Diary of an Invasion:

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Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov is strongest when he writes on cultural matters. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP I got 'Diary of an Invasion' by Andrey Kurkov as a present from one of my favourite friends. I loved all of Kurkov's books that I've read before and so was looking forward to reading this one.

The soldiers finally left the house. Vakulenko told his parents he had been taken to a “special department” set up near the village school, where he had been beaten in the groin. The soldiers had told him: “Don’t get upset.” On the eve of the February onslaught, a Ukrainian spy chief briefs Harding: “Ukraine had a ‘pretty good understanding’ of its neighbour, but Russian expertise on Ukraine, on the other hand, was ‘very weak’. Ukrainians spoke Ukrainian and Russian; Russians didn’t understand the Ukrainian language or the country’s culture. He added: ‘They consider us to be a lost province.’” As if by some divine joke, in the Ukrainian National character, unlike in the Russian one, there is no fatalism. Ukrainians almost never get depressed. They are programmed for victory, for happiness, for survival in difficult circumstances, as well as for love of life.” Though Kurkov holds a Ukrainian passport, he was born in Russia. Writing in both Russian and Ukrainian for most of his life has opened him up to criticism from both sides. Ever on the lookout for historical parallels to explain the present, Kurkov has written in defense of writers like The Master and Margarita author Mikhail Bulgakov after members of Ukraine’s national writers’ union called for the renaming of Bulgakov’s family home, which is now a literary museum in Kyiv. Best known in Britain for his top-selling novel Death And The Penguin, though he was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg), Kurkov is a proud Ukrainian so is well-placed to understand how Putin's war has severed the two countries' once strong cultural and emotional connections.Then, in the afternoon of 7 March, a line of tanks, the Russian tricolor flying from the first, lumbered into his village, rattling the windows in the cottage and churning the road into mud. At first he thought the Russians must be lost, or they’d move on, or that somehow it wasn’t real. But it was real. With what turned out to be the last breath of mobile signal, he sent a message to his ex-wife, Vitaliy’s mother, who lives outside the area and who uses a wheelchair, letting her know that they were now under occupation. Not all Russia is a collective Putin. The unfortunate thing is that there is within Russia no collective anti-Putin.” But he had already foreseen that his pro-Ukrainian views would get him arrested. “I knew that sooner or later they would turn me in, and there were plenty of snitches,” he wrote. In the Ukrainian countryside, there is a long tradition of having plenty of bread on the table and of eating it with butter and salt or dipping it in milk.

Nato may have been re-energised and EU cooperation strengthened, but no one knows how Putin's war will end, which makes Kurkov's poignant book all the more important, telling, as it does, of the devastating impact on ordinary people.Russians were vertical in their thinking, always looking feudally upwards,” he concludes. “Ukrainians were horizontal – a collective or superorganism. This millions-strong, decentralised network was working tirelessly towards a shared and shimmering goal: victory.” Kurkov is most famous for writing fiction. His novels have been translated into 42 languages. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, he felt unable to continue. This took me a while to complete but it was so worth it. I read my first fiction from Kurkov this year and quite enjoyed it. He is a matter of fact and strangely dispassionate writer but it doesn’t mean he is devoid of compassion or empathy. The novel was mildly satirical but also kind of sweet. A pet penguin (named after Kurkov’s real life brother) figured prominently. We found our children disoriented and sad. Not far from the house they were renting, I noticed a gun shop. It was still closed, but there was a line of people in front of it. There were men, young boys and girls in the queue, waiting for opening time. In fact, we did not really think much about what to take with us. We thought that we would go to the village, not a great distance from Kyiv, and would return quite soon. I think this is always the case at the start of a war. 24 March 2022

Kurkov also explores the role of the church in the current war, the Moscow Patriarchate versus the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as the linguistic identity and forced aggressive russification that has occurred throughout the history in Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe. A week goes by, and all the news is suddenly of the miles and miles of territory Ukraine has liberated in the east, and of the Russian army’s hurried departure. So I send him a message, and a couple of hours later – he was finishing off his column for a Norwegian newspaper – he calls me from somewhere in Germany. Even by his standards – Kurkov has a smile that could light Saint Sophia Cathedral – he sounds happy. “I’m very excited,” he says. Eight months on, despite almost worldwide condemnation of Vladimir Putin's actions, the fighting remains vicious and vast swathes of Ukraine are without water or electricity. Diary of an Invasion by the Ukrainian writer, Andrey Kurkov, consists of personal diary entries, texts on various subjects, wartime notes and essays spanning the period of seven months, starting at the end of December 2021 with the last entry recorded in July 2022. This is a chronicle of one person’s feelings, thoughts, emotions during the time of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. This is also a portrayal of the Ukrainian society, Ukrainian culture, and Ukrainian nationhood. Despite the continuous attempts by the Russian aggressor to destroy the Ukrainian nation, Kurkov writings show the strengthening of Ukrainian national identity.

Summary

However, this territory is complicated, too. Like millions of Ukrainians, Kurkov, who was born near Leningrad, is a native Russian speaker and part of the fascination of his book lies in its accounts of the struggle for identity within the country, something the war has made more vexed. Ukraine has, for instance, demanded that Russian culture be boycotted. But while many younger Ukrainians are enthusiastic about this idea, older people are more conservative. The council of the Pyotr Tchaikovsky conservatory in Kyiv, the country’s national music academy, recently met to discuss whether it should be renamed after the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko – and eventually decided against. Meanwhile, an opera-loving friend of Kurkov’s wept at the thought of not being able ever again to hear Eugene Onegin at Kyiv opera house. A vivid, moving and sometimes funny account of the reality of life during Russia's invasion' -- Marc Bennetts, The Times The delay was not because I didn’t prioritise Vakulenko – I prioritised him above everyone and everything in that mission – but on the way, in the town of Balakliya, we discovered torture chambers,” she tells me. “You talk to one witness, and he or she tells you about another one – and it’s so crucial, and so horrific that you cannot stop. You have to document it as soon as possible.”