In 2014, using a trove of newly declassified documents, Plokhy published a book called The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union. In it, he countered the usual triumphalist American interpretation of the Soviet collapse. What doomed the superpower wasn’t U.S. foreign policy, Plokhy argued, but its own political structures and ethnic fractures, its imperial weaknesses. It “died the death of an empire,” he wrote, “splitting along lines roughly defined by ethnic and linguistic territories.” As Ukraine and then the other republics broke away, Soviet (and American) leaders were reacting to events, not steering them. Do you know what is at stake in Ukraine? Urgent, compelling reading from the author of Chernobyl on the defining conflict of our times The war buried Russia’s hopes of becoming a new global center […] It exposed weaknesses not only in Russia’s clearly overrated and overpromoted army but also in its economic potential. While Plokhy’s surefooted interpretation of the genesis of this war will help dispel misconceptions, his detailed reconstruction of its first ten months provides important groundwork for a future historical appraisal of this war.

You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. In Plokhy’s summary, “Ukraine was divided by history, culture, and the political orientations and instincts of its people as the Russian Federation never was.” Those who imagine a modern democratic nation in 19th-century terms – as a culturally, linguistically and politically united entity – stress all these factors as sources of instability. In the eyes of the Russian public and a good part of the elite the fall of the USSR as a superpower and empire was a loss for Russia, the Ukrainian elite and much of the public considered it a gain for their country. A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet. The Russo-Ukrainian war, Plokhy argues, marks the end of the unipolar world that had come into being after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin had hoped for multipolarity, with several great powers asserting their spheres of influence. However, what the historian sees emerging instead is a new confrontation between East and West.

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When Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and helped unleash a proxy war in Donbas in the east of the country, Ukraine had to face its aggressive neighbour alone. Plokhy’s account of both the annexation of Crimea and the mobilisation of separatists in Donbas eschews shades of grey. I may say this book is a grand one for finding problems of definition – what is an annexation? What is a valid referendum? What is an independent republic? What is democracy? In 1240AD Batu Khan's Mongolian "Golden Horde" invaded the Byzantine Empire centered at Constantinople. The disruption Constantinople's ability to serve as the Kyivan Rus' protector and regional power shifted toward the Duchy of Muscovy, which would expand to incorporate much of the Kievan 'Rus territory.

Plokhy begs to differ on many of the ideas advanced by Putin. On the language question, he argues that the dissimilarities outweigh the similarities: yes, both use a variation of the Cyrillic alphabet, and yes, both have many words in common (estimates of about 50%–60% of words are common). But, he argues, the linguistic differences go well beyond simple differences in dialect. Der Verfasser erzählt und erklärt mit Herzblut. Er macht deutlich, dass sich die Welt verändert hat und Moskau sich nicht mehr alles erlauben kann. Er sagt aber auch, dass es ein Fehler der freien Welt war, auf die Annexion der Krim bloß mit lauwarmen Worten zu reagieren, nur um Russland nicht zu erzürnen, denn, „mit der Annexion der Krim wurden Imperialismus und Nationalismus zu zentralen Elementen und Triebkräften der russischen Außenpolitik“. Ebenso war es ein krasser Fehler, der Ukraine auf dem Bukarest-Gipfel 2008 den Weg in die Nato zu verweigern, denn dadurch war die Ukraine, die zuvor auf ihr Atomwaffenarsenal verzichtet hatte, schutzlos. Doch die Souveränität der Ukraine ist wichtig für Europa und für den Frieden in der ganzen Welt. Plokhy stellt natürlich auch dar, wie sich China positioniert, wie die USA, wie Indien, der ferne Osten, die europäischen Länder - und erklärt auch warum. Luke Harding’s Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival is published by Guardian Faber The invasion, and its accompanying atrocities, have made any simplistic Elon Musk-style “Crimea for Donbas” deal impossible for years to come. Anything can happen now: a sudden victory for Ukraine, a long and bitter stalemate, the overthrow of Putin, all-out nuclear war. This impressive and valuable book can’t tell us which. But it is a clear, reliable and (in the circumstances) remarkably calm account of how we got here. The further from 1991 we move, the further the rift between an increasingly autocratic and neo-imperialist Russia and a democratic Ukraine, orienting itself away from the old imperial metropole and towards Europe and the Atlantic. The current war is one result of this rift: Russia tried to reassert its dominance and Ukraine resisted subjugation by the old imperial overlord. The Russo-Ukrainian war is a delayed war of Soviet succession.Plokhy maakt in opeenvolgende hoofdstukken duidelijk hoe vanaf 1991 de politieke ontwikkeling van Rusland en Oekraïne steeds verder uiteenliep, een divergente ontwikkeling die de dynamiek tussen Moskou en Kiev diepgaand zou gaan beïnvloeden. Terwijl het democratische experiment in Rusland een kort leven was beschoren, schoot deze in Oekraïne geleidelijk aan wortel (in weerwil van de wijdverbreide corruptie en van Russische beïnvloeding). Over a year into Russia’s grotesque full-scale invasion of Ukraine, disinformation and misconceptions of the conflict — fuelled both by the Kremlin and by political actors abroad — continue to permeate public debate. "The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History" by Serhii Plokhy takes aim at many of these myths, demonstrating how Russia’s centuries-long imperial obsession with Ukraine created the conditions for Europe’s largest land war since 1945. In the melee, the outnumbered separatist were trapped in a building where a fire broke out and 48 separatists died. This was clearly a tragedy but not an indication that the separatists were innocents or that Naziism was involved. Perhaps Putin made the link to Naziism because the event was one week before Russia's annual Victory Day, a celebration of the German defeat in 1945. (see here) P.S. Vă las și un citat despre o vizită la Kiev. Sunt curioasă dacă observați ce personaj este pierdut din poveste. Și nu cred că din răutate:(

