Self-organization of Kherson region population in conditions of lack of governance during occupation and liberation (2022-2025)

  • Mykyta Mikhalkov

Abstract

The Kherson region, which was under occupation for nine months before liberation, is a bottomless source for various studies, especially the relations of the local population with the occupiers, which varied from city to village, from district to street, from alleyways to Soviet-era guesthouses.

There were many different reasons for this, and in order to understand them, the best option during a full-scale war is oral testimonies. Until recently, oral history as an academic method was something exotic within the corpus of conventional approaches, but today it clearly demonstrates new spaces are opening up for understanding the depth of historical events.

Author Biography

Mykyta Mikhalkov

Mykyta Mikhalkov is a social worker, as well as a researcher of oral history and anthropology of the modern Russian-Ukrainian war. He began his volunteer journey by joining the NGO “KALYNA”—Odesa Social and Volunteer Movement—where he helped the military. In November 2022, he first went from it to Kherson, providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population. Into December, he continued to work in Kherson under the auspices of the “Volunteer Landing” project, which was implemented by the “Regional Center for Sustainable Development.” In the early spring of 2023, he began to work fruitfully with “DOBROBAT”, dismantling rubble in Posad-Pokrovskoye, and also, in particular, with the RO "RM "CARITAS-SPES-ODESA" (which is part of the “CARITAS INTERNATIONALIS”), delivering humanitarian aid throughout the Kherson region, starting from Oleksandrivka, and ending in Ivanivka. He eventually joined the latter organization officially and is currently its local coordinator: he is responsible for the office in Kherson, which is located 300 meters from the Dnieper River and a few kilometers from Russian military lines. He is currently receiving an education at the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University, specializing in “history and archaeology” in the Department of Archaeology, Ethnology and World History

Journal cover of a peasant carrying a black flag with a sun rising in the background
Published
2025-05-09
Issue
Vol. 2025 No. 1 (2025): Anarchism in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia
Section
Articles

Copyright (c) 2025 Mykyta Mikhalkov

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