ABSTRACT
One of the most consequential geopolitical events since the disintegration of the Soviet Union was Russia’s occupation of Crimea in February 2014. This chapter explores subjective experiences of that event. The occupation, militarization, and human rights abuses in Crimea forcibly displaced an estimated 40,000 ethnically Russian, Ukrainian, and Crimean Tatar people. The narratives of 90 people, many of whom were displaced, suggest that they navigated two very different temporalities between Russian-controlled Crimea and Russian-occupied Ukraine. Precisely because of their mobility, the internally displaced are able to clarify the differences between occupied and non-occupied territories. Utilizing theorizing on temporality, the production of locality, and embodiment, the chapter offers a historically contextualized and phenomenological perspective on how political trauma is experienced by the mind–body. Like the 2022 invasion, the 2014 occupation elicited World War II discourses and rhetoric. With the failure of the post World War II pledge “never again,” the indigenous Crimean Tatars, in particular, are confronted with an experience of “again and again.” This chapter discusses the subjective experience of occupation as being “returned” to Soviet times, and the sense of altered reality in which occupation became like a nightmare for some, even as it was celebrated by others.