There were further errors. They included Germany’s addiction to Russian gas, and Angela Merkel’s axiom that trade might be pursued and growing repression inside Russia ignored. In London, the Conservatives accepted millions from Moscow-linked donors. Johnson made Evgeny Lebedev a peer. And Emmanuel Macron tried to play peacemaker with Putin – an impossible and naive mission. I wonder whether he can foresee the disintegration of the Russian Federation as it is currently constituted – especially in a context where Russia is seemingly recruiting its military disproportionately from its Muslim peoples and peripheral autonomous republics. “The process of disintegration has already started,” he replies. “Already Russia doesn’t control its constitutional territory” – by which he means that some parts of Ukraine that were formally adopted as part of the Russian Federation last autumn in the wake of the full-scale invasion, such as Kherson, have already been liberated and restored to Ukrainian hands. But yes, he says, republics on the edges of the federation – such as Tuva, Buryatia and Sakha, not to mention Chechnya, are vulnerable. “The longer the war goes on, the stronger the narrative that Russia is using them as cannon fodder.” Plokhy besteedt in aparte hoofdstukken verder aandacht aan de totstandkoming van de onverwachte eenheid in het Westen tegenover de Russische agressie en aan de ambigue rollen van China en Turkije. Serhii Plokhy oferă o privire cuprinzătoare asupra contextului istoric și a primelor luni ale războiului în curs de desfășurare din Ucraina. Urmărind secole de relații turbulente între Rusia și Ucraina, Plokhy susține că acest conflict a fost pregătit de zeci de ani, alimentat de ambițiile imperiale ale lui Putin și de lunga luptă a Ucrainei pentru suveranitate (și păstrarea identității sale). This book is in two halves, before 22 February 2022 and after. I needed the first part (but not the second) because after all the millions of words spouted forth by the journalists and professors, still my brain could not quite grasp exactly why Putin decided to roll his tanks.The Russo-Ukrainian War stelt niet teleur. Plokhy toont zich betrokken zonder zijn professionele standaard als historicus te verlagen. Het is een verhelderende uiteenzetting die boven alles duidelijk maakt dat de Russische aanval op Oekraïne van februari 2022 eigenlijk al zo’n drie decennia in de lucht hing. Plokhy describes the current conflict as “an old-fashioned imperial war” conducted by Russian elites who see themselves as “heirs and continuators” of great-power traditions. These expansionist ideas come from Russia and the Soviet Union. The Kremlin’s aggression, he suggests, is a 19th-century land grab, fought using 20th-century battlefield tactics and 21st-century weaponry. In short, Plohky claims that Putin's success on today's battlefield would not restore Russia to its former self; rather, it would create a new entity – a Ukraine once again subservient to the Federation of Russia. Ukrainians in Kyiv, marking the 31st anniversary of their independence from the Soviet Union. Sergey Dolzhenkoi/EPA A significant early figure in Kyivan Rus' history is Rurik, the founder of the Rurikid dynasty. His grandson, Vladimir (the Great) is Russia's patron saint. Vladimir was born circa 960AD. In 970AD Rurik granted the Grand Duchy of Novgorod to his illegitimate son, Vladimir, making Vladimir the Grand Prince of Novgorod. In 972AD Vladimir's older and legitimate half-brother, Yaropolk, was given Kiev and became Grand Prince of Kyiv.