«This is My Country, I will be with It!» (Autoethnographic Stories of 2022 by Young Ukrainians from the Kharkiv Region) / prepared for publication by V. Sushko, O. Taran

«This is My Country, I will be with It!» (Autoethnographic Stories of 2022 by Young Ukrainians from the Kharkiv Region) / prepared for publication by V. Sushko, O. Taran

Abstract

The countdown of the next year of confrontation between two cultures, two worldview concepts have started from February 24, 2025. These are the world of totalitarianism and democratic values, the Moscow yoke and the Ukrainian freedom. The full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine and military operations have brought Ukrainian citizens the experience of survival, self-organization and self-sufficiency, support for their native Army, passive and active resistance to the occupiers in the conditions of a front-line city, a combat zone or occupied territories. The texts printed below are autoethnographic stories of participants in the Kharkiv regional round of the essay competition on the topic “War for the OWN Way”, held in 2022 by Ukrainian State Center of Tourism and Local History of the Schoolchildren after the de-occupation of the Kharkiv Region. They are the memoir of the experience of the war suffering, the perception of the war by these young men and women, the war through the eyes of children. The regional round of the competition has been held by the municipal institution «Kharkiv Regional Station of Young Tourists» of the Kharkiv Regional Council (director is a Ph.D. in Pedagogics, an associate professor, Honored Worker of Education Valentyna Redina).  The centre hasn’t stopped its work even in 2022: it held children’s historical, geographical and art competitions, conferences, expeditions and patriotic actions, covered widely by the employees of «Kharkiv Regional Station of Young Tourists» on the official pages of the website of the institution.

 As it has been noted repeatedly, the Russian-Ukrainian war is the most documented in history, and children’s testimonies are its significant component. The autoethnographic stories included in the published work are structured according to the rubric adopted in the 12th volume of the “Ethnographic Image of Modern Ukraine” – “Culture of Everyday Life during the Russian-Ukrainian War”. The main body of memoirs concerns oral history testimonies, identification practices in wartime conditions, identity markers, and involvement of young citizens of Ukraine – residents of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region – in volunteer activities. Children’s essays have been transferred to the scientific archive of M. T. Rylsky IASFE in January, 2023 by the head of the Local History Department of the Communal Facility “Kharkiv Regional Station of Young Tourists” of the Kharkiv Regional Council, a Ph.D. in Geography Iryna Skryl.

Keywords

Russian-Ukrainian war, ethnography of childhood, occupation, culture of everyday life, autoethnographic stories.