Орден Будяка

Perhaps this could have been the funniest episode in my story: the sea, the Bilosaraiska Spit, the sheer absurdity of the situation. If only we did not know what would become of Mariupol and what fate awaited the soldier I met on the road. After February 24, 2022, the Bilosaraiska Spit fell under occupation. The episode features Anastas ki Mariia — Tunes of the North Azovian Greeks (Roumean ABC) f...

“The bus was gathering speed, sending the dust of the white clay road billowing up in misty clouds and carrying me away forever from the little fairy tale in which I had found myself by chance and which had ended so quickly; carrying me away from a radiant man with golden eyes so much like my father’s blue eyes; carrying me away from a world where horses dance, wrestling tournaments are held, and...

I recorded this very cheerful episode about the Greek festival of Mega Yorti in the Roumean village of Maloyanisol, several times struggling to hold back my tears. As one good film put it: “The war will end someday, but things will never be as they were before.” Maloyanisol is under occupation. The Greek communities of Volnovakha, Staromlynivka, and Bohatyr have been almost completely destroyed. V...

As I was planning to record this podcast episode today, I had no idea that these adventures had happened to me on this very day in September 2017. It is a very small episode, yet it contains our entire former life: the boundless steppe, railway and bus stations, stifling buses, chance travelling companions, and the sun sinking like a ball of fire into the sea in Berdiansk, where I found myself by...

"I watched the young man: how he steered his jeep with one hand while dealing with business matters over the phone-with business that, as far as I could tell, was going very well; how he made a point of never wearing a seat belt-and I thought of ancient times, when a horseman could handle two horses with ease, and in that no-man’s steppe no one could tell who he was-a Cossack or a Tatar; when...

In Amsterdam's port There are sailors singing The dreams that haunt them By Amsterdam's seashore In Amsterdam's port There are sailors sleeping Like banners Along the gloomy seaside In Amsterdam's port There are sailors dying Full of beers and dramas Since the very first gleams But in Amsterdam's port There are sailors getting to life In the thick heat Of the ocean's tiredn...

This is a map from the Mariupol Museum of Folk Life and Ethnography at 55 Heorhiivska Street. The museum no longer exists; the building now houses the A. A. Zhdanov Museum, a branch of the St Petersburg State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad. The conversation in the episode takes place in the main building of the Mariupol Museum of Local History at 20 Heorhiivska Street, which...

There is a very concise and very frightening expression in English - never ever: never again. This episode is about never ever. Because even the simplest and most familiar things, or so it would seem - the Kyiv-Mariupol train, the Tourist Hotel, the Mariupol Drama Theatre, the Izba club housed in the former home of the lawyer Yuriev, the Mariupol Museum of Local History, Hretska and Heorhiivska St...

Crimean Yalta and Azov Yalta. Crimea and the Oyster Gatherers. Fishers of the Sea of Azov The episode features a recording of "Lullaby" (a Rumeí folk song) performed by Veronika Bondar from the settlement of Nikolske at the 8th Festival of Greek Song in 2016. *** Кримська та Азовська Ялта. Крим і ловці устриць. Рибарі Азовського моря. В епізоді використано запис румейської пісні «Колиско...

The second season is devoted to Mariupol and its surroundings. It is especially dear to me: after 2014, after the occupation of Donetsk, Mariupol became what the Germans would call my Ersatzheimat-a substitute for home. This city, this sea, these people will forever remain a part of me-not only because Rumeí Greek blood runs through my veins, but because all of it is deeply, personally mine. And w...

When I was writing this book-before the full-scale war-I instinctively titled the chapter about Huliaipole and Makhno “The Order of the Thistle”, drawing an analogy with Scotland's Order of the Thistle. Just as instinctively, I adopted its motto—the motto of one of Europe's oldest and most distinguished orders: “No one provokes me with impunity” (Nemo me impune lacessit). At the time, it s...

