The current Russian-Ukrainian war creating a fundamentally new global reality, where we, as Ukrainians, are forming an unprecedented, modern experience in the broader historical context. At the same time, some phenomena inevitably take us back to the meanings and practices of the past.
As particular trigger become personal notes (letters, diaries, etc.), which have occasionally made their way into museum collections during the time of the full-scale Russian invasion. These ego-documents serve as a lens for museum curators to understand the moral and psychological state of Ukrainians fighting for their right to exist—whether in trenches, under occupation, in captivity, in frontline and distant towns, or beyond the borders of the country. Meanwhile, uncensored records from enemy environment are crucial for understanding the motivations and "value dimensions" of the Russians, if, of course, we can apply such categories to the life instincts of the horde capable only of destruction.
In October 2022, among the ruins of a destroyed house in a village near Kharkiv, Ukrainian soldiers found an ordinary notebook. After reviewing its contents, through journalists from TСN, the defenders handed it over to the Museum. This was the diary of a person with the telling call sign "Pes" (Dog). He is from near Pskov, a scout from the 25th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade. The unit, based in the town of Luga in the Leningrad Region, located more than 1800 km from the Ukrainian border, with a population of less than 40,000, has been fighting in Kharkiv since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion.
On 18 pages "Dog" describes in detail what he saw, including the massive artillery shelling of the residential area of North Saltivka (Kharkiv city) on March 3: "God, it was a terrifying but beautiful night. In the outskirts of Kharkiv with private houses. Through my sight, I saw rows of buildings all the way to Kharkiv’s high-rise buildings. That night, everything was pouring with fire from ’Grad’ rocket systems. Through the sight, I saw everything burning. It was just a continuous strip of villages engulfed in flames. The sky was blood-red all night. Over our ’Grads,’ and over the villages. It was horrifying, but how beautiful. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. In my memory, I marked it as ’a bloody night’...”.
A few more quotes from this diary: “...In this house, there was still a BMW 3251, starting with the ’Start’ button, the roof was retractable... In another house, the guys found a ’Dodge Charger,’ apparently there was also a ’Mustang’... People here left such valuable property just to survive..."; “On March 25 or 26, the guys found a beautiful dagger in some house... Oh God, how beautiful it is... My eyes burn for it... I’ll ask ’Jamal’ to sell it to me in Russia... Someone looking for tools, someone for ’jewelry,’ someone for laptops and other electronics. But I’m only interested in weapons..."; “...A couple of days later, we saw PMC (Private Military Company) guys for the first time, guys in ’moss’ (camouflage), wearing sneakers, not boots... These guys are mercenaries, a private military company, officially they’re not present on Russian territory, but that’s only officially... These guys fight not for the country, not for the government, these guys fight for money, for insane amounts of money... they are everywhere, any war—they go there... So there are rumors that they don’t live long—one year, two—no more...”.
Such testimonies about life orientations, "secret" desires, and psychological inclinations of the population in the 404 territory—from a humble (active or passive) servant to the ruler of the Kremlin’s bloodthirsty regime—illustrate the true essence of our eternal enemy. Thus, the exhibition of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which is a part of the national military chronicle of the 20th and 21st centuries, forms the basis of the vision and mission of the Memorial.