Victoria Amelina, award-winning author

By guest writer Genevieve Pollock

Victoria Amelina was an acclaimed poet and novelist from Ukraine, and was considering writing a new novel until February 2022, when the Russian attacks on Ukraine reached a full scale invasion and she realized that her talents were needed elsewhere. She did not know when she decided to document Russian war crimes through her writing that she would end up losing her life to their crimes. PEN America, whose company mission is to stand “at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide” stated in a press release following her death; “Amelina, 37, who had turned her attention from literature to document Russian war crimes after the invasion, died from her injuries after the June 27 strike in the city of Kramatorsk.”

Amelina was born in 1986 in Lviv, Ukraine, where she lived until she immigrated to Canada with her father when she was 14. She later decided to return to Ukraine, where she studied at the Lviv Polytechnic National University and earned a computer science degree. She worked in this field for a few years before dedicating her life to writing.

Her dedication did not go unnoticed, she became acclaimed and awarded for much of her literary work both during her life and posthumously. She published a children's book, two novels, and an array of poems and essays. Her debut novel, The Fall Syndrome, or Homo Compatiens was shortlisted for the Valerii Shevchuk Prize in 2015, and her novel Dom’s Dream Kingdom was recognized as a finalist for the European Union Prize for Literature and won Best prose Book of the Year at Knyzhkova Tolaka’s literary festival after its 2017 release.

As tensions grew and Russia’s war crimes continued, she felt that her literary skills could be used in a more meaningful way, and decided to dedicate herself to documenting the war crimes Russia was committing against the people of Ukraine. In a quote, when discussing her decision to leave fiction and poetry behind, she said “That’s what war leaves you.”

She joined TruthHounds, a Ukrainian human rights organization dedicated to “documenting and investigating international crimes and other serious human rights violations committed during the armed conflicts in Ukraine and other regions of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia” (TruthHounds). They trained her to investigate war crimes, and she did well, traveling to towns and villages near and at the frontlines to document testimonies and atrocities.

One of Victoria’s most celebrated accomplishments during her time working with TruthHounds was saving the diary of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a writer and activist who was abducted from the Izium region in 2022, then tortured and killed by Russian occupiers. After her discovery, she brought the diary to a museum where it was restored and eventually published under the title, I Am Transforming: A Diary of Occupation. Amelina wrote the preface, and according to Pen America, she carried his story with her for the rest of her life.

Victoria Amelina’s death was a tragedy, but she was aware of the risks she was taking.

She worked on the front lines, gaining stories and documentation of the atrocities of war. She worked closely with Pen America, to advocate for the rights that writers deserved everywhere, and saw and heard the stories of writers whose lives were lost to the Russian Occupation, but if she was discouraged, she did not let it stop her. She continued to write until her murder by a Russian airstrike.

It is my hope that everyone with a passion for writing is able to hear her story, and the stories of others that she shared. As tensions continue to rise internationally, it seems like war has become a part of all of our daily lives, to varying extents. I hope to be able to one day write something as meaningful as the work of Victoria Amelina, and I am grateful to her for sharing her words with all of us.

Written by Genevieve Pollock