July 2015, Odessa. Amina Okuyeva poses for the photo in a flat she shares with her mother and son. Amina left war-torn Chechnia and moved to Odessa where she studied and become a doctor. She was on Maidan from December 2014 working as a medical volunteer. In that time her husband was in prison accused of the attempt to kill Russian President V. Putin. After Euromaidan revolution he was pardoned and together with Amina joined "international peacekeeping battalion" of volunteers to support Ukraine in fighting against the pro-Russian insurgency. Presently, she is a fighter in the Brigade named after first Chechen president, Dzhokhar Dudayev. She also serves as a Brigade press officer. © Justyna Mielnikiewicz.
© Justyna Mielnikiewicz.
© Justyna Mielnikiewicz.
© Justyna Mielnikiewicz.
© Justyna Mielnikiewicz.
© Justyna Mielnikiewicz.
© Justyna Mielnikiewicz.
© Justyna Mielnikiewicz.
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Portrait of Justyna Mielnikiewicz

In 2016, Polish photographer, Justyna Mielnikiewicz won the W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography for her project, A Diverging Frontier (Russia and its Neighbors). The US$30,000 grant is intended to enable recipients to undertake and complete their proposed photojournalistic and documentary projects.

December 2016 marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, when fifteen Soviet republics became independent countries. Some of them remained within Russia’s sphere of influence, while others like Georgia or Ukraine keep trying to break away and become part of Western Europe. Justyna Mielnikiewicz’s project is a portrait of modern Russia reflected in the experiences of its neighbours and of Russians living outside the border, in particular.

Vladimir Putin’s speech in Moscow announcing the annexation of Crimea on March 18, 2014 talked about millions of people who went to bed in one country and awoke in different ones after the USSR’s collapse. Overnight, they became ethnic minorities in the former Union republics, making the Russian nation “one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders”.

There is a significant (counted in millions) ethnic Russian population in most post-Soviet states whose political positions vary from country to country. The final part of the project, to be completed with support of W. Eugene Smith Grant, explores how these people have formed their national loyalties in the context of history, religion, family ties, and language as citizens of those countries which re-emerged after Soviet Union fell apart.

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A Diverging Frontier

July 2015, Odessa. Amina Okuyeva poses for the photo in a flat she shares with her mother and son. Amina left war-torn Chechnia and moved to Odessa where she studied and become a doctor. She was on Maidan from December 2014 working as a medical volunteer. In that time her husband was in prison accused of the attempt to kill Russian President V. Putin. After Euromaidan revolution he was pardoned and together with Amina joined "international peacekeeping battalion" of volunteers to support Ukraine in fighting against the pro-Russian insurgency. Presently, she is a fighter in the Brigade named after first Chechen president, Dzhokhar Dudayev. She also serves as a Brigade press officer. © Justyna Mielnikiewicz.

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A Diverging Frontier

July 2015, Kiev. Youth plays at the city beach on Dnieper River pouring water on each other. © Justyna Mielnikiewicz.

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A Diverging Frontier

July 2015 , Cherkasy. Captain Kasyanenko Nikolay Vasilevich holds his daughter after arriving from the front line back home, where he was for a year. When the war started, he was retired from the army but immediately went to sign up as a volunteer to fight. After serving year on the front line he continues to work in the army in his region: "As long as the war will continue I will serve, and what will bring tomorrow only God decides", he told Mielnikiewicz in December 2015. © Justyna Mielnikiewicz.

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A Diverging Frontier

July 2015, Dniepropetrovsk. Wedding of Alexey and Elena .They came from near by small town to take wedding pictures by Dnieper River and Dnipropetrovsk. © Justyna Mielnikiewicz.

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A Diverging Frontier

July 2015, Dniprovka Village. Headless statue of V. Lenin , painted gold stands in the center of the village by Energodar City, where biggest in Europe Atomic Power Station is located, on the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir on Dnieper River. © Justyna Mielnikiewicz.

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A Diverging Frontier

David Ebralidze with his daughter. His wife, Julia Tarasova, moved to Ukraine 15 years ago from Murmansk, Russia. She supported both the Orange and Maidan Revolutions and became David’s partner in 2013. David volunteered to fight separatists in 2014 and was granted Ukrainian citizenship as a result. © Justyna Mielnikiewicz.

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A Diverging Frontier

Local election observers at a polling station during parliamentary elections. Baku, 2005. © Justyna Mielnikiewicz.

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A Diverging Frontier

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A Diverging Frontier

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9 May 2017