Storm Diary (2019)

A sort of travel journal that’s as much about an inner journey and a reckoning with Russia’s troubled history, Yulia Nikitina’s Storm Diary recounts the author’s sojourn along the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous region, on the Yamal peninsula, through Vorkuta in the Komi Republic and on to the Kara Sea in the Russian arctic. A native of Salekhard, Nikitina (b. 1988) traveled by foot, train, and off-road vehicle across more than three hundred kilometers (186 miles), writing and drawing all along the way. As Nikitina told an interviewer: “Since the age of sixteen I have been living with anxiety, constant nervousness, and fears related to social interactions. For me the possibility of traveling means a lot, because many of my fears are connected to the use of different kinds of public transportation, of traveling together with other people. Before I used to think that there was no way I could go off somewhere far away and that I would never get to see the world. That’s why I wanted to share what I learned in this particular journey and my experiences as a whole."