Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev

Andrei Kurkov is a novelist living in Kiev with his English wife and three teenage children. He is also a diarist - he has made a habit of practicing his craft by capturing his impressions of each day's events.His diary rings true as just that - a diary. It is entirely in the present tense. It has not been redacted to look prescient, nor has the author gone to much trouble to ensure that a reader who is not familiar with Kiev, Ukraine and the politics of the area knows what is going on where.The Maidan uprising and subsequent Russian invasion have been awash in propaganda, mostly from Russia though the West does its part. This diary serves as a database of observations by a (very alert and well connected) common man of events as they happened. He assumes that the readership of his diary shares the common knowledge of people in Kiev. He does not go out of his way to make the case that:* President Yanukovych was Putin's choice for President of Ukraine, and Russia was deeply involved in installing and manipulating him.* Therefore, the Russian FSB (national security service), successor to the KGB, played a large role in Ukrainian politics. Under Yanukovych Ukraine's analogous SBU did likewise, though their service of Ukraine's real interests after Yanukovych left has impressed this reviewer.* Putin is aggressively working to reestablish Russia's empire. This has been evident through his wars in Georgia and Moldova, and his constant bullying of Ukraine Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Baltic states. He uses natural gas prices, promises of loans and trade restrictions to constantly jerk them around.* The Moscow Patriarchy of the Orthodox Church is essential an organ of the government, subordinate to Putin. Peter the Great brought them under his control three centuries ago.The evidence of the diary will convince the reader that these suppositions are correct. Kurkov makes a number of wry comments about the transparency of the lies offered by Yanukovych and Putin, and about Yanukovych's stupidity. This diary quote could have come from anyone in Kiev: " This country has never had such a stupid president before, capable of radicalising one of the most tolerant populations in the world!"There are some very important terms that Kurkov does not explain. For example:* The titushki are paid troublemakers that Yanukovych bused in from the countryside to cow the more civilized urbanites of Kiev. They are thugs: members of local fight clubs. They would be promised 400 hryvnya (then, about $50) to raise havoc. One of Yanukovych's many mistakes was to constantly stiff these thugs, paying them less than the agreed amount.* The berkut were the highly trained riot police. They use tactics going back to the Roman "turtle" and improved during the US antiwar riots of the 60s and 70s. They generally moved in a phalanx, protected by large shields. They were armed with truncheons and rubber bullets. Disciplined as they were, they would probably not have used live ammunition without authority.* The byudzhetniki (the root word is budget) are low-level civil servants, encouraged/coerced to turn out in support of the government.Wikipedia will be useful for looking up others.The diary describes where events took place. It will be convenient to keep Google Earth open in a window as you read the book. Important places are:* Lazarevka is where Kurkov has his dacha, his country house. There are tens of places by that name. This has to be the tiny village 40 miles west of Kiev.* The places he describes in Crimea are along the southernmost coastline, a beautiful and rugged stretch reminiscent of the Amalfi Drive, France's Corniche, or California's Big Sur.* Downtown Kiev is quite small. It is a five-minute walk from Kurkov's house to Maidan, another five to the houses of parliament, and just another five to the presidential mansion. All of the action took place within ¼ mile of the main drag, Khreshetik, which is a bit more than a half-mile long.The diary assumes that the reader is familiar with events. He does not describe the shootings on Maidan or the invasion of Crimea, assuming that the reader knows what is going on. It will be useful to have a chronology of events at hand.This book ties in neatly with other books on Russia and the war.  Letters from Russia (Penguin Classics)  clearly describes the tsar's power, his instruments for projecting that power, and the country's foreign policy objectives. They have not changed in 175 years. Archie Brown's  The Rise and Fall of Communism  describes how it worked in the 20th century. Timothy Snyder's  Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin  describes how Russia and Germany made Ukraine the bloodiest place on earth for a decade and a half. John Keegan's  A History of Warfare  starts with a description of the Cossacks - the same Cossacks that Putin has revived to serve as his palace guard and terrorists in Ukraine. Lastly,  Putin's Wars: The Rise of Russia's New Imperialism  describes the extensive planning that went into the wars in Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea and now Ukraine. Nothing is by accident.

This book is diary entries from the author's time around end of 2013 and start of 2014 when the Maidan protests against Yanukovich's era and shortly before the Russian invasion of the Crimea. The author's style is short and pungent. The notes at the end are useful bakcground to Ukraine history and factions in the recent past that are not will covered in the news cycle. A dark prelude to what has happened there this year.

