A new life: four student portraits

A report on young people who, despite the conflict in Ukraine, decided to make a success of their lives

by Maria D.*

(7 March 2023) No one knows in advance what life will bring, and therefore, you can hardly prepare for unpredictable twists of fate. At present, the whole world is watching the great drama unfolding in the Slavic area.

I teach at a university in western Russia. The proximity of my region to Ukraine means that in almost every group of students there are one or more students who have been forced to leave their native Ukrainian cities: Odessa, Kerch, Luhansk, Mariupol, etc.

From time to time, allowing for the teaching situation, I arrange free time to talk to these young people to find out about their personal situation. I am interested in their circumstances concerning their education and their plans in life. Here are four portraits (with changed names):

Lisa is from Luhansk. In 2014, she was 9 years old and has not known a normal, quiet life since then. However, before that time things had been calm in the region. Her first and only passport is a Luhansk People’s Republic passport which is neither Russian nor Ukrainian. Lisa’s older sister has a degree in music and used to teach at the Luhansk Conservatory. Now, of course, she no longer works there. She and her family now live outside the embattled city.

In her first year, the university offered Lisa a residence in a students’ hostel;¹ local students normally have to wait several years for such a room. Lisa is open-minded and friendly with several members of her study group. For Christmas, she organises the “Secret Santa” game and is surprised to find out that no one in her new Russian circle of acquaintances celebrates St Nicholas’ Day. In Ukraine, this day is known to every child and is celebrated on 19 December, with children discovering a gift from St. Nicholas under their pillow. Generally, Ukrainians are familiar with Western European traditions.

Ivone, a lively student from Crimea, also lives in the university residence on campus. She arrived in Russia in two steps. Her journey included an intermediate stage before arriving in Russia. The family first moved from Donetsk to the Crimean Peninsula when the first military activities hit the Donbass in 2014. At the time, she was still a child and made the journey by car with her father, drawing what she saw out of the window on a sheet of paper. When her father discovered tanks on his daughter’s drawing, he promptly tore it up, according to Ivone’s childhood memories. A few years ago, when they were faced with the decision of where to study, the family opted for Russia. The reason was that the local diploma, unlike the “Crimean diploma”, is recognised in Europe.

Yuri, from the Kharkiv region, has a German surname, but knows nothing about his own origins, as his father did not know his own father. In Russia, his mother’s country of origin, Yuri feels at home. At university, he is also friends with all the students of his study group. Previously, he wanted to study at a university in Poland. Now he only has an expired Ukrainian passport.

Is there a risk that he will be conscripted into the Russian army and will have to go to the front, if he applies for a Russian passport and citizenship? In the event of a general mobilisation, this would be possible. However, Yuri suffers from a chronic neurological disease that does not allow him to be conscripted into the Russian army. If he were to return to Ukraine now to apply for a new Ukrainian passport, he would immediately be conscripted into the Ukrainian army, regardless of his illness, and would de facto be forced to fight against his current fellow students. Obviously, he does not want this.

Roman is from Kherson, well not exactly... When he was five, his parents left Ukraine for North Africa, where Roman grew up learning three languages. He is fluent in Arabic, English and Russian. For high school, he returned to Kherson and graduated from school there. There he also learned Ukrainian. Thanks to his perfect command of English, he earns his living as a youtuber. Roman is self-confident and funny and doesn’t get offended when his fellow students grin hearing him speak Russian with his unusual accent. Yes, the pronunciation of words is not always easy in Russian.

Roman’s father currently lives in Kherson, his mother and sister are in Austria. He has a Ukrainian passport and is learning German, because he wants to live in Europe and continue his studies there. Being an athletic young man, returning to Ukraine would be very dangerous for him at the moment.

What strikes me about all the young people from Ukraine is their zest for life and their optimism, despite all the atrocities in their country. They want to succeed in life. They are open to the world and to grab happiness.

1 Rooms in university residences are difficult to obtain in Russia, as they are fully financed by the state and are therefore often free or very cheap for students. Such rooms are very much in demand, but once you moved in, it takes some time to settle in.

The comfort is quite different from German student hostels. Three people share a small room of about 14 to 16 square metres. Usually it is furnished with three beds, a table and some chairs and a built-in wardrobe. The students have to provide their own refrigerators, etc. There are toilets and a kitchen on each floor for about 14 rooms. Shower cubicles and a laundry room are on the ground floor of the five-storey building.

Despite all this, few people move out. Most of them enjoy staying in the student hostel. It means you don’t have to go working to pay the rent for a flat. Instead, you can concentrate on your studies. Furthermore, student life is bustling, and many friendships are formed to last for years.