A cumulation of short stories that provide us with a history of an extraordinary country, culture and people. Told in, my nescient view, a most entertaining and engrossing fashion. The same is true of Serhii Plokhy's history of Ukraine, though he is far more objective and fair in his presentation of Ukrainian history than the mere nationalists on either side of the Ukrainian debate. Plokhy is definitely not pro-Russian, but he doesn't come across as someone on the far side of Ukrainian nationalism. He's a Ukrainian patriot who recognizes that the history of Ukraine consists of the union of a plurality of identities, languages, faiths, and cultures. The front cover is a photograph of the Palais de Justice and Panteleimon Church, Odessa about 1890/1900. All the Ukrainians that I had spoken with, told me that they fought for an Independent Ukraine, and not as Plokhy implies for the Nazis. See Michael O. Logusz “Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th grenadier Division 1943-1945” and {Маців Б. “ У 45 Українська Дивізія << Галичина>> Історія у світлинах від заснування у 1943 р. до звільнення з полону 1949 р.} , ISBN 978-966-1518-19-2. Due to constant repression from several ethnicities, many Ukrainians left for the United States and Canada in the early 1900s – over 600,000. This set up a base for a growing and flourishing diaspora.

The final chapters shed light on the events that led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the independence of the Ukraine and its people’s struggle as they grappled with the newly found democracy, and the encroachments of Putin’s Russia, bent on reviving the Tsarist Empire. Il saggio di Plokhy nel definire il suo campo d’indagine fa proprie le coordinate geografiche dello storico greco Erodoto sopra ricordate e, pur nella consapevolezza che “la politica internazionale e nazionale forniscono una trama convincente”, considera la geografia, l’ecologia e la cultura i tre fattori fondamentali per leggere gli avvenimenti storici del Paese. Moscow, that is the Greater Russian nation, has always been hateful to our Little Russian nation; in its malicious intentions it has long resolved to drive our nation to perdition.”

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As Ukraine is embroiled in an ongoing struggle with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence, celebrated historian Serhii Plokhy explains that today’s crisis is a case of history repeating itself: the Ukrainian conflict is only the latest in a long history of turmoil over Ukraine’s sovereignty. Situated between Central Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, Ukraine has been shaped by empires that exploited the nation as a strategic gateway between East and West—from the Romans and Ottomans to the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. In The Gates of Europe, Plokhy examines Ukraine’s search for its identity through the lives of major Ukrainian historical figures, from its heroes to its conquerors. An] admirable new history... belief in Ukraine's history of tolerance and legality, rooted in European Christian civilisation, keeps hope alive. In his elegant and careful exposition of Ukraine's past, Mr Plokhy has also provided some signposts to the future.

He goes to great length, as well, to talk about the cultural differences that developed between the Rus of Kiev and the Rus in Muscovy, and the religious and cultural changes that occurred under the tutelage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The desire for independence throughout history did not always exist, but Ukraine developed its own national identity throughout history due to its connections to other European states, and its closeness to the Turkic and Tartar tribes that inhibited the Crimean region. These were the more interesting parts of the book. This is present-minded history at its most urgent. Anyone wanting to understand why Russia and the West confront each other over the future of Ukraine will want to read Serhii Plokhy's reasoned, measured yet passionate account' Michael Ignatieff

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Injecting appropriate nuance and complexity into a single-volume overview of 2,000 years of Ukrainian history is no small task, but Plokhy (The Last Empire), the Mykhailo Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, approaches this charge with dexterity and skill. Plokhy’s analysis is a comprehensive narrative, touching upon the myriad factors that figured into the establishment of the Ukrainian state and a Ukrainian national identity. He also introduces readers to the seemingly endless barrage of threats to both of these constructs, from without as well as within. Plokhy’s strongest inquiry may well be in his epilogue, where he engages the forces of history at play regarding the most recent bout of political instability gripping Ukraine. He asserts that the Russian “annexation” of Crimea, as well as Russian support of so-called separatist movements crippling the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, are continuations of a centuries-old narrative, the roots of which are evident throughout his discussion of the tenuous historical relationship between the two countries. Though interested readers must look elsewhere for deeper examinations of Ukraine’s role in European and world history, Plokhy’s work serves as a welcome introduction to Ukraine’s ethnic and national history. Maps. Agent: Jill Kneerim, Kneerim, Williams, and Bloom. (Dec.) Publishers Weekly Michael Ignatieff, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, author of “Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics” Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University, author of “ Stalin's Genocides: Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity” It is hard to spend time in Kyiv without falling in love with it. The location of the city, on a hill above the Dnieper, is extraordinary. And its residents, with their deep-rooted and apparently unconscious bilingualism, and their absurd sense of humour, have a unique culture all of their own. Only Kyiv would overthrow a kleptocrat, then put his vulgar swag on display in the art museum as immersive conceptual art. I don’t know of any book that perfectly captures the wonder of the Ukrainian capital, but Andrey Kurkov’s Death and the Penguin, a gloriously odd novel about a penguin employed to go to mafia funerals, first introduced me to it, and for that I adore it. The timeframe and subjects covered here are extraordinary...students, academics, and readers with a general knowledge of Ukraine will appreciate. Alternatively, chapters can be read independently, allowing those with a strong interest in the subject to focus on a specific era of Ukraine s history.

