Oleksandra Nikitina: How a Ukrainian Woman Combined Motherhood, Studying in London, and Researching Transformative Ukrainian Volunteering.

After the full-scale invasion, thousands of Ukrainian women were forced to flee abroad to save their children. Oleksandra Nikitina was one of them—she had to evacuate her three children to Europe. She also enrolled at the London School of Economics and Political Science, wrote research on the uniqueness of Ukrainian volunteering, and founded the project “Vtomlena” (translated “Fatigued”). In an interview with Bukvy, she recounts her journey from Crimea to her current research work, which lays the groundwork for future changes in Ukraine.

— You come from a military family who lived in Crimea.

— Yes, I was born in Sevastopol. My father was an officer in the Ukrainian Navy. My mother was the director of three cinemas. One of them was a family cinema that often played movies for kids from local orphanages. My mother was an orphan too, and her personal pain encouraged her to help others, and this sentiment increased after Russia launched its war in Ukraine.

— What was it like to study in Crimea?

— I went to School No. 3 in Sevastopol, the school with extensive English. Ukrainian was an optional class. I signed up for the classes of Ukrainian language and literature because my mother was from Novomyrhorod, Kirovohrad region, and Ukrainian songs and language were often heard in our home. When my mother got upset over something, she would switch to Ukrainian.

Sevastopol is a city with its own special vibe, which at the time seemed genuine. When I was a child, it was considered a privilege to be a guard of honor at what they called Post No. 1 near the Eternal Flame of WW2 memorial. Only the best students were chosen to be part of this ceremony. May 9 was a double celebration, as it marked the liberation of Sevastopol in 1944 and the end of the war in 1945. Back then, it felt so natural for Sevastopol.

— You are talking about the 2000s?

— I was born in 1989, and I was a guard of honor at Post No. 1 when I was 16 years old, so it was 2006. Before that, we would often visit war veterans, have tea with them, and listen to their stories.

— Can you tell us about your national identity evolution?

— That’s a good question. My parents loved to travel by car, and we went 1000 km by car to Novomyrhorod, my grandmother’s hometown. My father, as a military man, had a particular worldview, while my mother debated with him passionately and saw things differently. I was exposed to two different perspectives, and I liked that. You could often hear Ukrainian songs in our home, even when it wasn’t considered “trendy”. My mom didn’t care about trends; she just loved her music.

When the Crimean annexation happened, I got a phone call – I was asked whether I wanted to apply for Russian citizenship.

— Russian officials called you?

— Yes, and I said no. It was an instinctive decision. At that time, my mother was in Kyiv, taking part in the Maidan events, and later she volunteered to help the anti-terrorist operation. She died at the end of 2021, just before the full-scale invasion. At her funeral, people told me amazing stories about her volunteer work, which I hadn’t known because she never boasted about it. She always hated Putin and clearly understood who she was, fully embracing her Ukrainian identity.

I had lived in Moscow for several years, but after the annexation, I returned to Kyiv. Comparing the two countries, I realized Ukraine is about freedom—it’s in the air here. In the summer of 2016, I went to Sevastopol for my grandfather’s funeral. My English language school had gotten a new name—Aleksandr Nevsky School. Everything was different. When I asked my former school teacher how she was doing considering those big changes, she was wary about telling me much, as if I had asked about something illegal.

Victory Day is a deeply ingrained tradition in Sevastopol, much like the commemoration of the Crimean War events. Many things revolve around those things. There was always a Soviet-era flavour, and a sense of Russian empire grandeur. But it was not the whole year round. It was around 9th of May. On May 10th it was ordinary life. After the annexation, when I arrived in Sevastopol in 2016, I heard Soviet-themed war songs in the middle of July in the city center. It was repulsive. That’s when I understood I would not come back to Crimea again.

— How did the full-scale war impact you?

— One person is pushing the button to launch missiles into Ukraine, and the whole nation is enabling it.

— After the war broke out, you enrolled in a program in London and defended a thesis on how volunteering transforms women and the state.

— I started my research work on Ukraine’s decolonisation from Soviet narratives and propaganda. I was exploring what speeds up this process and was looking into the authentic structures emerging in Ukraine. Soviet systems are hierarchical, vertical. They are about orders and directives, and they don’t have life in them and responsiveness to real needs. I looked at new horizontal models in Ukraine, new ecosystems that were alive. Our volunteer movement is a prime example. Since the 2014 Maidan events, it has developed its unique nature. Volunteering is a direct response to needs; it is connected to our reality; it is first-hand information, and our volunteers are “bearers of truth,” they can see things as they are.

— You decided to study civil society and its social connections. Why?

– When the war started, I saw my scholarly experience as something that could help me carry on, and could help me bring some knowledge and innovations to my country. I chose the master program “Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship” at the London School of Economics for that reason. This is a transformational period for us. A developed civil society is crucial for our future.

— In your academic work, you explore post-Soviet positioning of women, portraying them as complementary to men, when they are perceived as nurturers, mothers, and Cinderellas. That is, either a mother, a Cinderella, or both—these are these trajectories. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this changed: women got more opportunities, with all these new information technologies and new career prospects. Has the war redefined the role of women in any way?

— It is being redefined, no doubt. It’s an endless process. I believe that volunteer work is an environment where this rethinking of women’s roles can be very productive and healing. This is because this environment is horizontal, friendly, and it welcomes networking campaigns. It gives you a chance to realize yourself, put your talents to better use. However, our female volunteers can become exhausted and burned out because of the harsh realities they witness on the front lines.

— Since the start of the war in 2014 and the full-scale invasion in 2022, all of us have put on some additional social roles. We’ve become volunteers in one way or another; now it is not only about being spouses, professional workers, or enthusiasts of different things.

— That’s true. This is the main difference between Ukrainian and Western volunteer roles. In the West, volunteering is about service provision. It’s embedded in norms and systems, often used for purposes like tax reductions. Before 2014, we somewhat copied this approach. But since 2014, things have changed. Volunteer jobs have become both a protective belt, a watchdog, and an advocate against corruption. Volunteers take a range of tasks like emergency evacuations from occupied regions, purchases and assembly of drones, getting equipment to our soldiers, etc. In more developed countries, this kind of work is handled by governments.

— Your research shows volunteering in Ukraine has become a unique institution that can bring in new governance structures or help work out policies to reform our post-Soviet ways in state offices.

— That’s possible. It has truly become a civic movement. As volunteers are working in or near combat zones, they have developed a strong immunity to propaganda and falsehoods. In conflict zones, disinformation spreads uncontrollably. The closer a person is to the front line, the stronger their ability to analyze and discern information. Volunteers become not just observers but active “bearers of truth”, building a “network of truth”. This is a powerful skill, one that can be leveraged in informational wars and integrated into the rebuilding process.

— You plan to expand your research into the project “Vtomlena”. What can come out of it?

— It will be a research platform to help study the transformation of society in wartime, new social roles, advocacy for Ukraine, and expertise in military, social, and volunteer issues.

— Why did you call the project “Vtomlena”?

— The word “Vtomlena” means fatigued in Ukrainian. We are tired yet fighting and working. It’s a point of truth in the third year of the full-scale war, and the tenth year of war. The project also invites partnerships. We are fatigued but experienced. The fight for democratic values is taking place on our soil, and many Ukrainians have lost their lives for it. There is definitely some expertise that we can share after all.

Background: Oleksandra Nikitina is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her thesis, “How does volunteering affect women in Ukraine in the context of nation-(re)building after war?” studied the uniqueness and originality of female volunteering in Ukraine and its impact on Ukrainian society.

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