is a PhD student of history at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. He is writing a micro-history of the widespread violence in Lviv during the first two weeks of the German-Soviet War in late June 1941. His fields of interest are the European history of the 20th century, violence and conflict studies. He is the author of Donbas in Flames. A Guide to the Conflict Zone (Lviv, Prometheus, 2017).
‘Post-truth’ is a concept that has been much discussed in recent years. But what is it like to experience its effects for real? Mykola Balaban, a history student and soldier, describes how it feels to be attacked with ‘non-existent’ rockets, and how one can come to doubt even one’s own empirical experiences.