Complex and nuanced, refreshingly revisionist and lucid, this is a compelling and outstanding short history of the blood-soaked land that has so often been the battlefield and breadbasket of Europe.”— Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar Injecting appropriate nuance and complexity into a single-volume overview of 2,000 years of Ukrainian history is no small task, but Plokhy approaches this charge with dexterity and skill.... Plokhy's work serves as a welcome introduction to Ukraine's ethnic and national history. History is normally written from the calm, distant purview that a scholar attains when chaotic events have resolved themselves into some recognisable shape or pattern. It is not usually interrupted by grief for a family member killed as a result of those still-unfolding events. At first, he says, he resisted the idea of a book about the invasion, produced during the invasion. To write such a volume would be “to go against the basic principles of the profession”. “Our wisdom as historians comes from the fact that we already know how things turned out,” he says.Episodul: în 1994 se semnează Memorandumul de la Budapesta, prin care Rusia, dar și Marea Britanie și Statele Unite îi garantează Ucrainei securitatea granițelor, în schimbul semnării de către Ucraina a Tratatului de neproliferare a armamentului nuclear. Se presupune că, la acel moment, Ucraina deținea al treilea cel mai mare arsenal nuclear al lumii (moștenire sovietică). Ucraina chiar renunță la arsenal. Să judece fiecare în ce măsură cele trei puteri își respectă angajamentul. The Golden Horde ca. 1300 ( source: Paul Robert Magocsi A History of Ukraine: The Land and its People ) Prof. Plokhy gives the real reason for why Khrushchev in 1954 transferred Crimea to Ukraine, quote, “Despite the propagandistic effort to represent the transfer of the peninsula as a manifestation of fraternal amity between the two nations the real reasons were more prosaic. The key factor was geography. Cut off from Russia by the Kerch Strait and linked by communication lines to the Ukrainian mainland, the Crimea needed assistance from Ukraine to rebuild its economy, which not only the war and German occupation but also the expulsion of the Crimean Tartars undermined”. The second (1991) President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk in a recent interview, said the same thing about Crimea as Prof. Plokhy. So has Russia essentially already lost? Is the full-scale invasion of Ukraine a convulsion of a dying empire? “Yes, exactly,” he says. “We just don’t know how long it will go on, and what the price will be.” Death throes, he points out, can go on for a pretty long time. Russian imperial disintegration began in 1914, he argues, with the outbreak of the first world war – and he points out that “the Ottoman empire, for example, has been in the process of disintegration since the 17th century”, with the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the rise of Islamic State, he says, being a part of that slow-flowing story. “So, I’m not prepared to jump to the conclusion that the invasion of Ukraine is the absolutely last chapter of the Russian empire. But I have no doubt that it is an important chapter.” A vigorous polemic in the classical sense of that word -- a sharply focused argument in support of a debatable point of view.

At different points in its history the Swedes, Hapsburgs, Vikings, Huns, Mongols, Russians, Germans, Poles, and the Ottoman Empire ruled parts of Ukraine. Plokhy (history, Harvard Univ.; The Last Empire) expertly covers the complicated and dizzying history of Ukraine, starting when Neanderthals first arrived in the area, and discusses what it means to be Ukrainian. The early beginnings of Kyivian-Rus can be difficult to follow, featuring an ever-changing group of players and territory; an included historical time line provides perspective. Religious, linguistic, and cultural influences that impacted the development of Ukrainian identity are explored, as are the devastating famines, atrocious wars, and politics that influenced everything from independence to the Orange Revolution and the recent Revolution of Dignity. VERDICT The timeframe and subjects covered here are extraordinary; although this is more an overall survey than an in-depth resource, students, academics, and readers with a general knowledge of Ukraine will appreciate. Alternatively, chapters can be read independently, allowing those with a strong interest in the subject to focus on a specific era of Ukraine's history.—Zebulin Evelhoch, Central Washington Univ. Lib. Library JournalFor a comprehensive, engaging, and up-to-date history of Ukraine one could do no better than Serhii Plokhy's aptly titled The Gates of Europe. Plokhy's authoritative study will be of great value to scholars, students, policy-makers, and the informed public alike in making sense of the contemporary Ukrainian imbroglio. I'm passionate about history and don't mind scholarly tomes, but this book proved to be a slog. I finished it only because it felt virtuous and worthy. Another consideration is that the author makes a strong argument for Ukraine's separate (from Russia) identity, with is a counter-argument to Russian propaganda focused on Novorossia/New Russia, and he succeeds in that. Meanwhile, he fails to deliver context on controversial figures such as Stepan Bandera. Going by this book, I know he existed and was important, but there's no context or insight given at all. Finally: a compelling and concise history of a country leading the news but which too many know embarrassingly little about. There are no more excuses for ignorance.