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12 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, КВІТЕНЬ 2016 A REVIEW OF SERHII PLOKHY’S THE GATES OF EUROPE: A HISTORY OF UKRAINE (© 2015) by Nadia Deychakiwsky Serhii Plokhy is M. Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University and the author of nine major works, including the award- winning The Last Empire , The Cossack Myth , and Yalta: the Price of Freedom . As the prolific author himself argues, one must ex- amine Ukraine’s past in order to understand its present, and it is from this underlying premise that his most recent work evolved. Ukraine is Eu- rope’s least known large country, and Plokhy’s work serves as an introduction to its history. The book is an especially invaluable resource for the non-Ukrainian layman; it is indispensable for pol- iticians, journalists, and students who want to understand present events in Ukraine. As with all of Professor Plokhy’s works, the book is researched in depth and is filled with meticulous detail, but Plokhy’s trademark style makes it accessible and inviting to the average reader. The author traces Ukrainian history from the time of Herodotus (5 th century BC) to the so- called “Revolution of Dignity” and the present- day war with Russia in the Donbas. The text takes the reader from the Neolithic Trypillians through the centuries. It is populated by Sumerians and Scythians, the rulers of Constantinople and Rome, the founders of Kyivan Rus’, and the Mongolian invaders of the mid-13 th century who scattered the Kyivan rulers and laid waste to their kingdom. Progressing century by century, the au- thor highlights the Cossack raids of the 16 th centu- ry and then the Pereyaslav Treaty of 1654, a wa- tershed act that led to the division of Ukraine along the Dnipro River between Muscovy and Po- land. This long-time division into right-bank and left-bank Ukraine took a heavy toll on the Ukrain- ian people and shaped Ukraine’s struggle for in- dependence for centuries. Throughout its history, Ukraine has been a meeting place as well as a battleground for vari- ous Empires: Roman, Ottoman, Habsburg, and the Romanov’s Russia. In the 18 th century Ukraine was ruled from St. Petersburg, Vienna, Warsaw, and Istanbul. As the story continues, the author pre- sents an elaborate and interesting picture of the rise of Ukrainian nationalism, focusing especially on the movement when it peaked in the 19 th cen- tury. Among other things, Plokhy cites irrefutable historical evidence that dispels and debunks a long-believed myth by explaining (with solid doc- umentation) that Ukraine, rather than being a cultural offshoot of Russia, is Russia’s cultural predecessor and model. At the same time, the reader is given an impartial view of the historical facts; the author does not cover up Ukraine’s grave errors; he cites and describes the mistakes and the unpleasant incidents in Ukrainian histo- ry, underscoring that it was not always “vorozhen- ky” (the country’s foreign foes) that led to tragic outcomes; he also avoids far-fetched claims that sometimes surface in and shape other histories of Ukraine. The average educated Ukrainian may be- lieve he or she is familiar with Ukrainian history, but the book contains quite a few little-known facts that are surprising as well as enlightening. This reviewer, for example, discovered facts that contradicted and then clarified a previously fuzzy understanding of what happened in Ukraine dur- ing 1917–1921 and also discovered fascinating de- tails about President Kravchuk’s dilemma con- cerning the Soviet Black Sea Fleet after Ukraine proclaimed independence. These and many more ‘black holes’ throughout the centuries are brought to light in Plokhy’s work and corroborated by supporting documentation. Perhaps the most amazing thing about The Gates Of Europe is that the volume, which presents a tremendous amount of heretofore lit- tle-known detail about Ukraine and its history, is deceptively slim but still manages to provide unique insights into the origins of the most dan- gerous international crisis since the end of the Cold War. The 395-page book concludes with sev- eral very useful appendices: a glossary, a histori- cal timeline, a section entitled Who’s Who in Ukrainian History, and suggestions for further reading.
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