VOLUNTEER MOTIVATIONS IN THE CHERNIHIV REGION IN ORAL TESTIMONIES OF THE PERIOD OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

Abstract

The article examines the motivations of volunteers in the Chernihiv region through oral testimonies from the period of the Russian-Ukrainian war. It analyzes the main factors that encouraged individuals to engage in volunteer activities and explores the formation and transformation of these motivations under the influence of wartime events between 2014 and 2025. The study demonstrates that volunteer motivation is complex in nature and combines moral and ethical, patriotic, family-related, personal, and socio-psychological motives. Particular attention is paid to the impact of direct wartime experiences on the intensification of volunteer activity among residents of the Chernihiv region.

The aim of the article is to examine the motivations of volunteers in the Chernihiv region during the Russian-Ukrainian war on the basis of oral history sources and to identify the peculiarities of their formation and transformation under the influence of wartime events in 2014–2025.

Methodology. The methodological framework of the study is based on the approaches of oral history and historical anthropology, which make it possible to consider volunteering both as a form of civic engagement and as an individually experienced wartime reality. To achieve the research objective, a combination of general scientific and special historical methods was employed. The historical-genetic method was used to analyze the formation and transformation of volunteer motivations at different stages of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The biographical method made it possible to reconstruct individual trajectories of involvement in volunteer activities. Oral history methods and narrative analysis were applied to interpret oral testimonies, identify motivational factors, and explore the ways in which respondents understood their own experiences. The method of generalization was used to distinguish the principal groups of motives underlying volunteer activity.

Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the study consists in reconstructing the motivations of volunteers in the Chernihiv region on the basis of oral history sources and identifying the specific features of their transformation during the Russian-Ukrainian war. It has been established that the motivational structure of volunteer activity changed significantly under the influence of the full-scale invasion of 2022, the siege of Chernihiv, the occupation of several territorial communities, and the direct experience of wartime events. The study demonstrates that, for many respondents, volunteering became not only a form of assistance to military personnel and civilians but also a mechanism for adapting to wartime reality and making sense of their own experiences.

Conclusions. Oral testimonies of volunteers from the Chernihiv region indicate that the main motives for volunteer activity include moral responsibility, patriotic convictions, support for relatives and friends, civic solidarity, and the desire to overcome the consequences of traumatic wartime experiences. The study has established that following the beginning of the full-scale invasion, volunteer motivations underwent significant transformation and acquired a stronger personal and emotional dimension. The findings confirm the considerable heuristic potential of oral history sources for investigating mechanisms of civic self-organization and social resilience under wartime conditions.