2014, Luhansk. Margaryta Surzhenko is taking her three-year-old son to kindergarten when she hears a fighter jet roaring overhead. Somewhere in the city center, government buildings are being seized. Fear and anxiety fill the air, but life goes on as usual—after all, nothing truly terrible could happen in the 21st century, in a civilized world. Children play in the kindergarten, vendors sell goods, doctors treat patients, and armed occupiers roam the streets.
Within days, the fear becomes unbearable, and Margaryta and Stanislav decide to temporarily move to friends in Kryvyi Rih, planning to return to Luhansk once the Ukrainian army liberates it. Like thousands of Luhansk residents, Margaryta packs only two bags, leaving behind everything else. Her son’s colorful books are among the many things left behind in Luhansk.
Day by day, it becomes clear there is no going back. The toys and books her son loved are now forever out of reach in a city that has become too dangerous to return to. Luhansk isn’t liberated. Instead, a full-blown war begins. What was there to fight over? The city had no vast natural resources or grand history—just a typical provincial town. Yet, the Russian army stole the childhood and memories of hundreds of thousands of Luhansk residents, uprooting them and casting them into the void. The city remains occupied, and everything Ukrainian has been destroyed there.
Still, Margaryta comforts her son, who longs to play with his toys and flip through his storybooks. She begins telling him her own stories—new ones each day, with cartoon characters or Stanislav himself as the heroes. She encourages her son to share stories with her, too. This becomes their tradition: every evening, they exchange stories.
Despite aggression and violence that could, at any moment, strip you of all material possessions—your home, car, summer house, phone, books, and childhood photographs—they could never take away your traditions, your love, or your support for each other.
A year later, Margaryta decides to start writing down the stories she tells her son. This is how the website nochdobra.com is born. This site helps create a wonderful new tradition – telling each other bedtime stories every day.
