We know more about Ukraine now than we did a few months ago,
what with daily broadcasts and news reports about the Russian invasion and
unjustified war. We empathize and cringe
as we hear of the death and suffering of both soldiers and civilians.
I was in Ukraine only once, probably fifteen years ago. A vivid memory is from Lviv, the biggest city
in Western Ukraine, which has recently been the target of Russian rocket
attacks. Then, as I took a walk on a
wide promenade, I enjoyed hearing groups of Ukrainians belting out folk songs -
a peaceful scene in that post Soviet era.
I have been trying to imagine what life is like now for those people,
and especially for the population in Eastern Ukraine, the Donbas region.
Andrey Kukow, the most famous and supposedly the best living
Ukrainian writer, helps my imagination.
His book, Grey Bees, is set in pre-invasion Ukraine, the time after 2014
when Russia began supporting pro-Russian “separatists”, and a prolonged
stalemate developed along a 450-kilometer front with Ukraine’s military. Kukow takes us to a tiny village in the "grey
zone" between the opposing factions, as we follow the life of Sergey Sergeyich,
one of only two residents who remain, in the middle of distant bombardment that
sometimes comes too close to home, snipers, and only the very rudimentary
essentials of life. No electricity for
the last three years, and thus no communication, no shops and shortages of all kinds. His only neighbor is Pashka, who is his
nemesis since school days, but with whom he now has to develop friendship. Sergey’s only pleasure is his bees, an apiary
of six hives.
One reviewer wrote,
“Sergey is at once a war-weary adventurer and a fairy-tale innocent. His naïve gaze allows Kukov to get to the
heart of a country bewildered by crisis and war, but where kindness can still
be found.”
He takes his bees to Crimea for the summer to get away from
the noise of war so they can produce honey in a peaceful setting. People he meets along the way, his
interaction with Russian authorities, a Tartar family, a woman who befriends
and helps him, and ex-soldier suffering from PTSD who attacks him and others,
all help us imagine a life in the midst of a war that he didn’t ask for but
survives.
I like this quote at the burial of Akhtam, a Crimean
beekeeper who he had met years ago at a convention. “… all sense of lightness
arose in his head, as if it were empty, not just thoughts, but everything that
weighs on one’s life, of memories and experiences that pile up over the years
and bring a pain that threatens to squeeze tears from one’s eyes”.
This book helps us know just a bit more about Ukraine and
Crimea. It is a story with many layers
of truth about survival, compassion, simple living, history and everything grey. Indeed, there are many shades
of grey in life, both here and there. I
recommend this book.
