The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine

Product Information

This book is more than just a history of Ukraine and its people – it’s also describes the language, culture and religion of people who have been under some type of foreign domination for most of its history. Plokhy paints a picture of Ukraine through the centuries with its beginnings as Kyiv-Rus in the 10th century and takes us on a journey through time through the Cossak Hetmanat in the 17th century to the formation of Ukraine as an independent nation. In many ways, the Ukrainian people had to endure a litany of horrors culminating in the Holodomor (famine) of 1932-1933 when millions of Ukrainians died of starvation directly caused by Stalin. The Ukrainian independence of 1918 and 1919 did not last long and the proclamation of independence in 1941 was crashed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Russia. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought into the mid 1950s against the Soviets and independence finally came when the Soviet Union collapsed. That independence is again being threatened by Putin who seeks to rebuild the Soviet Union again. This ongoing battle will go long way in seeing if Europe is going to be dragged into a future where armed invasions of neighboring countries becomes the norm. 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. 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.

I said, in my review of ‘The History of Ukraine and …’, “If you want to understand why things are as they are in Ukraine today, read this.” No surprise, after reading this, that its people are brave fighters. They have had to do it throughout their history. The country, or at least one region or another of it, has been almost constantly fought over. An amalgam of regions, each with its own history and identity. 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.

De la primele triburi războinice din stepă la Rusia Kieveană - ironic, mai mult Kieveană decât Rusie, pentru ca e vorba de fapt de vikingul Rus'-, la cazacii care trezesc conștiința națională și călugării kieveni din secolul XVII care fac greșeala fundamentală să creeze conceptul de malo ruși (micii ruși), în încercarea de a obține protecția țarilor, o sintagmă ce încă dă apă la moară unui dictator dement din secolul XXI, până la Holodomor și Holocaust, Ucraina Sovietică, cele trei Maidane și anexarea Crimeei + războiul separatist din Donbass, Plokhy (Plohîi în altă grafie) dă mult de lucru cititorului. Mult și greu. Precum istoria acestei țări hărțuite neîncetat de toate imperiile din zonă, mai ceva ca România (la ei au mai fost și Polonia și Lituania, pe lângă toti rușii, otomanii, austro-ungarii, nemții). Dar în final ajungi la ceva foarte dificil de realizat, mai ales zilele astea: o viziune de ansamblu a unei situații extrem de complicate. Plokhy starts with the ancient Greeks, and then continues through to the Vikings, the Byzantine Empire, the Mongolian Empire, the Habsburg and Russian Empires, and the Soviet Union. Ukrainian nationalism, like other European nationalisms, became more pronounced in the 19th century. Plokhy emphasizes how that impacted other multinational empires, and how other wars accelerated demands for independence. For a general survey, Plokhy finds a lot of time to study opinions of political elites and intellectuals. He finds time to include the debate over Russian and Ukranian identity, and the debates between the "Little Russian" and "Ukrainian" debates over what Ukrainian identity is - and those debates have become painfully relevant.

A straightforward, useful work that looks frankly at Ukraine’s ongoing “price of freedom” against the rapacious, destabilizing force of Russia. The author discusses anti-Semitism, the Holodomor (where close to four million people perished in Ukraine in a famine caused by Stalin), and the devastation caused by the Second World War. There was another famine after World War II when Stalin put priority on industrial development over agriculture. Close to one million died. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance. But soon he began to change his mind. History, after all, is a weapon in this conflict. Vladimir Putin’s justification for his aggression towards Ukraine is rooted in his (twisted and faulty) understanding of the past. He even wrote a sprawling, inaccurate essay laying out his views in 2021, titled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians. Plokhy began to feel compelled to fight the Russian president’s terrible history writing with good, solid history writing of his own. I bought this on 24th February, the day Putin invaded Ukraine for the second time. I guess what I have seen daily on the T. V. over the past month is the next chapter. Plokhy’s book was published in 2015, the year after the Russian annexation of Crimea. The author’s concluding words echo prophetically in the light of the last few weeks:Este foarte dificil să construiești și să păstrezi o identitate națională unitară într-un spațiu atât de mozaicat etnic și cultural precum Ucraina. I also appreciate his fairly balanced presentation of the complex history of the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. He relates both the good and the bad as well as the difference of opinion within the Ukrainians communities themselves. While many Ukrainians living in Russian Imperial lands longed for Ukrainian autonomy there were also the Russophiles who lived in the Austrian controlled lands. The history of Ukrainian opinion about Russia has been varied and Plokhy does well to present this.

