That’s What A War Is - Part One

November 8th, 2022, We met Ms. Anna Krushelnitskaya in the Ann Arbor Public Library.

It was the election day. Ann Arbor Public Library was full of voters casting ballots for all the issues and concerns in people’s minds- inflation, abortion rights, student debt, you name it. On the other side of the globe, in Ukraine, Nov 8th was another day in the war. Fierce fighting continued in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions; President Zelensky declared not to surrender a single centimeter of the land, and four million Ukrainian people lost power that cold winter evening.

Half a year ago, in the same room, we interviewed Melania, a Huron student who came from Ukraine. During an hour-long conversation, Melania told us a lot about her experience in Ukraine and what she knew about the war. The heaviness of the conversation stunned us, and we were saddened, puzzled, and somewhat haunted by the cruelty of the war’s reality. We were eager to seek a second voice, a different perspective to talk about this war because so much we don’t know about the history, the land, and the people from both sides.

Luckily, we found the right person to talk to, Ms.Krushelnitskaya. She is a writer, translator, and scholar on Soviet topics. We were honored that Ms. Krushelnitskay accepted our interview invitation.