Published: 2026-03-29

War from a Civilian Perspective. "The Language of War" by Oleksandr Myched and "Last Witnesses" by Svetlana Alexievich

Anna Stępniak

Abstract

The purpose of the article: „War from a civilian perspective based on the works The Language of War by Oleksandr Myched and Last Witnesses by Svetlana Alexievich” is to present a picture of war as seen through the eyes of a civilian and its impact on the physical and spiritual aspects of human life. The aim of this article is to explore the perspective of an innocent participant and witness of wartime experiences, who undergoes an involuntary bodily and spiritual transformation as a result of extreme events. The protagonist's metamorphosis is shown as a process of slow, irreversible transformation of the individual under the influence of warfare. The reference to the figure of the biblical Job gives the story a deep existential dimension – both protagonists are full of internal conflicts, doubt and rebel, but do not lose faith. The article draws attention to the universalism of the message and its biblical context – behind the eponymous Job there is every innocent victim of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which makes the reportage show the suffering of the individual in a broader philosophical and anthropological dimension. The article employs the methods of literary and cultural comparativism, hermeneutics, as well as the method of philological analysis.

Keywords:

war , civilian , transformation , Job , body

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Stępniak, A. (2026). War from a Civilian Perspective. "The Language of War" by Oleksandr Myched and "Last Witnesses" by Svetlana Alexievich. Przegląd Rusycystyczny [Russian Studies Review], 193(1), 220–235. https://doi.org/10.31261/pr.21762

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Vol. 193 No. 1 (2026)
Published: 2026-03-29


ISSN: 0137-298X
Ikona DOI 10.31261/pr

Publisher
Polskie Towarzystwo Rusycystyczne oraz Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego

Licence CC Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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