“There is No Land in the World More Beautiful. Our Soldiers Sleep in It”: The Meaning of Geographical Images in Donbass Poetry

The article analyzes contemporary Russian military and civil poetry – Donbass poetry – which unites poets whose work is dedicated to the events of the war in Donbass from 2014 to 2022 and the special military operation that began in 2022. The researcher, studying the socio-cultural landscape presented in the poetry of Donbass resi-dents, highlights the geographical images they use and create, as well as their value-semantic content, since territorial and spatial objects in the consciousness of individuals and society, in addition to their original (geographical) meaning, also have a symbolic and axiological meaning. The author of the article, using the poetry collections “Poetry of the Russian Summer” (2023) and “Poetry of the Russian Winter” (2024), shows that for Donbass poets, geographical objects associated with the tragic events and victory in the Great Patriotic War, with the majestic historical past of the Russian state, are of particular importance, since the poetic images associated with them allow us to consider the events in Donbass in the 21st century in the context of the worldview, history and culture of all of Russia.