Орден Будяка

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...