Ukraine: The Forging of a Nation

by Yaroslav Hrytsak

Overview

A “pioneering and fundamental” (Timothy Snyder) new history of Ukraine from one of its leading public intellectuals

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the world witnessed the “creative, freewheeling, darkly humorous, and deeply resilient society” that is contemporary Ukraine. In this timely and original history, a bestseller in Ukraine, the historian Yaroslav Hrytsak tells the sweeping story of his nation through a meticulous examination of the major events, conflicts, and developments that have shaped it over the course of centuries.
 
Hrytsak weaves a rich and detailed tapestry of a country in continual transformation.
 
Ukraine is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand Ukraine’s dramatic past and its global significance—from the 17th-century Cossack uprising to the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and Ukrainian independence, and from the evolution of the Ukrainian language to the warning signs that anticipated Russia’s 2022 invasion. This book is the definitive story of Ukraine and its people, as told by one of its most celebrated voices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541704602
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	01/23/2024
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	125,222
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Yaroslav Hrytsak is a Ukrainian historian and public intellectual. Professor of the Ukrainian Catholic University and Honorary Professor of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Hrytsak has taught at Columbia and Harvard Universities and was a guest lecturer at the Central European University in Budapest. He is the author of many historical books, including several bestsellers and the recipient of numerous national and international awards. He has spoken at institutions throughout the US including the University of Michigan, the New School, and the University of North Carolina, and has written opinion pieces for many publications including The Times, the New York Times and Time Magazine.

Editorial Reviews

"Hrytsak’s book is set in a global context that extends beyond Ukraine’s relations with Russia, Poland or even Europe as a whole...honesty and common sense … are the book’s trademark.” —Financial Times

“Essential reading for understanding the intricacies of the country and the underpinnings of its current conflict...[Hrytsak] skillfully executes this ambitious project… He's also meticulous and humble, noting where previous histories may have over- or understated certain facts or figures, and he's careful to mention historical gaps or conjecture.”—Shelf Awareness

“Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak’s vivid, sweeping book lays bare the enduring pride that persuaded his countrymen to resist Russian aggression and offers grounds for hope.”—The Observer

“A sweeping new history... an enlightening history intended for serious readers...a grim but expert history.”
 —Kirkus Reviews

“Both pioneering and fundamental. This is the essential history of Ukraine, from one of the greatest Ukrainian thinkers and scholars.”—Timothy Snyder, #1 New York Times bestselling author of On Tyranny

From the Publisher

2023-10-27
A sweeping new history of Ukraine.

Published in 2022 and written earlier, this book required a long introduction to account for Russia’s invasion. Following that, Hrytsak, a professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University, delivers an enlightening history intended for serious readers who will discover that familiarity with Western Europe is little help in comprehending the vast lands and people of Ukraine. More than 1,000 years ago, Vikings from Scandinavia moved east, mixing with Slav tribes to form a huge realm centered on Kyiv, in today’s Ukraine. Although comprising a distinct culture, Ukrainians never coalesced as a state, and the opportunity vanished in 1772-1796, when its neighbors partitioned the territory. Russia absorbed most Ukrainians, and Austria-Hungary the rest. Nonetheless, Ukrainian nationalism flourished throughout the 19th century. Under Lenin, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic enjoyed modest autonomy, but its peasants’ almost universal resistance to Stalin’s collectivization began decades of conflict. “The famine of 1932-33 was the largest national catastrophe in Ukraine in the twentieth century,” killing 4 million people, and the slaughter of the 1941 Nazi invasion led historian Timothy Snyder to name this area “the bloodlands” in his 2010 account. “The history of modernity is largely the history of mass murder,” writes Hrytsak, who devotes just under two chapters to this period’s murders and murderers, pogroms, violence, and assassinations. Ukraine’s experience after World War II provides only modest cause for hope. Lacking a democratic tradition or a reliable civil service, both Ukraine and Russia suffered economic collapse and massive corruption after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Both have done better in this century, and most readers know that Russia, under a ruthless but popular autocrat, is now into the second year of a war against Ukraine designed to restore his nation’s superpower glories.

A grim but expert history.

Kirkus Reviews