV focuses on the sex/gender niche in the Russian-Ukrainian war. In Ukraine, where male citizens are "all soldiers", how should transgender people protect their rights? What kind of future are they worried about? How did they act to defend the country?

New book launch in Kharkiv air-raid shelter - by @國外人

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, has been attacked almost continuously by the Russian military with artillery, long-range missiles or air-dropped bombs. During this time, they have even learned to distinguish the types of Russian bombs by sound, the director said. Still, they really didn't know where their next hiding place would be. Nonetheless, making books almost never stops, because they believe that Ukrainians under fire, fleeing and refugees from other European countries need books for solace.

Amidst the sound of gunfire, publishing continued. This article documents the release of the Ukrainian version of an American children's picture book, Go the fuck to sleep . Despite the perils of everyday life, Ukrainian publishers are still doing their best, trying their best.

I was arrested at an anti-war demonstration in St. Petersburg - by @ChineseMarxist Library

In front of the subway station, the chaotic crowd has been surrounded by police and riot troops. People don't know what to do or how to express their opposition to the war in Ukraine. Among the protesters were people of all ages, but there were few posters and symbols. After twenty minutes there—and after the police began broadcasting to disperse the crowd—the timid cries of "against the war" and "Putin is a killer" finally began. The police began arresting people almost immediately; right in front of me, they arrested an old woman with an "Against War" poster.

More than 15,000 anti-war protesters have been arrested in Russia to date. The author of this article, Valentina Pavlova, is a researcher at the European University of St. Petersburg and a socialist. She recounted how she protested in St. Petersburg, was arrested and brought to court days after Russia invaded Ukraine.

answer in history

Russia-Ukraine Historical Relations and Imperial Trauma—— by @thucydides

Bulgakov, creator of The Master and Margarita, insists Ukrainian is a "non-existent, vile language". Solzhenitsyn, the author of The Gulag Archipelago, although very anti-Soviet, was not anti-Tsarist Russia. "In the 2000s, Solzhenitsyn met Putin several times, and they both agreed that the East Slavic unity of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia must be restored." Joseph Brodsky, the Nobel Prize winner for literature who was also persecuted by the Soviet Union , in a poem titled "On the Independence of Ukraine," lashing out at Ukrainians, saying: "When it's your turn to die, you big idiots, you scratch your mattress with a screeching noise and recite Alexander (Pushkin) ) rather than Taras' gibberish. (Taras Shevchenko, one of the founders of modern Ukrainian language)". These people, like Pushkin, can be said to be conscientious intellectuals in Russia, but at the same time they also have a real "imperialist" mentality.

Is Russia's invasion of Ukraine in response to "NATO's eastward expansion" or to divert domestic conflicts? The author believes that what Putin is actually pursuing is the great achievement of establishing a unified empire. Where does the myth of a "great Russian Empire" come from? Why even the intellectuals, who are the conscience of Russia, have become the standard bearers and horns of the "Great Unification"? thucydides reviews Ukraine-Russia relations and teases out the historical context of Russian imperialist tendencies.

【Translation】The formation of Ukrainian identity—— by @小小Mo

Western historians generally agree that Stalin deliberately caused the famine: the Red Army blocked villages and people could not go to the cities to beg for food. The Great Famine in Ukraine has been called a "genocide" since 2006, because Stalin seemed to want to punish Ukrainians who wanted to resist and become independent, and the death toll in Ukraine was so high. In today's Russia, it is still impossible to discredit the heroes of the Soviet Union. Putin wrote in his article that it was a famine that affected the entire Soviet Union. But he argues that calling the famine genocide is "blurring and rewriting history".

Fighting Cossacks, the establishment and division of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the Great Famine in Ukraine, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine's declaration of independence, the Square Revolution in 2014. Events have shaped the identity, unity and fighting spirit of Ukrainians, and the history of Ukrainians becoming Ukrainians is condensed in this shrewd translation.

About Russia, what Ukrainian literature has always understood - by @ Qingjian Cangxin

For centuries, Russia has refused to see and listen to Ukraine, refused to recognize the value of Ukraine as an independent existence, and Putin's aggression. It is based on this historical concept. Yet the work of all these Ukrainian writers, from Lysha Yuklainka to Oksana Zambosiko, shows that violence only inspires Ukrainians to find more powerful, more creative, and more Reckless way to make them real Ukrainians.

