"At its core, justice is about people, or at least it should be – in that sense, justice reminds us of literature," wrote Victoria Amelina.
Immediately after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, she left her 10-year-old son in safekeeping in Poland, before returning to Ukraine to document the events. She began writing a book about eleven women's resistance but didn't finish it. On July 1, 2023, a pizzeria in Kramatorsk was hit by a Russian missile – killing 37-year-old Victoria Amelina.
Just four days before her death, she sent her manuscript to Tetiana Teren, who until recently was the executive director of Ukrainian Pen.
She sent the manuscript because she was going to visit her son. She had a fantastic black humor and wrote that no one knows what can happen near the front line. It's unbearable to talk about, but when she died, we started thinking about the book's future.
Sharing the Truth
From writing novels and children's books, Victoria Amelina instead began recording survivors' testimonies for the Kyiv-based human rights organization Truth Hounds. At the same time, she met others who were engaged – after 2022, everyone tried to find ways to be useful for the country, according to Tetiana Teren.
We often hear soldiers' voices, and that's important during the war, but she gives a platform to women – journalists, librarians, cultural leaders, and writers. It's strong to see such diverse voices with the same goal, to share the truth about the war with the world.
Victoria Amelina follows, among others, the prominent lawyer Jevgenia Zakrevska, who became a soldier, and Oleksandra Matvijtjuk, who led an effort to document tens of thousands of war crimes and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
"Most Important: Justice"
About 60 percent of the book was completed – and the editors chose to include the fragments and notes. Those pages are a symbol of the void left after Victoria, emphasizes Tetiana Teren, but also of Ukrainian history.
We can name thousands of Ukrainian cultural workers and intellectuals throughout the centuries whose texts could not be written due to Russia, she says.
The book's launch coincides with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin discussing Ukraine's future, and Tetiana Teren thinks that Victoria Amelina's voice rings strong now. She used to talk about how words change meaning during war.
Like "peace". For Ukrainians, peace doesn't just mean the end of the war, but also justice for our people and our land.
Victoria Amelina began her career as an IT specialist before transitioning to literature. She debuted in 2015 with the novel "The fall syndrome: about homo compatiens" which deals with the 2014 Maidan protests. She wrote another novel, a children's book, and poetry. "See women see war" was her first non-fiction book, which she wrote in English.
Victoria Amelina founded the New York Literature Festival in the Donetsk region, near the front line. She received the Joseph Conrad Literary Award and was a finalist in the European Union's literature prize.
The book has been edited by four people: Tetiana Teren, Jaryna Grusja, Sasja Dovzjyk, and her husband – Alex Amelin. They have, among other things, added 100 footnotes and included different versions of the same text.
The foreword is written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood.
