Often a look into the past helps us better understand the present: This week, the dekoder team launched Stalino, the second part of their WW2 special. The project features an interactive web documentary and a podcast, telling five personal stories from the city of Donetsk in Ukraine’s Donbas region, during the German occupation in WW2. Back then, the city was known as Stalino.

The project aims to close a gap in historical memory and to provide context on a city that is often in the news, even today. In fact, right now, the fate of the Donbas region is being decided on the battlefield, as well as at negotiating tables. The launch of this project on Feb 24, 2026 is no coincidence, as that date marks four years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The web project is also accompanied by a podcast, produced by Berlin Producers. The stories are meticulously researched by dekoder and Heidelberg University, richly presented, and deeply personal, while being grounded in historical context. The first is about Wowa, a nine-year old boy living in Donetsk when the nazis invade the city in 1941.

Our role in the project

This months-long collaboration with dekoder features custom illustrations, scroll-based storytelling, original video footage and photos, five podcast episodes presented by Jasmin Lörcher, interactive historical maps, and much more … there truly is a lot to see (and hear)! We supported with art direction, conceptual input, interaction design and implementation, and created the podcast covers, as well as social media imagery.

Leonid A. Klimov from dekoder said this about our involvement in the project:

It was great to work together on the second part of the project on the Second World War! In “Stalino – der Donbas unter deutscher Besatzung”, Village One took over the art direction, and that was truly fantastic. The team didn’t just create (yet another) website—they developed a visual language for talking about the Second World War and Nazi crimes in a way that is both sensitive and powerful.

Find it all here:

• Project website as a hub, and the first story

• An overview on the podcast episodes; or search for “Stalino” wherever you listen to podcasts

All five podcast episodes are already released for binge-listening, while the web stories are published one by one.

Wait, there’s more!

This project is a sequel to our work with dekoder on “Der Krieg und seine Opfer”, an online documentary about the stories of civilians during WW2. Few, if any, of our projects have received such positive recognition: It was nominated for a Grimme Online Award and countless people got in touch because they found our name on the site. You can read our launch announcement from back then on our garden.

We can’t wait to see how Stalino will be received—dive into the stories, share them around, let us know what you think!