Zapiski diarystyczne Poliny Żerebcowej jako forma protestu

Beata Pawletko

doi:10.31261/RSL.2021.31.10

Published: 2021-12-15

Vol. 31 (2021)

Polina Zherebtsova’s diaries as a form of protest

Beata Pawletko

Section: Dział główny

https://doi.org/10.31261/RSL.2021.31.10

Abstract

This article is an attempt to analyze Polina Zherebtsova’s artistic and socio-political activity as a form of protest. In her diary, which covered a decade, we can observe the author’s accelerated maturation (the first notes, drawings and poems are by a girl of less than nine years, the last ones by a nineteen-year-old). Along with this maturation, enforced by the circumstances of war, in the diaries we can observe changes in her perception of reality. Zherebtsova remains focused on her personal problems: chiefly on the worsening conflict with her mother, whose symptoms of the post-traumatic stress disorder are becoming more and more visible and whose condition translates into hostility towards her daughter and her notes, resulting in verbal and physical violence and emotional blackmail. Over time, Zherebtsova’s diary becomes more and more clearly an indictment of the participants in the Russian-Chechen conflict, containing details inconvenient for many people. These details confirm that Chechnya, once a republic where before the war representatives of different nations and faiths lived in peaceful coexistence, has become an arena for barbaric acts of terror, hatred, rape, torture, and corruption, with life depraved and with customs and norms replaced by savagery. Zherebtsova’s diary confirms that the greatest victims of the conflict are the civilians of Chechnya, deprived of material aid and spiritual support. It also draws attention to the nightmarish existence of refugees, often physically and psychologically maimed, who, alone and often unsuccessfully, fight for the right to compensation and a dignified life in the post-war reality.

Keywords:

Zherebtsova , Russian-Chechen conflict , testimony , protest , war diaries

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Pawletko, B. (2021). Polina Zherebtsova’s diaries as a form of protest. Rusycystyczne Studia Literaturoznawcze, 31, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.31261/RSL.2021.31.10

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Vol. 31 (2021)
Published: 2021-12-22

ISSN: 0208-5038

eISSN: 2353-9674

10.31261/RSL

Publisher

Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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Polina Zherebtsova’s diaries as a form of protest

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Beata Pawletko

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