When I was recording this episode about Huliaipole in the time of Batko Makhno, the words “Всі хлопці загинули” (“All the boys were killed”), “Які хлопці були, як в ідею вірили” (“What fine young men they were, how deeply they believed in the idea”), “Ця війна - ось тут” (“This war is right here”), and “Знову влада перемінилася” (“The власти changed once again”) suddenly stopped sounding like voic...

Huliaipole is one of my favorite episodes in this book, and Nestor Makhno is one of my favorite figures in Ukrainian history. After 2022, the Makhno Museum was destroyed. On October 1, 2025, Huliaipole was awarded the honorary title "Hero City of Ukraine." *** Гуляйполе - один із моїх найулюбленіших епізодів цієї книги. А Нестор Махно - один із моїх найулюбленіших героїв нашої історії. П...

And on the Sich a wise German Plants little potatoes, And you buy them, Eat them to your health, And praise Zaporizhzhia. But by whose blood That land has been soaked, So that the potatoes grow, You do not care. As long as it is good For your vegetable garden! And you boast That once we brought down Poland!.. True enough: Poland fell, But she crushed you too! (An excerpt from Taras Shevchenko'...

Kamianka–Bilmak. The forestry reserve “Kamianska Dacha” - these steppes and forests lie on the borderland between the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. For centuries, Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, and Poles lived side by side here. A frontier between war and peace. These territories are now under occupation. My conversation with the forester of Kamianska Dacha is, in my view, one of the most importan...

Kamianka-Bilmak. The forestry reserve “Kamianska Dacha” - these steppes and forests lie on the borderland between the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. For centuries, Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, and Poles lived side by side here. A frontier between war and peace. These territories are now under occupation. This podcast features the Ukrainian folk song “Oi Ishly Chumachenky z Ukrainy” (“The Chumaks...

The difficult episodes of our shared history - Petliurists and Jews, Makhnovists and Germans. During a conversation on a bench in a park in Melitopol, after my visit to the Staroberdyansk forestry, I began to understand that civilizational ruptures are directly connected to the history of my own family as well. The photograph shows the old synagogue building in Melitopol. In 2022, Melitopol and th...

This is the story of my journey to the Staroberdyansk Forestry, founded by the Mennonite Johann Cornies. At the end of the episode, there is a Mennonite legend about the Enchanted Kingdom. These territories of the Zaporizhzhia region are now occupied. And the kingdom has remained enchanted. The Staroberdyansk Forestry is a forestry area located 18 kilometers northeast of Melitopol, on the banks of...

This episode is one of the most important in my book. It is based on a conversation with Nadiia Petrivna Doroha, the keeper of the Kalmius Palanka rushnyk (ritual cloth), recorded in the settlement of Blahodatne in the Donetsk region. After February 24, 2022, Blahodatne found itself in a combat zone and was heavily damaged. Today, the settlement is under occupation. The fate of the museum and the...

My story is not just a journey into the past. It is a journey into the past through the lens of the present age already turning into the past. It is a road movie where every stop is a new journey: both through time and within the present. This episode is my road through the Velykoanadol Forest. A road I will most likely never walk again. The Velykoanadol Forest is under occupation. *** Моя історія...

This book is structured like a road movie: each story is a new road, a new journey. This episode marks the beginning of the journey to the Velykoanadol Forest: the Volnovakha station, a suburban bus to Vuhledar. All the settlements mentioned in this episode were destroyed after February 24, 2022. That is why it is so important for me to preserve the memory of these places. The train sound is the a...

«Орден Будяка» (“Order of the Thistle”) is not just a family story, but a kind of road movie: each story is a new road, a new journey. In this episode, I explain why I am going to the Velykoanadol Forest. The Velykoanadol Forest is a state forest reserve with an area of 2,543 hectares, located in the Volnovakha district of the Donetsk region. «Орден Будяка» — це не просто сімейна історія, а своєрі...

I am not a writer. The war made me write. This book is essentially my diaries from 2017 to 2022. It is a story about a world that no longer exists. That is why it was important for me to preserve it as I encountered it. It will never be the same again. Almost all the cities mentioned in this book have been destroyed since February 24, 2022. The book is bilingual — Russian and Ukrainian. Ця книга п...