Ukrainian Marine in Russian Captivity Retold All Seven Harry Potter Books to Cellmates. He Knew the Books by Heart
1495 days in Russian captivity — without contact with relatives, without understanding what was happening in Ukraine. In the darkness, where it seemed nothing human remained, a children's fairy tale, filled with deep philosophical meanings, helped Oleksandr Ivanov survive and preserve his inner strength, writes BBC — Ukraine.
32-year-old Oleksandr is a big fan of Harry Potter. He has read J.K. Rowling's cult fantasy books so many times that he practically memorized them. And in captivity, passing the endless time, when he had already re-thought all his thoughts, he began to retell the novel to his cellmates — page by page, chapter by chapter — in a whisper, so the guards wouldn't hear.
«I always stopped at the most interesting part, like in TV series,» Oleksandr says. «And as soon as the opportunity arose again, the guys asked me to continue the story.»
Thus, Oleksandr involuntarily repeated what many famous prisoners had done in their time. Vasyl Stus read his poems to cellmates in the camps when he was forbidden to write, Italian writer Primo Levi retold Dante's «Divine Comedy» to other prisoners in Auschwitz, and the hero of Ivan Bahriany's novel «The Garden of Gethsemane» recounted «Madame Bovary» in his cell.
BBC News Ukraine spoke with Oleksandr a few days after his release. He returned to Ukraine during the last prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia on May 15. Along with him, 205 Ukrainian servicemen returned home.
Currently, the serviceman is undergoing rehabilitation and awaiting a long-awaited meeting with his wife, Nelli, and eight-year-old son, Demyd.
Mariupol
Oleksandr was born in Kyiv. Even in school, he decided to link his future career with military affairs — he first graduated from the Kyiv Military Lyceum, and then from the Military Institute of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. After graduation, he joined the 501st Marine Battalion. Thanks to his knowledge of English, he served for half a year in the Ukrainian contingent in Kosovo, and then received the position of head of the financial service of the 36th Marine Brigade in Mykolaiv, holding the rank of major.
In Mykolaiv, he met his future wife, Nelli — also a military woman and as ardent a fan of Harry Potter as he was.
Oleksandr with his wife Nelli and son Demyd
Oleksandr and Nelli met the start of the full-scale war 600 km apart. He was on rotation in Mariupol, she was at home in Mykolaiv with their three-year-old son.
Oleksandr recalls the smell of Mariupol at that time above all else — «the air permeated with death.» He remembers the gray days in the bunker at the Illich Plant, where no sun reached, black bags with people in the corridors and the counting of the dead, wounded, missing, as well as desperate attempts to break through.
At dawn on April 12, 2022, he called his wife for the last time and told her that they had decided to surrender.
«He said: 'This will be our last contact with you, because we have no other choice,'» Nelli recounts. A few days later, the last SMS message came from his number. He wrote that he was alive, that he was in Olenivka in the "DNR" in captivity and that she should no longer write to that number.
Neither Oleksandr nor Nelli could have imagined then that they would see each other again only after four long years of uncertainty. The worst thing in captivity is not physical abuse, but how they try to break you morally, Oleksandr says.
«Physically what? You went out for a check, 5-10 minutes, and came back. But the psychological moment lasted not only during the check,» says the serviceman.
The Russians constantly said that Ukraine as a state no longer existed, that its territory was constantly being shelled and people were dying there. They also did not deliver letters. Oleksandr recalls how once a guard was ordered to distribute letters to prisoners, and he demonstratively started burning them.
Over four years, Oleksandr managed to send his wife a voice message only once – he was allowed to dictate three sentences, and the next day he received an equally short reply from her. She said that they celebrated their son's birthday, went to the cinema, and played in a children's room.
«I then realized that if children in Mykolaiv (not far from the front) go to the cinema, it means that everything is fine in Ukraine,» Oleksandr says.
He spent three years of his captivity in a colony in Mordovia. There was a small cell for eight people, where they had to stand for most of the time. It had a toilet and a cold water sink, a small bar of soap, a tube of toothpaste, and a roll of toilet paper for everyone for a week.
Once every three to four days — a walk for two to five minutes. Hot food was given three times a day, but its quality and quantity were such that Oleksandr lost 30 kg during his captivity.
In the last year, it became a little easier; checks, during which prisoners were usually abused, were almost non-existent, and they even started to deliver letters from loved ones. Meanwhile, Nelli in Ukraine was collecting information about her husband piece by piece.
Mainly, everything she knew about Oleksandr, his movements and physical condition, was told by servicemen who were exchanged. In captivity, they memorized the phone numbers of their comrades' wives and called them after their release.
