Ambivalent Enmity and Adolescence in a Wartime Diary (1941–1944): Historical and Psychological Perspectives
This article evaluates the diary of Olga Kravtsova, a young Ukrainian woman who documented her experiences, thoughts, and feelings almost daily from 1941 to 1944. The diary reveals a young person shaped by Stalinism who, amid the crises and conflicts of adolescence, experienced the horror of the German war of extermination and occupation in Ukraine and the purges in the first months after the return of Soviet rule. Olga describes her ambivalent feelings towards the German occupiers, which gradually transformed from hostility, to friendship, and even to romantic attachment. Our interdisciplinary approach to this material, which combines the perspectives of history and psychology, allows for a greater and more sympathetic awareness of historical and cultural conditions and expands the disciplinary boundaries of both scholarly fields. In addition, our reading of Olga’s diary additionally reveals the inherent ambivalence of enmity. It sharpens our view of the phenomenon of collaboration, cooperation with the enemy, and invites the reader to become more aware of the contingency, relationality, and processuality of enmity relations.
Copyright (c) 2024 The Journal of Transcultural Studies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
More Citation Formats
Copyright (c) 2024 The Journal of Transcultural Studies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
