Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Map of Ukraine xviii
Map of Central Kiev xix
Note on Transliteration xxi
Part 1 Revolution, the Maidan
The Sky Turns Black from Smoke 3
The Land of Gogol 5
The Grandeur of Its Intentions 7
Fantasies of Galicia 14
The Revolutions That Were Not 24
"Likes" Don't Count 29
Fathers and Sons 37
Self-Organization 43
The Bell Tower 46
Noah's Ark 51
"It was my choice" 57
When Time Was Smashed 65
Automaidan 73
Values 79
The Very Atmosphere Had Some Qualities 85
The Nonanalytical Point 90
The Buses from Lviv 101
Corpses 103
The Solidarity of the Shaken 105
Burning Flesh 110
"You will all be dead" 113
Pornographic Portraits 119
The Revolutionary Soul 122
Dialectics of Transparency 126
Chekhov's Gun 129
Part 2 War, East of Kiev
Russian Tourists 133
Caligula at the Gates 136
Grandma at War 140
Nothing Is True (The Surrealism of Ostriches) 142
Putin's Sirens 149
Zhidobandera on the Dnipro 159
Smart Kids Like You 163
"We understood perfectly …" 167
The Volunteer Movement 177
The Specter of Communism 183
A Civilizational Choice 186
Black Lizard on Red Square 190
Free Hugs for Patriots 197
Divided Families 202
Alchevsk 205
Zombies in the Donbas 208
The Time Is Out of Joint 212
World Order 221
Goodbye, Lenin 223
Cicero's Rome 229
Do We Know the Ukrainian Night? 236
"We cannot be bought" 238
Theater of the Absurd 244
Dostoevsky's Demons 247
"At the end of the day this soldier feels sorry" 250
Ice Skating Lessons 261
There Is No Absolute 264
Everything Is Possible 267
Dictionary of Translatable and Untranslatable Words 271
Notes 273
Acknowledgments 287