Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine

Product Information

When I read the English translation of the text the first time, I was really struck by it, because I thought there could hardly be a text better suited to the current situation. I will also quote passages which I find particularly striking if one reads them now six months after Russia invaded Ukraine and I will sometimes refer to current parallels. To illustrate the strenght and the (less important) weakness of this style of writing, I could tell you about my reading of her book as preperation for a 3 weeks journey though Ukraine. Anna Reid says that the ghetto opened three months after the German invasion in September 1941 and closed early in 1943, “when there was no one left to kill”. As I see it, A good history of Ukraine aknowledges the following 3 things that Ukraine is, 3 things that Ukraine is not and 3 things as not important.

Anna Reid also gives a lot of background about the history of Crimea and the earlier inhabitants of the island, the Crimean Tartars.At this point in this really interesting book, Anna goes Cold War liberal in her analysis and Anna says nothing original or progressive about post-independent Ukraine, not even the obvious threat of NATO expansion, so that’s the review. I thought to publish this blog post today on 24 August is particularly appropriate for two reasons: It is six months after Russia invaded Ukraine and today is День Незалежності України (Ukraine’s Independence Day).

Ukraine is not dead yet’ is the less-than-inspiring opening line of the present-day Ukrainian national anthem.

Also in the current war, conscripts are sent to fight in the war in Ukraine, even so it is against the law of the Russian Federation, and better-off potential conscripts in particular from the European parts of Russia know ways to avoid conscription altogether.

Dużym plusem tego wydania jest jego druga część weryfikująca przewidywania autorki z lat 90 po upadku Związku Sowieckiego, choć części tej jest już dużo bliżej do typowego reportażu. However, I am sure that this common history is also one of the reason for the strong support of Poland for Ukraine. Just as flourishing, law-abiding, genuinely democratic Poland helped inspire the Maidan, a flourishing, law-abiding, genuinely democratic Ukraine might hold out the prospect of a freer future to Russia’s boxed-in young, and give heart to her persecuted liberals.Opposition observers were attacked at polling stations and Donetsk and Luhansk showed an alleged voter’s turnout of 96 per cent (Donetsk) and 90 per cent (Luhansk). This book takes the reader on a fascinating and often violent odyssey, spanning more than 1,000 years of conflict and culture. Though its modern national movement dates back to the early nineteenth century, it did not win real independence until 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.