At first, Russia was called Mordor by Russians themselves when they faced the irrationality of violence from the authorities. Irrationality is frightening, for a rationally explained evil can still be tolerated. The fear of irrationality is so strong that it motivates many to live in some fictional Russia, but once the illusions are dispelled, you find yourself in Mordor. If it were only a kleptocracy dictatorship and corruption, no one would consider Russia Mordor. It is turned In Mordor by the unpredictability of the evil, for which it is impossible to be morally prepared. This is what the Ukrainians, who haven’t noticed Mordor earlier, faced in 2014.
It was frightening to be unable to understand what Russia was trying to achieve, where it would stop and what to expect next. It is impossible to explain aggression as a material benefit, as the invasion entails only losses. Of course, there are many bad things in Ukraine, but this is understandably rational. What Ukrainians could not imagine was the irrationality of evil, so the idea of a war with Russia seemed ridiculous to them. Confronting an irrational hostile force changed the perception of the world. The irrationality of this force is as follows:
- Irrationality of ideology, arbitrarily dividing people as their own and others.
- Irrationality of violence in conditions of law arbitrariness. How can we explain the tortures and killing of civilians who were unable to offer any resistance by force?
- An irrational super-task. Why to collect lands and revive a collapsed empire at all?
Mordor is a symbol of slavery to an irrational, overvalued idea of domination that dehumanizes its hosts, turning them into hordes to destroy the world. But the image of Mordor has become so common not even because it is understood as such, but because it is felt as such. The Mordor presence is perceived as an existential threat to the very way of being, which alters the perception of the world, including the perception of the cosmos.
Before the Russia’s attack, Ukrainians perceived the space of their country like the space of their home. When in one of its corners there was wild mayhem, chaos broke the integrity of cosmos. The archaic mythological consciousness is characterized by a concentric heterogeneous space: in the center is a native home, and the chaos grows with the distance from it. But for the Ukrainian the entire Ukraine is their home, so the heterogeneity of Ukraine’s space turned out to be not concentric, but frontal: in the West Uzhgorod is adjacent to Slovakia - the country of Western civilization, in the East Maryinka directly abuts upon Donetsk, where the boundary separating from the territory of violence and arbitrariness runs between the courtyards of residential buildings.
The presence of Mordor is felt before it is realized, and in different parts of Ukraine it is felt differently. Kiev is a European civilized city, here a peaceful life vibrates, and the war seems to be in another dimension, although the transition to it is very fast - only ten hours drive. From this distance, the whole East of the country merges into one gray area adjacent to the realm of chaos, but this illusion dispels when you come to the Donbass and see a diverse peaceful life.
Walking through Slavyansk, a beautiful peaceful city with lakes, resort, famous healing mud, it is hard to imagine that here, in time of fighting, civilians were grabbed, tortured, and sometimes killed without a reason. When the destroyed buildings of Semenovka - the suburb of Slavyansk, remind about it, you remember that all this goes on just a few dozen miles away.
If from a distance Slavyansk appears to be somewhere on the periphery in the gray zone, nearer it is perceived as a deep rear, while the periphery is the zone of the front-line cities reached by missiles: Marinka, Krasnogorovka, Avdeevka and others.
For the first time I was in Avdeevka in the spring of 2015. There were explosions and automatic fire within three kilometers - the breath of Mordor, which left the city in destruction without light and water. The heterogeneity of the cosmos here is obvious: you ride your bike on the street towards the Royal Hunt area and see more and more destroyed houses, as if the forces of chaos increase as you approach the Mordor.
However, on the frontline the perception of cosmos is quite different, as if the whole gray area was compressed at the very boundary line so that Avdeevka itself is perceived as a deep rear. That’s how I felt the next time the volunteers and I brought the dumplings to the soldiers on the frontline - the last few defenders between us and Mordor. Then we turned into the village Opytnoe, from where one can see the ruins of the Donetsk airport. There are no surviving houses in the village. The remaining inhabitants moved into the cellars with the military, as shells and mines flew in from time to time, even in the lull. It was recommended not to walk in the deep snow because of probability to stumble on a trip wire.
Although it would be a mistake to depict the front-line zone only in gray tones. Once there’s a lull, people start repairing their towns. In Krasnogorovka, when people got accustomed to pauses between shooting in the daytime, they began to go out with children to a huge park in the center of the city. In the evening, when the shooting begins, the children are driven home, as shells occasionally fly into the city. Just before I arrived, one shell tore down the corner of the hospital next to the dorm I was staying in. Meanwhile, the city is absolutely clean. Looking at the craters, I thought how much dirt they should have scattered around, but after the shelling people do the cleaning immediately. Much rely on the initiative of evangelical churches, which in addition to cleaning bring water, food, and help to repair houses. There is a lot of destruction in the city, but there are considerably more of newly renovated houses.
Maryinka is a ten-minute drive from Krasnogorovka on the highway, which is shot by snipers. The first time I’ve been here was shortly after the decisive battle, when pro-Putin separatists broke into the town and were defeated. Since then, major offensive operations have ceased. Maryinka along with Krasnogorovka was badly injured then, but the next time I arrived, I was surprised how well groomed the city was. It is a rare sight in Ukraine. You can buy hot coffee on the beautiful central square, everything is similar to the center of Kiev. The renovated houses look like new, but the fences are covered with small fragments - you can see there was a lot of damage, but everything is repaired quickly, except for some buildings that are no longer worth repairing.
Marinka adjoins close to Donetsk, and the separating military can see each other in sight from a distance of a hundred meters. On the street leading to Donetsk, the destruction is noticeably larger, this part of the city is shot not only from artillery, but also from small arms - in fact the line of demarcation is only twenty minutes walk. Despite the shelling, there are well-maintained lawns with wonderful flowers along the street, taken care of by the residents of nearby houses. This is the counteraction to chaos on a mystical level. It would seem that the breath of Mordor should freeze everything on the approaches to it. But on the contrary, it is as if light forces have concentrated in people here, and that helps to feel again all Ukraine as a home.
February 8, 2020
