The war in Eastern Ukraine has been going on for over six years. A public holiday, Day of the Defender of Ukraine, was created soon after the outbreak of hostilities, and has since been celebrated on 14 October. It is mostly military men who are hailed as the embodiment of the “defender of the nation”. The events of the past six years, however, have shown that civilians and frequently civilian women are just as likely to take up the defence of statehood when it is threatened.
“You only call me ‘Maria’ when you are cross with me. Are you cross with me?” Masha asks after I use her full name on Skype. I was cross with her then. I don’t remember why now. Probably because I noticed that she had been too friendly with the radical nationalists, and I thought that that was dangerous for her, for her cause, for her reputation. I thought it was wrong. She didn’t think it was right either. But she was either less naïve or less self-righteous than I was.
It’s funny that I normally call her Masha. We are both from western Ukraine, where the name Maria can become “Marichka” or “Marusia”, but not Masha. Masha is the Russian diminutive and if you use it, it suggests that you are a Russian speaker, which neither of us is. But that is how she was introduced to me when we first met and Masha is the name I use when I’m not cross with her.
