What to Expect from "A Personal War"?
Explaining every content format in detail
Hello, my dear reader, Anastasia here. Before launching “A Personal War,” let me give you a preview (a trailer, if you will) of what you can expect to see here after subscribing.
➡️ As a free subscriber:
Weekly Digest
With a recommendation to absorb, idea to digest, and a bedtime story.
Regularity: Every Sunday morning.
🧠 To Absorb
The information I consume, from books to movies to interviews and podcasts, is shaped by my experience of war — and from that, quite unique. Every week, I’ll recommend an impressive piece of media to absorb that resonated with me. From Orwell’s essays to YouTube series with political philosophers.
♻️ To Digest
No surprise that I live in a war-time reality, which pushes me to process things differently and make curious connections — historical, social, cultural. I will share a glimpse of it with you: an idea/observation of the week, often with a thought-provoking quote.
📖 And a Bedtime Story
Story time! In these years, multiple crazy, impossible, beautiful, horrible things happened to me. What about that time I prepared for a nuclear war? Or when I spent 2 months on an island surrounded by 300k russians? Consider it a bedtime story from a Ukrainian POV.
🇺🇦 Post Scriptum (aka Ask a Ukrainian)
This is your time to engage with me— each newsletter will end with my invitation to ask a question. See it as my attempt to bridge the gap between the Ukrainian reality and its (often inaccurate) media representation. Just ask yourself: What would I want to ask a Ukrainian? And leave it in the comments to the Weekly Digest post. Both simplest and most profound philosophical questions are accepted.
➡️ As a paid subscriber:
1) Digest (weekly)
2) Ask a Ukrainian 🇺🇦
Regularity: You can expect a monthly letter answering all the questions gathered this month. The amount of questions depends on you, my readers.
As a refugee-turned-nomad, I traveled lots and noticed that people were asking me about multiple things media never gave answers to. I’m in no way a representative for all Ukrainian people, but just one person who can satisfy your curiosity based on my lived experiences and subjective opinions.
Here’s what people previously asked me to give you ideas:
❓What does “peace” mean to you?
❓Did you grow up speaking russian? Ukrainian? Why?
❓Do you think the war will end soon?
3) War On Thinking 🗣
Regularity: Every two Wednesdays, bi-weekly
What’s in the head of a person living through war?
How do they process information?
What’s their response to modern politics, news, events?
This is my attempt to answer all these questions in an in-depth format. I often find older thinkers mirroring today’s reality of war in Ukraine — from Martin Luther King to Susan Sontag. I also love
’s idea: history does not repeat, but it does instruct.In conversation with great thinkers, these letters bridge historical parallels between us. Evocative, relevant, thought-provoking.
4) A small gift 🎁
Get a free e-book with a few Ukrainian poems translated by me & accompanied by my film pictures once you subscribe. Consider it a small welcoming gift:)