“When nothing in particular happens in the life of a man and his country, the man might believe his existence to be stable and eternal...The man who lives in one of the world's 'hot spots', or simply lives next to an active volcano, has a different view of time.” (loc. 87 Kindle version)“Ukraine Diaries” shows the “different view of time”. The time is late 2013 and early 2014. Yanukovich refuses to sign the Association Agreement with the EU. Protestors gather in the Maidan and are beaten. Yanukovich flees. Putin takes over Ukraine and unrest spreads through the Donbas. In the meantime life goes on: Kurkov travels to Lithuania for a conference, hands out literary prizes and takes the family on vacation to Crimea.This is not a scholarly work. It does not delve into history. It does not quote figures, documents or reports. It does not aspire to be systematic. It is a personal, genuine account of life in Kiev during the crisis. It is history seen by the common man. And it is superbly written. Look at how Kurkov explains what the protests were trying to achieve “If everyone accepts the rules, the the poor police officer will find himself bound by them as well. If we don't accept them he will maintain the right to take ice creams for his children from the kiosk without paying for them” (loc. 166, Kindle version)“Ukraine Diaries” is unique among books on the Ukrainian crisis. I greatly enjoyed it.

Very illuminating and personal look at the shocking continuing struggle of the Ukrainian people for independence from Russia.

This was a fun and educational read from a writer who lived a couple blocks from the center of action in the Kiev demonstrations earlier this year. It is in diary form and by a man with strong nationalistic feelings, but it so much better information than you can possibly get from reporters. It if nice to get the feeling that you are actually there. My only regret was it did nit go on a couple of mor months - and maybe that is coming.

It's well written and a good book. But it is not about the Maidan. It's about living through it. Imagine a cc TV shot of a kitchen while a war rages outside. From that perspective. It is a good book.

This is a journalistic treatment of the author's experiences before and during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The author is hardly disinterested or impartial, but he writes as a worldly person who has seen a lot of bad news and doesn't get excited easily. How this will all play out, we have yet to learn.The author is a famous writer of mystery novels, very dark, and in a uniquely Ukrainian stylr.

Very good; that is, a lot better than our Media's establishment reporting! Men go there for a beautiful and loving wife!!

These are the diary entries of the author, starting on Thursday 21 November 2013 and ending on Thursday 24 April 2014. They cover the demonstrations and occupation of the Maidan (Independence Square) in Kiev. Throughout this period, the author lived with his young family within walking distance of the Maidan and also at the family’s weekend house in the country at Lazarevka, west of the city. There is an underlying and overt violence during this period and uncertainty about the future of the country. In the south Russia annexed Crimea and in the east Russian-backed separatists were in the ascendant. I found the situations unfamiliar and confusing, although the short Publisher’s Note at the start and the author’s Notes at the end helpful. This book has now become the prequel to the author’s current  Diary of an Invasion: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine .THE BOOK: The book is mostly diary entries. These are all short, between ½ page and 2 pages long. Background information is provided by the Publisher’s Note at the start and the Notes by the author at the end of the book †.LOOK INSIDE provides the book’s contents, including a list of the diary dates, the Publisher’s Note and the maps of Ukraine and Kiev that begin the book. It also provides the first eight diary entries, from Thursday 21 November 2013 to Saturday 30 November,THE FRONT COVER shows a protestor at a barricade at Hrushevskoho Street near Independence (Maidan) Square, February 2014._____________________________________________† THE BOOKPublisher’s Note (1 page)Map of Ukraine (across 2 pages)Map of central Kiev (1 page)Preface (2 pages)Diary entries (235 pages)Afterward (27 June 2014) (5 ½ pages)Notes1. Yulia Tymoshenko (2 pages). . . Yulia Tymoshenko was a businesswoman and politician, co-leader of the Orange Revolution in 2004 and then prime minister. She ran for president in May 2014, coming second to Petro Poroshenko.2. Viktor Yushchenko (3 pages). . . Viktor Yushchenko was a banker who was appointed prime minster and later became president.3. Titushky (1 page). . . Titushky are people hired by government representatives to intimidate, provoke clashes or carry out violent acts against the regime’s opponents.4. Holodomor (the Great Famine of 1932-33) (1 ½ pages). . . In 2006, the Ukrainian Parliament officially recognised the Holodomor of 1932-33 as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. To this day, Russia refuses to acknowledge the artificial nature of the famine, which it still ascribes to a poor harvest.5. Western Ukraine (3 pages). . . Western Ukraine was part of the USSR for only forty-six years, and it was able to keep its ethnic unity, its language and its enterprising character. The central and eastern regions of Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union as early as 1918.6. Georgly Gongadze (1 ½ pages). . . Gongadze was a journalist and founder of one of the first opposition newspapers on the Internet. He was abducted in September 2000. His body was later found in a forest sixty miles from Kiev.7. Ruslana (½ page). . . The winner of Eurovision in 2005 and active in Euromaiden.8. Road Control (½ page). . . An organisation founded to defend the rights of Ukrainian motorists against illegal police practices.9. Mikhail Khodorkovsky (½ page). . . A Russian oligarch imprisoned by Putin.10. Stepan Bandera (2 pages). . . A Ukrainian nationalist born in 1909.11. Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (2 pages). . . Before the Second World War, UGCC was the largest Church in western Ukraine. After the war the Soviet government actively repressed it.12. The language question (1 page). . . Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian all have the same origin. They began to diverge in the seventeenth century.13. Yurko Vynnychuk. . . Yurko Vynnychuk is a famous Ukrainian writer born in 1952 and now living in Lviv. Diary of an Invasion: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

