Tessera

Metalwork on the stairs of the national scientific and technical archive in Ukraine.

I wrote this humorous short story in 2022, when there were fears Ukraine would be nuked on May 9, and there was a need for some lightness and hope. open.substack.com/pub/vika4goo...

A Space Conundrum on a Victory Day

A satirical short story taking place in Space and not at all on the "ungrateful Earth".

open.substack.com

Nutria on the Lopan River in Kharkiv.

My grandpa Viktor was very young when WW2 began. He had several birthdays because he added a year to join the red army in 1943 (provision was much better and he could send his relatives some food, he would say). He was a paramedic and I think he didn’t see much of the fighting, or 1/4

Library copies of my PhD submitted 🥳🥹. I still need to wait for all the checks, but, fingers crossed, the uni gods confirm. “Apocalyptic Unlearning: Vulnerable Legacies and Cultural Reimaginings in Wartime Kharkiv (2022-24)” will fly into the big world of grownup PhDs✈️.

A new episode of Films and Books with Kharkiv Cats. We never stay away from trends, and we’ve heard Tuapse is trending 😉. open.substack.com/pub/vika4goo...

Tuapse in The Ukrainian Gaze: Ahatanhel Krymsky

Films and Books with Kharkiv Cats present to you the new episode.

open.substack.com

The beautiful old town of Bohodukhiv - “town of god’s spirit” - is being relentlessly bombed for several days by the Russian military. It is here that a famous Ukrainian writer Mykola Khvylovyi studied. The terror by shaheeds, bombs and drones is relentless, erasing everything.

Wrote a short essay on the battle for memory and culture in “Donbas”. With a salt - present of my dear @victoriadonovan.bsky.social in 2021. substack.com/@vika4good/n...

What Russia Wants From "Donbas"

A Short Explanation of the Russian Strategy concerning Donetsk and Luhansk Regions

substack.com

After the night of drone and missile attacks I feel like a little plastic lamb in the Kharkiv Central Park. But the day is busy. I need to run for a training, then deadlines, and if the weather doesn’t curse us, an expedition.

Starting the most unique book for breakfast - a non-fiction story by two ethnographers in Izyum about Otaman Savonov, a Ukrainian who in 1918-1921 was fighting against both white russians and bolsheviks in Izyum. There is a chapter dedicated to him being “kharakternyk”, i.e. a Witcher 👀.

Russian state is consistently attacking cultural heritage of Ukraine. The 1835 Donets-Zakharzhevsky mansion survived two world wars, but not today’s russia. Colonel Donets was a Ukrainian Cossack settler in the 17th century Sloboda Ukraine. His family would become rich in centuries to come.

A small love song to the chalk fortress of Izyum and the way local are addressing the wounds of occupation. open.substack.com/pub/vika4goo...

Izyum in Hope, Laughter and Nets

In late March 2026 I made a short trip to Izyum, an old fortress town, occupied briefly in 2022. This is a story of a thrilling walk with the director of the local ethnography museum, Halyna Ivanova.

open.substack.com

Dear all, for my birthday under the sounds of Shaheeds I’m fundraising for some important equipment, to join one of my favourite Kharkiv initiatives. Today you have a chance to win my book! Links to the fundraiser in comments! 👇👇

In the times when russian state agents return to cultural institutions across the world, it’s time to stand up against the injustice. Please sign and spread the word about the petition: c.org/SwJdbnCQ4n

Sign the Petition

End Russia's Academic Privilege: Remove 'Russia' from Titles at University Studies Centers

c.org

Love early morning walks through the city. Assumption Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kharkiv on Gogol street. It is the main Catholic Church in Kharkiv.

open.substack.com/pub/vika4goo...

Stars, Wars, and Shaheed Drones

The sun comes out on a Saturday morning, drenching all in bright lemony light, as I walk with a group of locals to the Astronomy Museum of the Kharkiv University.

open.substack.com

I couldn’t help but analyze the russian gaze and the obsessive compulsion of russian intellectuals to write about Ukraine: open.substack.com/pub/vika4goo...

Woke up perfectly in time to hear a combined attack of russian missiles, shaheeds and m.gessens on Kharkiv.

My awkward translation of a poem by Anatolii Kytchynskyi, a poet from Kherson, The Cold of That Winter (2005). We called the cold of that winter “beastly”, Because it was so freezing you could bark. But language would save us. There was a feeling That all the colds in the universe👇

Starting this day in Kharkiv with a class of fly yoga was definitely a choice 😅. As we were swinging in hammocks after the threat of guided bombs subsided, the instructor asked if anyone watched the new adaptation of the Wuthering Heights already.

Happy pancake holiday. In Ukraine, it’s called either masliana (Масляна) or Kolodyi (Колодій). My kitchen is warm enough to cook again! Tried to make crepe suzette. Let’s burn the scarecrow of winter and approach spring.

This Kharkiv cat is a lightning, a Sunday messenger.

There is nothing like taking a relaxing hot bath in a cold ass winter apartment, and hearing a female voice from a street loudspeaker “attention, attention, missile threat, missile threat” 💀

It’s 0C outside, and I don’t see clouds of my breath in the apartment anymore🥳. Celebrated with some oven baked oatmeal with leftover barbecue meat. And my love - regional paper Slobidsky Kraj. “Sloboda” was a free settlement of Ukrainians in 17th century.

Update on my Kharkiv flowers. Banana is not doing well. It’s +7 inside, can see my breath. Today the new heater has to arrive 🙏.

Breakfast in candlelight, watching Super Bowl halftime show using WiFi from a cafe on generator downstairs.