Baikanographer

24Aug

Happy 35th Independence Day!

In History, Larissa's War Diary by conteur / August 24, 2026 / No Comments

Today is Ukraine’s 35th Independence Day: a wonder to behold and the feat of millions of men and women who have dedicated their lives to keeping this country — *our* country — alive. Think of the generosity: beyond the people you know and love, your family, kin, friends, cronies, *we* includes people you’ve never met, people you don’t like, people who don’t give a flying fuck about you or this country you both share. This act of generosity, multiplied by hundreds of thousands, is an energetic founding principle that should also guide our politics.

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20Jun

Michigan: A Handy Map For Visitors

In Audio, Entertainment, Travel by conteur / June 20, 2026 / Comments are closed

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28May

13.05.2026 / Oh, where have you been . . . ?

In History, Larissa's War Diary, Social Commentary, Ukraine by conteur / May 28, 2026 / Comments are closed

Larissa Babij
May 13 2026

This spring in Ukraine is somber. Everywhere—vibrant green, flowers in bloom. But a late April freeze means meager fruit crops this year.

Kyiv’s May flowers, 2026. Photo by the author.

Where have I been? Too many train rides, new rooms to adjust to, endless gratitude to all the people who have taken me in this year so I can perform my intellectual labors in relative peace and good company.Read more →

05Feb

05.02.2026 / January

In History, Larissa's War Diary by conteur / February 5, 2026 / Comments are closed

Larissa Babij
Feb 5

In luxurious Lviv, where I’ve been since Sunday morning, I’ve only experienced one power outage. It lasted 2.5 hours.Read more →

09Dec

08.12.2025 / Surreal (state of mind) — Part 2

In History, Larissa's War Diary, Social Commentary, Ukraine by conteur / December 9, 2025 / Comments are closed

LARISSA BABIJ

DEC 08, 2025

When you’ve been the target of murder every day and every night for the past nearly four years you don’t just suddenly drop the habitual expectation of violent attack. Even after crossing the ocean, your state of mind, body, and nervous system preserve patterns you’ve developed to survive and function.

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09Dec

06.12.2025 / Surreal (state of mind) — Part 1

In History, Larissa's War Diary, Social Commentary, Ukraine by conteur / December 9, 2025 / Comments are closed

I do like a controlled fire. New England, late November 2025.

LARISSA BABIJ

DEC 06, 2025

Hello from the American suburbs. There is something comfortable and nourishing about being with your people. There are so many different ways to define who “your people” are, but the people you come from will always be the people you come from. Even if you’ve left. Maybe even more so. Coming back is also about replenishing something vital

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Irpin, memorial at the destroyed Romaniv bridge, May 2025. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated under russian fire from russian-occupied areas of the Kyiv region via this “Road of Life” in March 2022.

30Oct

30.10.2025 / Home

In History, Larissa's War Diary, Ukraine by conteur / October 30, 2025 / Comments are closed

Irpin, memorial at the destroyed Romaniv bridge, May 2025. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated under russian fire from russian-occupied areas of the Kyiv region via this “Road of Life” in March 2022.

LARISSA BABIJ

OCT 30, 2025

I am writing from Poland, where I’ve spent the past week visiting friends. Yes, this was a planned trip to escape the cold, darkness, and russian airstrikes that have come to characterize autumn in Kyiv. Only these are not normal conditions for living.

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15Oct

15.10.2025 / Escape artist

In History, Larissa's War Diary, Social Commentary, Ukraine by conteur / October 15, 2025 / Comments are closed

LARISSA BABIJ

OCT 15, 2025

Scene One

October, a Kyiv metro train. All the seats are full. I am reading Valeriy Puzik’s Myslyvtsi za shchastiam (Hunting for happiness) — a collection of sketches from his military service in parts of Ukraine deoccupied from russian forces. To my left is a woman, middle-aged, neatly dyed hair, with a bag on her lap, looking at her phone. To my right — a man around 40, salt-and-pepper hair, buzz cut, good-looking. The smell of alcohol hangs in the air.

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02Oct

02.10.2025 / Culture as Security

In History, Larissa's War Diary, Poetry, Social Commentary, Travel, Ukraine by conteur / October 2, 2025 / Comments are closed

02.10.2025 / Culture as Security by Larissa Babij OCT 11, 2025

Greetings from autumn Kyiv — cold, drizzly, and still the capital of the free world! While I’m gradually coming back to my own writing, I’ve spent most of the past several months editing and translating the writing of others. It’s rewarding work and I’m delighted to present the new issue of the London Ukrainian Review on Culture as Security!

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07Jul

12.07.2025 / Independence or Indecision

In History, Larissa's War Diary, Ukraine by conteur / July 7, 2025 / Comments are closed

12.07.2025 / Independence or indecision by Larissa Babij

This 4th of July Claire Berlinski produced a piece of conceptual art by publishing the full text of the Declaration of Independence (with no additional comment). Eloquent, courageous, the declaration speaks for itself: a performative gesture that transformed a line of thought, stretching back to Aristotle, into action so potent that the nation it birthed lived a long, prosperous life of nearly 250 years.Read more →

Author Archive

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Scene One