I bought this book after seeing the author interviewed on Hardtalk and listening to his account of the first days of Russia's invasion on R4. This diary pre-dates the current situation and begins 2013/14 giving an interesting account of living in Ukraine at the time of the Maidan protests and the Orange revolution. It also references Russia's annexation of Crimea, all events which foreshadow the full-scale invasion of today. It gave me a basic understanding of the unstable political climate, which eventually led to Zelenskiy's landslide victory and Putin's brutal war on Ukraine. As a personal diary, it also gives an fascinatng insight into the culture and daily lives of Ukranian people.

Andrey Kurkov tells us in the Preface to this book that he has kept a diary for more than 30 years. This 234 page abstract covers just 154 days between 21st November 2013 and 24th April 2014. Kurkov lives within 500 yards of Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Independence Square, or simply The Maidan, so his diary naturally contains extensive reference to the increasingly violent and destructive actions and reactions centred on the Maidan and surrounding streets during that period.Kurkov records that on Sunday 8th December he spent some time in the Maidan and joined in the chanting, calling for the widely-despised Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, to resign. For the most part, though, he skirts the action as he passes between his home, his office and various other points in the city. Nevertheless, he is extremely well-informed and deeply interested at the political level.One of his most prescient remarks is, 'This country has never had such a stupid President before, capable of radicalising one of the most tolerant populations in the world!' Not that Kurkov has any admiration either for Victor Yushchenko, the previous President and chief beneficiary of the 2004 Orange Revolution, or for Yulia Timoshenko, the former Prime Minister who, although imprisoned, clung to the hope of succeeding Yanukovich.I have so far felt that there is an enduring question about Yanukovich's ultimate departure: - Why did he flee when he did (in the early hours of Saturday 22nd February), when an agreement to leave him in office for a further ten months had just been signed? Kurkov helps me towards an answer.We have known for some time that Yanukovich's packing began on Wednesday 19th, and that many of his associates left Kiev on Thursday 20th. So the realisation that all was over evidently came on Wednesday 19th.Kurkov reports, 'This night of warfare (Tues 18th - Wed 19th February) has transformed the city centre to ruins.' The Kiev Metro stopped running on Tuesday 18th and was still not running on the 19th. On Tuesday 18th, the Maidanistas set fire to the headquarters of Yanukovich's Party of Regions. The Berkutovsky (thugs used by the government as auxiliary police) invaded the Trades Union building - used by the Maidanistas as a dormitory and a hospital - and set that on fire. The Central Post Office and the Music School were occupied by the Maidanistas on Wednesday 19th. With minute-by-minute rolling headlines reporting events such as those, no wonder if those in power felt their time had come to its end.Moreover, it is alleged that on the night of Tuesday 18th Yanukovich telephoned Vladimir Putin but failed to win his support. Putin effectively confirmed that (as early as Thursday 20th) when he said that he gave Yanukovich no advice - and that his earlier offer of a multi-billion dollar loan to Ukraine was now withdrawn.So, on Wednesday 19th Yanukovich knew that for him it really was Game Over. He perhaps didn't know that the infiltration of unidentified Russian troops into Crimea was to begin on Thursday 20th, whilst he was still President and active in Kiev, an overlap of timing that Kurkov points out.I found the book a depressing read. That is because of the many pointers to the mess that has ensued. Nevertheless, it is a valuable read, and definitely recommended if you want to know more of the background to EuroMaidan and the events that have followed.

Kurkov opens the Pandora's Box of life in the Ukraine during the mass protests of 2013. He explains what factions constitute the forces the Kremlin use to cause fear and chaos.In his diary account of events nine years past he and for that matter the population generally appear to be living in fear of a Russian invasion.The horrific nightmare had yet to unfold.

An informative read that flows well. Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦 ♥️