Stories about the People and History of Ukraine in 2015

Jens Mühling: "Black Earth. A Journey through Ukraine". The Armchair Traveller; Translation edition (19 Aug. 2019)

"But for all the stories of life, love and suffering that I have placed at the centre of my book, I hope that they can still make Ukraine as a country comprehensible even when the headlines have long since changed," writes Jens Mühling in March 2018 in the foreword to the paperback edition of his travel report on his experiences and observations during a journey criss-crossing Ukraine in 2015. And the headlines are different in 2023 when I am writing this book recommendation, and they are not. The war, which at the time of his trip was limited to the separatist areas in the Donbas, has evolved into Russia's war against Ukraine, now also supported by Nato. Crimea, just annexed by Russia in 2015, is now also a theatre of war. All these events move world politics today, while the events of 2015 when he travelled to the country, and in the following years, when the book was published, only concerned world public opinion for a short time. What has changed greatly since Jens Mühling travelled through Ukraine from the Polish border, through the Carpathian region, the southern Black Sea coast and Crimea, the central Ukrainian steppe areas, the embattled Donbas region behind the front to the eastern Russian border, is the image that Europeans have of the country and its people. While in 2015, most Western Europeans could hardly distinguish Russia from Ukraine, today; many have almost patriotic feelings for Ukraine and its people. Heroic, suffering freedom fighters rally unanimously in the eyes of Western Europeans behind their president Volodymyr Selensky, who is omnipresent on the international stage, or so the image goes. Often one does not need to know more. But if you do, this book is ideal for getting to know Ukrainians of different regions, origins, backgrounds, religions, political convictions, social status and education, professions and with different life stories. Jens Mühling has an extraordinary talent for turning his encounters with people into encounters of the reader with these people. One smiles, laughs uproariously, is startled or shocked, amazed at other perspectives and slowly understands the diversity that is probably an important characteristic of Ukraine. What is particularly interesting in 2023, the year of the war, are the hostile political positions within the population in 2015. The author gets to talk to hardcore communists who mourn the Soviet Union and believe every word, adhering to every conspiracy theory spread by Russian media. In contrast to the somewhat crotchety old communists, the supporters of the OUN (Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists) and admirers of the former UPA (Bandera Army in the Second World War, which had allied itself with the German fascists) are determined and not at all squeamish fighters for an independent Ukraine. And the supporters of the nationalists also spout abstruse conspiracy theories in the talks. Finding one's own national identity is a major preoccupation for many of the interlocutors and leads to great historical roundabouts about "Muscovites", "Peter the Great", "Kievan Rus", and identity theft by Russia on a grand scale. And when the author only wants to comment vaguely, the Ukrainian who sketched this historical picture says: "This is not a theory, this is the truth! I am a tractor mechanic, and if even I know that, it must be true!" and No one can counter such an argument, can they?! But Jens Mühling is not concerned with proselytising and persuasion, although his attitude is quite recognisable. He wants to introduce the characters, the unconventionality of the Ukrainians, their attitudes to life in different life situations. Many stories are told that leave deep impressions. But it is not only these human encounters that make this book so exciting. Jörg Mühling sometimes goes far back in history to old myths and legends that live on in regional traditions. His descriptions not only convey views of landscapes and towns but also make the atmosphere of these places and regions tangible. I read this book breathlessly, not only because I have my own little experiences of Ukraine, not only because I learned so many new things, but also because this book is excellently written.

Jens Mühling can certainly be called a connoisseur of Russia and Ukraine because he worked for the "Moscow German Newspaper" for two years and has repeatedly travelled to both countries as a journalist and "story collector". After this encounter with Ukraine and its people, I have a great desire also to get to know Russia and its people with the help of Jens Mühling. Therefore, I will be reading Jens Mühling's “A Journey into Russia”, The Armchair Traveller at the BookHaus; Reprint edition (1 Sept. 2015) soon.

(TA)