“resident of war”

“Resident of war” is Sergeyich’s name for the involuntary condition of living inside a conflict in which he has taken no part. The phrase gives a civic-sounding label to an imposed and unenviable fate, then exposes its limits: people may shift between peace and war, but bees cannot, and their vulnerability is what makes Sergeyich leave.

Meaning and Context

Sergeyich uses the expression while driving away from the fighting with his bees. He understands that the excitement he feels at reaching an empty road is false and unjustified, yet it briefly reassures him. Behind him are both the Ukrainian army and the force he calls the “Dee-pee-aria,” as well as the sound of bombardment. He has not chosen a side or participated in the war; he has simply found himself living within it.

The phrase’s apparent plainness is part of its force. “Resident” ordinarily suggests a stable relation to a place, but here the place is defined by war, and residence is not a voluntary attachment. Sergeyich names himself through the condition imposed on him, without claiming the identity of a combatant.

People and Bees

The expression also sets human endurance against animal vulnerability. Sergeyich thinks that, without the bees, he would not have gone: he would have pitied Pashka and stayed rather than leave him alone. His departure is therefore not simply an escape from danger. It is a choice compelled by responsibility for a living community that cannot be asked to endure the conflict as people do.

In Sergeyich’s understanding, people can move from peace to war and back again; bees cannot comprehend those changes. Their natural task is to collect and spread pollen, and he believes they must be taken somewhere quiet so they can continue it. He imagines that destination through the coming blossoms of herbs, cherry, apple, apricot, and acacia. Against the noise of bombardment, this catalogue makes the bees’ ordinary work a reason to seek a place where life can continue.

Narrative Significance

“Resident of war” compresses the passage’s central contrast: Sergeyich belongs to a war-shaped world without having entered the war by choice, while his bees are exposed to it without any capacity to understand it. His phrase does not make the conflict feel settled or safe. Even after leaving the bombardment behind, his confidence remains qualified: the relief he feels is knowingly unjustified, and the road still requires checkpoints and document checks.

The expression thus frames departure as both release and obligation. Sergeyich is leaving a war that has made him its resident, but the bees’ natural mission gives his journey its purpose. The phrase’s bleak irony lies in the gap between a human label for living through war and the nonhuman life he is trying to carry beyond it.