The first Maidan (Ukrainian word for square) was considered to be October 1990, the second was in 2004 and the third in 2013 and 2014. Think of Ukrainian independence attempts after Kyivan Rus, as first 1918 in Kyiv and Lviv, second 1939 in Transcarpathia, and third 1941 in Lviv. Then comes the real deal in 1991, when Ukrainians went to the polls to vote their future. 90% wanted independence. One week after Ukrainian citizens voted for independence, the Soviet Union was dissolved; as Yeltsin explained, without Ukraine, Russia would be simply “outnumbered and outvoted by the Muslim Republics”. Gorbachev’s resignation speech marked the end of the Soviet Union. Truly this is an area of the world where suffering in the first half of the 20th century was ceaseless.

Select a format:

Russia loses the Crimean War to the British and French. Britain and France wanted to dominate the Mediterranean by force and Russia was in their way with Russia’s warm water port at Sevastopol. Russia sells Alaska to get money to hold on to the Crimea and develop railways. The railways helped Russia to regain its right to a Sevastopol navy after French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. By mid-nineteenth century, forced-labor became the technique for the cash-strapped empire. Yalta became the summer capital of the empire. Even Chekhov had a house in Yalta. “Ukraine accounted for 75 percent of all exports of the Russian Empire.” Foreigners helped develop the Ukrainian south. Before the Russian Revolution, foreign companies controlled the 50% of Ukrainian steel, and most of its pig iron, coal and machinery. In 1905, Ukrainian became legal as a language again. It was a bright time for Ukrainian nationalism and Ukrainian clubs appeared. Ukraine’s blue and yellow comes from Galicia where they had been part of its coat of arms. Just before the Russian Revolution, Ukraine had both de jure and de facto independence from Russia. But by 1919, Ukrainian statehood was no longer possible. Trotsky was a native of the Ukraine. Think of the right bank of the Dnieper as agricultural while the left bank had the industrial areas. As I mentioned before, I wanted a little something that would open my eyes to some of my ancestral roots, as well as offer me the history and politics of a region about which I know so little. Plokhy does this in an even-handed manner, mixing social, cultural, and political history together in an easy to digest format. The book tries not to skim, but it is almost impossible to delve in too deeply and still offer up a book that can be carried from one place to another. Plokhy’s arc of Ukrainian history opens the discussion, but never does he profess to having all the answers or to be the final word on the matter. While I refuse to call it a primer, this book does lay some basic foundations for those who want to learn more. Plokhy’s writing style is also easy to comprehend, offering readers lots of information in a relevant format. Depending on the topic at hand, chapters can be short or more detailed, permitting to reader to extract what they want before moving along. Written in English, there was little I felt I might be missing at the hands of a translator, which helped me feel confident in my reading, though I am sure Plokhy has been able to thoroughly research the topics in their original languages, as well as relying on other historians who have taken the leap before him. While the region may not be of interest to all, I can see many readers learning a great deal, even if they chose only to read key chapters in the book: lead-up to the Great War through the the Cold War fallout. While I never promote ‘parachuting’ into a book, I admit this was the section that interested me most and allowed me to extract a great deal of information to whet my appetite and cultivate a stronger understanding of familial roots. I suppose I will have to see if I cannot better comprehend what led my family to leave Ukraine and settle in Saskatchewan. The Prairie West does have a strong Ukrainian population and Plokhy has given me some good ideas why this might be the case.