The electronic version of the source collection «Unbreakable Kyiv Region: Testimonies of Witnesses of the Russian-Ukrainian War» is made available.
The book contains testimonies of witnesses of the full-scale stage of the Russian-Ukrainian war, recorded from residents of the Kyiv region during field ethnographic expeditions by a group of scientists from the M.T. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2024 - 2025. The narrated stories reflect a mosaic of life’s vicissitudes during wartime in the territorial communities of the region, both during the greatest threats of 2022 (temporary Russian occupation, being in the zone of direct hostilities or close rear) and the difficult conditions of the near present, when acts of terrorism by Rashism continue to commit genocide against Ukrainians, including in the Kyiv region. The war-time everyday life formed under extremely difficult circumstances is an intertwining of various survival strategies and practices of civil resistance, dramatic realities of evacuation and determination to hold on to the native land until the end, social phenomena of volunteering, sacrifice, loyalty and personal courage, religious worldview and confessional charitable practices, the desire for peace and active support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the common Victory. The narratives mostly reflect two dimensions of everyday practices in wartime realities - the individual and the community - which outlines the place of social cohesion in the most crisis periods. The interview texts presented on the pages of the collection testify to the resilience and heroic solidarity of all our interlocutors from the communities of Kyiv region, who even in the inhumane space of war managed to preserve a human face for contemporaries and all future generations of Ukrainians, for which they deserve our deepest respect.
As a source of knowledge about national resilience, this book will interest a wide Ukrainian public and foreign audiences of the present and future, and will serve researchers (ethnologists, folklorists, historians, socio-cultural anthropologists, sociologists) and the educational-cultural sphere well.
The publication was prepared based on the results of the scientific project «Contemporary Wartime Everyday Life of Kyiv Region Communities: Cultural-Anthropological Dimension» (state registration number: 0124U002320), implemented within the framework of the NAS of Ukraine grant for research laboratories / groups of young scientists of the NAS of Ukraine to conduct research in priority directions of science and technology development in 2024-2025.
Information from the M.T. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology of the NAS of Ukraine