A Ukraine novelist writes his own soldier story

[David Lockmiller]

"I Spent Five Days in a Trench Waiting for Death. It Was Pure Hell."
New York Times, August 10, 2023

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I was writing a novel. It took place in America in 1863, and followed a Ukrainian man as he traveled from Virginia to Missouri, meeting on his way various weirdos, soldiers, deserters and runaway slaves. I’ve always been very interested in the history of the United States, and the idea of ​​integrating a Ukrainian protagonist — not a classic emigrant but a soldier on the side of the North, with his own history of servitude under the yoke of the Russian Empire — into the realities of the Civil War was attractive to me.

This story was supposed to become a book, and I was supposed to fulfill my dream: to follow the path of my protagonist from Front Royal, Va., to Ozark, Mo., taking in all the life I could savor. But Russia, not content with destroying the statehood of Ukraine once before, had other plans. I put my writing on hold and took up arms instead. Now I’m making efforts to prevent a new stage of subjugation in my country.