«And that's how I pieced together the picture: oh, he was here, then he was in this place, then in that one. That's how I learned about his health, about his thoughts,» Nelli says.
And then other news began to emerge. Rumors reached Nelli that Oleksandr was retelling «Harry Potter» from memory in captivity.
«I wasn't surprised,» she smiles. «But I was happy. If he's retelling Harry Potter there, if he's in that kind of mood, then things aren't so bad.»
«Prisoner of Azkaban»
Oleksandr was introduced to Rowling's series of novels about the boy wizard quite unexpectedly.
Oleksandr on the far right in the second row on the show «The Smartest» in 2005
In 2005, when he was in the sixth grade, he decided to participate in the children's television game «The Smartest,» which was then hosted by Russian presenter Tina Kandelaki. One of the preparation topics was two fantasy worlds — «The Lord of the Rings» and «Harry Potter.» Oleksandr chose the latter.
He passed the selection from 7,000 candidates but was eliminated in the first round of the game; however, the Harry Potter saga captivated him forever.
He eagerly awaited the release of each subsequent part of the novel, and devoured the fifth book, «Order of the Phoenix,» in literally one day.
Later, reading «Harry Potter» shortened his long journey from the Left Bank, where he lived in Kyiv, to the university in the Holosiivskyi district.
«In the morning, the journey to one end of the city, in the evening — back, I had to pass the time somehow, and I kept reading and rereading Harry Potter, and that's how I ended up memorizing it.»
He immediately, in the voice of a masterful storyteller, recites: «Harry, in the Department of Mysteries, there is a room that is always kept locked. A power is stored there, simultaneously very terrifying and very pure. This power can destroy and devastate your world. It can give you a strength that no one will ever give you in life. The name of this power is — love.»
This is an excerpt from the fifth part of the novel, when Dumbledore tells Harry about his strength, Oleksandr explains. He adds that, perhaps, he might not recount the description of the Whomping Willow in detail, but most of the dialogues — completely.
But how did he get the idea to tell this story in captivity?
Oleksandr recalls that one of the methods of psychological pressure in captivity is the prohibition of talking to each other.
Prisoners spend almost all their time from reveille to lights out standing silently in their cells. To the toilet — on command, three meals — and that's it, then you stand and remain silent again. And also, the radio constantly plays propaganda broadcasts about Russian history.
Tattoo with symbolism from the Harry Potter universe
«Yes, you are always in your thoughts,» says the serviceman. «At first there were some dreams about the future, then for a month and a half you start making some plans, then for a month or two you recall all the moments of your life… But there comes a moment when you simply have nothing left to think about.»
So one day Oleksandr shared with his comrades that he was a Harry Potter fan, and they asked him to tell them what the book was about.
«And I said: I can't leave anything out. We're sitting here anyway, so I'll tell you everything,» he recalls.
Nelli also shared an incredible story about how her husband in captivity retold the books about the boy wizard one after another, and how it helped him and other Ukrainian prisoners to hold on.
«We believe that 'happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light,'» she wrote by hand in English, adding: «Alex became such a light for many others.»
To draw attention to this story, in February, TSN journalists filmed a report about Nelli writing a letter to British writer J.K. Rowling.
J.K. Rowling did not respond, but the miracle Oleksandr and Nelli had hoped for still happened.
«A person in despair first knocks on open doors, then on closed ones, and if there's no answer there either, starts knocking on imaginary, fantastical doors,» Oleksandr says. «I don't rule out that those magical doors answered.»
On May 15, Nelli received a message on her phone from the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Seeing it, she burst into tears — Oleksandr was coming home.
«I told my son that dad had been exchanged. He started jumping around, I had never seen such joy in him, he hugged me and couldn't understand why I was crying.»
While Oleksandr is undergoing rehabilitation in Kyiv, they talk on the phone daily — because they have so much to tell each other. And very soon, the family will finally be able to embrace.
Oleksandr's son, Demyd, waited for his father to return from captivity
Meanwhile, Oleksandr is voraciously consuming news, trying to catch up on everything he missed. He is also receiving hundreds of messages of support and packages with Harry Potter merchandise from people who have learned his story.
«I can't put into words what this means to me, and how grateful I am to everyone, how proud I am to be a part of this country,» he says emotionally.
Oleksandr receives hundreds of messages about Harry Potter
Back in 2022, Nelli got a tattoo with a famous phrase from the novel, with which Severus Snape professes his loyalty and eternal love to Harry's mother: «After all this time? — Always.» Oleksandr has the same tattoo.
«With that phrase, I told myself then that I would wait for Sasha for as long as it takes,» Nelli says.
«After all this time? — Always.»
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