Darya Luganskaya (b. 1989, former USSR) is a London-based writer and journalist. She has received the UK’s Chevening Scholarship and multiple Russian journalism awards, and has reported for Forbes, worked at the BBC, and contributed to The Guardian.

Since 2023, she has been writing her first non-fiction book. Drawing on her post-Soviet roots, Luganskaya’s book speaks to a wider audience. It tackles pressing questions: how do people find hope when the news seems relentlessly bleak? How do they deal with inherited cultural trauma? And how can communities heal from shared socio-cultural wounds?

Based on over fifty in-depth interviews, her own journey from a Russian village to cosmopolitan life abroad, and interdisciplinary research, Luganskaya argues that these questions go far beyond the former Soviet sphere. Societies worldwide, shaped by colonialism or scarred by political repression, carry similar burdens. By exploring the connections between these histories, she examines what it means to confront oppressive legacies and reclaim a shared sense of humanity.