Z for 'Zeit': Ukrainian Graphic Diaries versus the Kremlin’s Weaponization of Time

• In Event: Diary, Document, Testimony: From Shalamov’s Stories to Ukrainian War Diaries

Abstract

Soon after Russia’s failed blitzkrieg in Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin was forced to revise its invasion strategy. By adopting the "Eternal Russia" narrative to justify its occupation of Ukrainian land, and amplifying the ominous tick of the Doomsday Clock with nuclear threats, the Kremlin embraced a deterministic teleological rhetoric, while anticipating the onset of 'Ukraine fatigue'. In the words of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, “Russia is weaponizing time.”
This paper argues that amidst Kremlin’s homogenous, depersonalized, quantitative time, a distinct time sensibility of resistance emerges, characterized by a highly individualized perception of qualitative, in-the-moment time that appears transient, fragmented, and heterogenic. This dynamic heterochrony, contrasting the sequential time of the invader with the opportune time of resistance, the chronos and the kairos, the empty and the Messianic time (in Benjamin’s terms) permeates the cultural surround of the Russo-Ukrainian war. In particular, this is manifested in graphic diaries, which have become a popular medium for contemporary Ukrainian artists remaining in the country during wartime. For the purpose of this discussion, the works of Inga Levi (2022), Dima Tolkachov (2022), and the Feldman Sisters (2024) will be used as a case study.
This paper’s ambition is twofold: first, it assesses the ongoing war from a chronocentric perspective (as opposed to the prevailing ‘topocentric’ one that focuses on territorial disputes) and explore the conflicting temporal perspectives as discourse and counter-discourse of power. Second, drawing on Bakhtin’s idea of interplay between temporal sensibility and genre, it explores how the heterogenic time of resistance informs the narrative structure of a graphic diary.

Author

• Alexandre Zaezjev, McGill U (Canada)