The struggle exists not only between the trenches, but also between the mind and the pen. Faced with an arrogant empire, Ukrainian writers have fought to defend their Ukrainian identity for more than a century. This translation introduces the works and styles of several Ukrainian writers and attempts to answer the question: How did Ukrainian national identity emerge from pain, oppression, and self-writing?

"Prequel" of the Russian-Ukrainian War: Read "In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine" —— by @ silent spring's off-site diary

Now seven years have passed, and the absurdity is even worse. The images of the Russian army blowing up one city after another in Ukraine impact the bottom line of human morality every day, but this book does not seem outdated at all; Now that the prelude or rehearsal of Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, reading the experiences of Ukrainians of different backgrounds in the fire and their views on the current situation, it is like watching their "prequel", and I can't help but imagine: Are they okay now? ? Stay put or become a refugee? Do you love Ukraine more than ever, and take pride in being Ukrainian? This is a book that speaks to the times.

This article takes you through the book "In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine" published by The Economist writer and journalist Tim Judah, to take a peek at the Maidan Revolution (also known as Ukraine's pro-EU protest movement), Russia's annexation of Crimea Before and after Asia, how did the European world react, and how ordinary Ukrainian people faced the possible "unification". In the half year of the Russian-Ukrainian War, this was "a book that can dialogue with the times".

Beyond the battlefield, within the war

135 | The Backup Battle of 3000 Websites, Their Alternative Ukrainian Rescue - by @worldwalkseh seh

What was the hardest part of this rescue operation? "It's time," he said. "The urgency of the war makes everything that happens on the ground fickle. Some sites disappear as soon as we crawl and archive them, and they haven't recovered until now."

In 2017, "Documentary Heritage Related to accident at Chernobyl" was listed as a "World Cultural Memory" by UNESCO. But just after the outbreak of the Ukrainian-Russian War, this batch of digitized historical materials collected by the Ukrainian State Archives and open to the public in the form of websites turned into a line of invalid URLs.

This article documents the Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) operation. In a war, like material culture, a website's servers may be destroyed, and the website itself may be altered. Knowing the fragility of digital cultural memory, several scholars took action to back up the website day and night. Despite the remarkable results, they hope that things can return to business as usual, "hoping that the results of the work will never come in handy".

Support is not limited to donations, you can also permanently store the history of the Ukrainian-Russian War on the blockchain - by @杨言

More than 10 million tweets, videos, photos and articles related to the Ukraine conflict have been saved on the Arweave platform. This information can be viewed through the ViewBlock, and can never be eradicated. And to further encourage participants to upload files related to the Ukraine crisis, Arweave announced that it will provide a $100,000 grant to cover transaction fees required for uploading.

Preserving memory and history is also an important means of fighting hegemony. Matty has paid attention to how the Web3 community supports the front line through donations and community activities. Similarly, blockchain technology can also permanently preserve historical data. Use the power of facts to fight for the right to write history.

The Form of Poetry｜Bukowski's poem describing Russian atrocities - by @MaryVentura

I've read (can't remember which faction/ did) that during the Russian Revolution/ they would grab a guy, cut open his stomach, nail his/ a piece of his intestines to a tree/ and force him to go around that tree The tree / ran in circles, and his intestines circled / wrapped around the trunk. I'm not a sadist. If I had to watch it, / I might cry, or maybe go crazy. / But I know that / even if romanticism / always pours into the love and hate of our hearts, / we are a lot heavier than we think we are /.

After the Bucha Massacre, Mary Ventura translator shared this poem by Charles Bukowski. From the Russian Revolution more than 100 years ago to this year's Butcha, the atrocities were appalling and repeated. Poetry explores the bottom line of people and reminds us not to be numb to violence.

The Russian-Ukrainian war, the Taiwan Strait crisis, in the six months when the world situation has undergone drastic changes, are you ready to meet a new "accelerated" world? You are welcome to share your thoughts and feelings in Matters, or Tag articles or writers related to this topic in the comment area.