The many journeys of Victoria Amelina

In late May, the novelist and human rights activist Victoria Amelina left from her home in Kyiv, Ukraine, on an emotional journey by train and plane to Lillehammer, Norway, a ski resort town 183 kilometers (113 miles) north Oslo.

At the World Expression Forum, Amelina attended workshops on “The High Cost in Defending the Freedom of Expression and Democracy.”

But she had made the journey especially to accept the?Prix Voltaire?Special Award from the International Publishers Association - IPA for murdered Ukrainian children’s book author and poet,?Volodymyr Vakulenko.

Amelina’s journey later continued when she returned to Ukraine, leaving directly from Kyiv to Kapitolivka, Vakulenko’s native village where he was abducted by Russian forces in March 2022 and killed. There, in the slain writer’s home, she delivered the Prix Voltaire to his still grieving family.

A week ago, Victoria Amelina began another journey.

She went to Kramatorsk, nearly 700 kilometers (about 430 miles) east of Kyiv in the Donbas region, where the Russian-Ukrainian conflict began in 2014.

Amelina traveled with Colombia’s former high commissioner for peace Sergio Jaramillo and two other Colombians, writer Héctor Abad Faciolince and journalist Catalina Gómez.

The three South Americans, who represented Colombia’s “Aguanta Ucrania” (Support Ukraine) campaign of solidarity, sat down for dinner with Victoria Amelina on June 27 in the Ria restaurant, a popular spot that served pizza.

A missile suddenly flew into the restaurant, exploding among the families and other diners like “a bolt of lightning,” as Héctor Abad recalled.

That moment, Victoria Amelina began another journey.

First by ambulance to a local hospital, suffering from a severe head wound, and later to a military hospital 250 kilometers away (about 150 miles) in Dnipro.

Today (July 2), she died.

Victoria Amelina was often on the move.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Amelina worked as a researcher for Truth Hounds, which documents human rights violations and war crimes in Ukraine, eastern Europe, and central Asia. Her reports would eventually find their way to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In September, she traveled with Truth Hounds to Kharkiv Oblast, where she met Volodymyr Vakulenko’s family and other victims of war crimes. In the family garden in Kapitolivka, she uncovered a diary about the war that Vakulenko had buried for safekeeping. The diary is now kept in the Kharkiv Literary Museum and was recently published; at the opening of International Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy purchased a copy.

In April, Victoria Amelina attended The London Book Fair Fair, which organized a special spotlight program about Ukraine authors and publishers. I saw her speak on a panel, “Art After War: The Future of Ukrainian Literature.” She decried the injustices that the war brought up Ukrainians and described her own work in support of civil society as a “quest for justice.”

“The lack of justice doesn’t help in belief in the rule of law,” Amelina said. Asked for her definition of victory, she replied, “Democracy. NATO. Joining the European family.”

Victoria Amelina was soft-spoken, but her words were firm.

“We will win this war with our determination and your weapons,” she told the London Book Fair audience.

On May 15 – barely six weeks ago – Victoria Amelina spoke with me online for the CCC podcast, Velocity of Content.

Kharkiv Literary Museum is dedicated to the so-called Executed Renaissance, Amelina told me, and preserves the manuscripts and books of Ukrainian writers executed by the Soviet regime in the 1930s.

“You mentioned… the Soviet repression of Ukrainian culture and literature,” I said. “US intelligence agencies revealed before the Russian invasion in 2022 that the Putin government had prepared an extensive hit list of prominent Ukrainians who were to be rounded up, imprisoned, or killed after a military takeover of Ukraine.

“What does it mean to you as a Ukrainian writer that the Russians have made your country’s culture a target for destruction?” I asked her.

“It means to me that I’m fully aware that I am alive thanks to the Ukrainian army and thanks to our allies who supported us with weapons,” Victoria Amelina told me.

Her quiet voice and mild manner belied that same determination I heard in London. As the Russian bombing campaign intensified on Kyiv, she even lightheartedly tweeted her defiance.

“Ukraine is a very peaceful country. We are all about culture, music, art – mostly these things. But at the same time, every second of my life, I have to be fully aware that I have to be thankful to the army. Despite the fact that I am a human rights activist, the most important thing for us right now is getting weapons to defend ourselves.

“Before the full-scale invasion, I had been rereading one of the history books, and I had been trying to imagine what it would mean for me if the Executed Renaissance would have to repeat, because perhaps 90% of my friends are writers, artists, or civil activists, and this would mean that 90% of my friends would be executed by the regime. This is quite an appalling thing to even think about.

“This is the reason why we fight so fiercely. To me, it is very important that the world hears us and understands this.” – Victoria Amelina speaking with me for CCC’s Velocity of Content podcast (May 15)

“This is perhaps the reason why we fight so fiercely, why we cannot understand what the question is when we are asked if we would agree to give up some part of Ukraine’s territory. We cannot have any compromise. We cannot give up neither Donetsk, Luhansk, nor Crimea, because we know what’s going on there in the occupation, and occupation is in fact something even worse than war.

“This is where people like Volodymyr Vakulenko become helpless and can be tortured and can be executed. To me, it is very important that the world hears us and understands this.”

Listen to the full interview or read the complete interview transcript. https://velocityofcontentpodcast.com/transcripts/2023-prix-voltaire-special-award-to-volodymyr-vakulenko/

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