Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. From the Editors ix
4. Preface xi
5. The Lost Generation of the “Fabled Novorossiia” 1
6. How I Became a Shadow in My Own Land 10
7. Who Has Joined the DPR Militants and What Are They Fighting for? 14
8. Executed as an “Enemy of the People” of the DPR 22
9. The Checkpoint: “I’m Alive because of the War” 28
10. How to Defeat the DPR 35
11. Young People in the DPR and the LPR: What Does the Future Hold? 39
12. The Donetsk “Uprising” a Year Later: The Future of an Illusion 46
13. An Excuse to Pull the Trigger 52
14. The Voice of the Donbas: How Five Thousand Victims Are “Heard” 56
15. Chronicle of Decline and Fall: The Donetsk Oblast State Administration Building 61
16. Grenades Aren’t a Big Deal Anymore: Everyday Tragedies in Makiїvka 69
17. Why They Like “Tsars” in the Donbas 74
18. What is Ukraine to Me? The View from Makiїvka 78
19. A Letter to the Russians 83
20. Who Lives off the Residents of Occupied Donbas? 87
21. The “Esperanto” of Vladimir Putin 93
22. A Letter to My Country 97
23. The Half-life of the Sovok 101
24. Irreconcilable Differences 108
25. A Few Fairytales about the DPR 111
26. Donbas: Seven Hundred Days of Solitude 115
27. What Comes Next? 126
28. Lower Than Rock Bottom 130
29. Cultural Life under Occupation: The City of Donetsk 133
30. Citizens without Citizenship 136
31. Homo Donbasus, or The Changes Brought by the War 142
32. About Easter… and More 149
33. Chaos in Their Heads: How the War Is Perceived in the Occupied Zone 153
34. What Pygmalion Left Unsaid 157
35. Evening Strolls through an Empty City 162
36. Quid Prodest? 166
37. The “Remainers”: The Undiscovered Bosch of the DPR 174
38. Screeching in the Thorns 183
39. “Primaries” under the Occupation 190
40. Propaganda on the Streets of Donetsk 193
41. Occupation as It Is: Khartsyzk 195
42. That Sweet Word, “War” 197
43. Where the Elite of Occupied Donetsk Take Their Leisure 202
44. Donetsk: A Tour of Expropriated Places 205
45. Immersed in War 207
46. The Donbas in 2017: Three Variations on a Theme 213
47. The DPR and Religion 224
48. How the Militants Prepare Children to Join Their Military Organizations 227
49. “I Fought in the War”: Life after Leaving the DPR Militia 230
50. Back in the USSR: Soviet Themes in Donetsk Eateries 232
51. “Looking for a Tusk to Buy”: Ads in Occupied Donetsk 235
52. Following the Path of Crimea? 238
53. Us and Them 247
54. A Knack for Losing Things 251
55. Notes 257
56. Illustration Credits 291