I just returned from a week of touring the reconquered battlefields of Ukraine. This book was invaluable in understanding it all.
Author Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian-American Professor of History at Harvard. His identity as a professor is evident, in a mostly good sense. The subject is vast and complex, and his erudition is up to the task. No mere journalist could have written this book, or even popular writers as diligent as David McCullough or Stephen Ambrose. It required decades of immersion.
Poor Ukraine has been occupied by Vikings, Lithuanians, Byzantines, Mongols, Poles, Austrians, Germans, and Russians. It has suffered horribly under some of them, particularly the Mongols in the 13th Century, Stalinist Russians in the 1930s, and Nazi Germans in 1941-43. Through all this, Is there such a thing as a distinct Ukrainian identity?
If there is a central theme to the book, it is found in Plokhy’s rich and nuanced answer, which is “Yes.” Ukrainians have always been adaptive, and a national identity has persisted, even if sometimes below the surface. It burst forth into full maturity with the massive Maidan pro-democracy demonstrations of 2004 and 2013-14 in Kyiv’s central square. It is found today in its people’s heroic resistance to a decidedly FOREIGN invasion.
The book was published before the invasion. If you could not tell from it alone, you would learn from later works that Plokhy is not neutral on the right and wrong of that conflict. But this is no nationalist screed. As historian Noel Malcolm once said about the Bosnian War, “objectivity does not require neutrality.”
While written clearly, even elegantly, it is not easy reading, because of the deluge of historical figures and movements. But push through and be rewarded.
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Altogether, close to 4 million people perished in Ukraine as a result of the famine, more than decimating the country—every eighth person succumbed to hunger between 1932 and 1934.Highlighted by 177 Kindle readers- The division that Herodotus described between coast, steppe, and forest would become one of the main divisions of Ukrainian history—lasting for centuries, if not millennia.Highlighted by 162 Kindle readers
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Top reviews from other countries
S Pérez
Un libro excellente , pero mi copia en pasta blanda se está deshojando.
Reviewed in Mexico on April 29, 2023Andrej
Great Overview of the Ukrainian History
Reviewed in Germany on February 9, 2023
