The turnout reached 84 percent, with more than 90 percent of voters supporting independence. Western Ukraine led the way, with 99 percent in favor in the Ternopil oblast of Galicia. But the center, south, and even the east were not far behind. In Vinnytsia, in central Ukraine, 95 percent voted for independence; in Odesa, in the south, 85 percent; and in the Donetsk region, in the east, 83 percent. Even in the Crimea, more than half the voters supported independence: 57 percent in Sevastopol and 54 percent in the peninsula as a whole. (At that time, Russians constituted 66 percent of the Crimean population." An] admirable new history... belief in Ukraine's history of tolerance and legality, rooted in European Christian civilisation, keeps hope alive. In his elegant and careful exposition of Ukraine's past, Mr Plokhy has also provided some signposts to the future.

Moscow, that is the Greater Russian nation, has always been hateful to our Little Russian nation; in its malicious intentions it has long resolved to drive our nation to perdition.” Buy this bookGive copies to your children and grandchildren. Buy copies for your friends. Make sure they read it.This is present-minded history at its most urgent. Anyone wanting to understand why Russia and the West confront each other over the future of Ukraine will want to read Serhii Plokhy's reasoned, measured yet passionate account of Ukraine's historic role at the gates of Europe. 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. A sympathetic survey of the history of Ukraine along the East-West divide, from ancient divisions to present turmoil.... A straightforward, useful work that looks frankly at Ukraine's ongoing "price of freedom" against the rapacious, destabilizing force of Russia." The timeframe and subjects covered here are extraordinary...students, academics, and readers with a general knowledge of Ukraine will appreciate. Alternatively, chapters can be read independently, allowing those with a strong interest in the subject to focus on a specific era of Ukraine's history.

The Hetmanate and surrounding territories in the 1750s ( source: Kohut Russian Centralism and Ukrainian Autonomy 1760s – 1830s) ) No one can understand today’s sad, tangled confrontation over Ukraine without some knowledge of the complex, crosscutting influences that have shaped eastern Europe over the millennia. For that history, readers can find no better place to turn than Plokhy.” The final chapters shed light on the events that led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the independence of the Ukraine and its people’s struggle as they grappled with the newly found democracy, and the encroachments of Putin’s Russia, bent on reviving the Tsarist Empire. 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. A sympathetic survey of the history of Ukraine along the East-West divide, from ancient divisions to present turmoil.Due to constant repression from several ethnicities, many Ukrainians left for the United States and Canada in the early 1900s – over 600,000. This set up a base for a growing and flourishing diaspora. Throughout its long embattled history Ukraine has formed alliances with several nationalities in attempts to survive – with the Ottoman Empire, Vikings (and then Sweden), Poland (several times), Belarus, Austria, and Germany - and with Russia right on the periphery, believing Ukraine was “Little Rus” and belonging to Russia. As Ukraine is embroiled in an ongoing struggle with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence, celebrated historian Serhii Plokhy explains that today's crisis is a case of history repeating itself: the Ukrainian conflict is only the latest in a long history of turmoil over Ukraine's sovereignty. Situated between Central Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, Ukraine has been shaped by empires that exploited the nation as a strategic gateway between East and West-from the Romans and Ottomans to the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. In The Gates of Europe, Plokhy examines Ukraine's search for its identity through the lives of major Ukrainian historical figures, from its heroes to its conquerors. An assured and authoritative survey that spans ancient Greek times to the present day."— Financial Times I've previously read several substantial histories of Russia which tells the story of the foundation of Kievan Rus by the Viking Rurikids in the 8th Century AD, and the eventual emergence of Muscovy as the dominant principality which would go on to become the centre of the sequence of polities that have had Russia at their heart, one way or another, ever since. Given the recent eruption of horribly miserable events I thought it was time that I tried to get my facts straight regarding the parallel historical trajectory of the Ukrainian grouping of peoples and occasional polity that has remained centred on the central principality of Rus, Kiev. Having read Harvard professor of Ukrainian history, Serhii Plokhy's The Last Empire detailing the frantic days of the collapse of the USSR and admiring his lucidity and tautness of narrative, this seemed a natural contender for a place to start.

Readers can find no better place to turn than Plokhy's new book.... Plokhy navigates the subject with grace and aplomb."— Foreign AffairsCosa ha causato la crisi ucraina? Qual è il ruolo della storia in questi eventi recenti? Cosa differenzia gli ucraini dai russi? Chi ha diritto di governare in Crimea e nell’Ucraina orientale? Perché gli avvenimenti in Ucraina hanno forti ripercussioni internazionali? The Golden Horde ca. 1300 ( source: Paul Robert Magocsi A History of Ukraine: The Land and its People ) The timeframe and subjects covered here are extraordinary...students, academics, and readers with a general knowledge of Ukraine will appreciate. Alternatively, chapters can be read independently, allowing those with a strong interest in the subject to focus on a specific era of Ukraine's history." On both subjects, it seems Prof. Plokhy’s early educational experience in the former Soviet Union have had an influence on his emotional historical world view. Plokhy’s authoritative study will be of great value to scholars, students, policy-makers, and the informed public alike in making sense of the contemporary Ukrainian imbroglio.”

When I started this journey into the books, I did have this ‘little dream’ of one day being recognised as an Historian. Naaa, I ain’t the slightest chance of standing beside people such as Professor Serhii Plokhy (the author), a Ukrainian. An Historian. Michael Ignatieff, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, author of “Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics” No one can understand today's sad, tangled confrontation over Ukraine without some knowledge of the complex, crosscutting influences that have shaped eastern Europe over the millennia. For that history, readers can find no better place to turn than Plokhy's new book.... Plokhy navigates the subject with grace and aplomb." In 1934 Walter Duranty, a reporter for the New York Times, privately reported to the British embassy in Moscow that as many as 10 million people may have died, directly or indirectly, from the famine in the Soviet Union (predominantly Ukrainian ethnographic regions) in the previous year. One should know that Duranty played a major role in shielding this massive horror from the rest of the world. The terror famine in Ukraine was one of the great crimes of the 20th century.Prof. Serhii Plokhy an erudite, careful and discerning researcher of primary sources, has written brilliantly on Eastern European and Eurasian history. This book is somewhat different. It is written for the general reading public, and therefore requires a different approach, a bit more excitement. After all, Ukrainian History is explosively exciting! It is a cruel game to ask a historian to look into the future. But here we are and, as Plokhy himself says, rephrasing Churchill, historians are probably “the worst commentators on contemporary events except for all the others”. So what about the Ukrainians’ spring counteroffensive, I ask – which, when we speak in the last days of April, is expected any day.