Description
From the soldiers shot at Bazar in 1921 to the prisoners of war and civilians held by Russia today, Moscow has named Ukrainians “enemies” and held them. This twelve-week course reads that record, and the families, lawyers and witnesses who bring people home.
Full description
In November 1921, 359 captured soldiers of the Ukrainian People’s Republic were shot at Bazar. In 1936 the label “enemies of the people” entered the Soviet constitution. Since 2014, and far more since 2022, Russia has held Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, many cut off from their families and from the Red Cross.
This book reads how the label and the camps worked: Solovky, the Gulag and the special regime unit at Perm-36, where seven of those held died; verdicts written in advance; and, since 2022, prisoners denied their status, civilians detained in their own towns, and torture as the United Nations documents it, in the UN’s own words.
The plus word, FREED, names what people kept: families who register a name and read every exchange list; the exchanges, which had brought 9,726 citizens home by 13 October 2026, as the Coordination Headquarters counts; registers and memory books; evidence gathered for the courts; and defenders and lawyers in the courtroom.
Its twelve weeks make one course term, each reading its story on three circles (personal, cultural, structural) and in four times, from before the empire to the future we choose. On River Street the Shevchuks of No. 10 keep Ivan’s photograph by the door. Their story holds a soldier shot at Bazar, a bookkeeper taken in 1937, Taras, a defender captured in 2022 and home from an exchange, and his mother Liuba, with her school exercise book. The family is fictional; every event is documented. We Remember keeps the people this filter took, as counts and as publicly recorded names. For Every Age has four guides: a children’s story, The Second Frame, youth lessons, a community evening and a teachers’ guide.
It serves courses in social work, history, law, human rights and Ukrainian studies, and families’ groups, churches and readers of Ukrainian descent. Corrections and family stories are welcome at sasha@drokacademy.ca.
This is the first edition. Our goal is to find people with lived experience of what it describes, including Crimean Tatar and Lemko readers, survivors, their families and descendants, and their communities, and to review the book with them for accuracy. If you have lived this history, or you find something that is not accurate or something that is missing, please write to sasha@drokacademy.ca. The second edition will carry every correction, and the author is looking for co-authors who will shape it. A Ukrainian edition, ПОЛОН− і ВОЛЯ+ (Polon− i Volia+), is planned. We will keep working toward it and are asking people to help with translation and review: write to sasha@drokacademy.ca.
Inside
- Twelve weeks, one for each class of a course term, in four parts: CARE, POWER, the minus word and the plus word
- River Street: one fictional family and the documented history behind every week
- Every week read on three circles (personal, cultural, structural) and in four times: before, what the empire brought, since 1991, the future we choose
- Three readings a week, discussion questions, a research task and key terms
- We Remember: who the filter took, with dated, sourced counts, and where the names are kept
- For Every Age: four guides, for children, youth, a community evening, and teachers and leaders
The author takes no income from this book. Proceeds after production costs support students. The author supports student caregivers and those who stand with Ukraine.
Teaching it? Instructors can request a free review copy, and every student in a course that adopts the book receives it free. Write to sasha@drokacademy.ca.
Author line
Dr. Oleksandr Kondrashov (Sasha) is the founder of DROKACADEMY, a healing and writing space in Kamloops, British Columbia, and a social work educator who currently teaches at Thompson Rivers University. Born in Lviv, Ukraine, and in Canada since 2004, he has taught over 7,000 students across five Canadian universities. DROKACADEMY’s motto guides this series: Love. Care. Share. The first prisoner he knew by name was a poet: his Lviv school took the name of Vasyl Stus, who died in a Soviet camp in 1985.
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