Svitlana Makhovska

This oral history project began in May 2022 (a month after the deoccupation of the Chernihiv region) by a team of volunteer academics from various Ukrainian institutions and was supported by the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Chernihiv City Council as well as the NGO Center for Applied Anthropology. In 2023 the team behind the project created the Chernihiv Research Center for the Anthropology of War. The scope of the project includes not only specifics of applying oral history methodology for conducting research in wartime, but also research on day-to-day life and survival strategies of Ukrainians during occupation, siege, active fighting, evacuation, volunteering, on the front line, etc. The project aims, on the one hand, to systematize methodological and theoretical features of oral history research “in the field,” which were uncovered in action from May 2022 to August 2024, and on the other hand to continue recording testimonies of witnesses both in Chernihiv and other regions of Ukraine, including deoccupied territories.  

This oral history project was established in May of 2022, a month after the deoccupation of Chernihiv, by volunteer scholars from various scientific institutions of Ukraine with support from the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Chernihiv City Council and the NGO “Center of Applied Anthropology.” 

The main objective of the project is to document and preserve the testimonies of witnesses/participants of the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian War to further interpret them for scholarly use. Geographically, the project encompasses the city of Chernihiv and Chernihiv region, expanding to other areas in the long run. 

The scope of the research includes not only Russian war crimes on Ukrainian territories, but also features of day-to-day life in times of war, such as nutrition, hygiene, shelter setup, survival strategies under occupation, siege and hostilities, life in evacuation, the volunteer movement, war folklore, and the experiences of scholars during the full-scale invasion, among others.