The Gates of Europe: A History of UkraineUkraine is currently embroiled in a tense fight with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence. But today’s conflict is only the latest in a long history of battles over Ukraine’s territory and its existence as a sovereign nation. As the award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues in The Gates of Europe, we must examine Ukraine’s past in order to understand its present and future. Situated between Central Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, Ukraine was shaped by the empires that used it as a strategic gateway between East and West--from the Roman and Ottoman empires to the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. For centuries, Ukraine has been a meeting place of various cultures. The mixing of sedentary and nomadic peoples and Christianity and Islam on the steppe borderland produced the class of ferocious warriors known as the Cossacks, for example, while the encounter between the Catholic and Orthodox churches created a religious tradition that bridges Western and Eastern Christianity. Ukraine has also been a home to millions of Jews, serving as the birthplace of Hassidism--and as one of the killing fields of the Holocaust. Plokhy examines the history of Ukraine’s search for its identity through the lives of the major figures in Ukrainian history: Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, whose daughter Anna became queen of France; the Cossack ruler Ivan Mazepa, who was immortalized in the poems of Byron and Pushkin; Nikita Khrushchev and his protégé-turned-nemesis Leonid Brezhnev, who called Ukraine their home; and the heroes of the Maidan protests of 2013 and 2014, who embody the current struggle over Ukraine’s future. As Plokhy explains, today’s crisis is a tragic case of history repeating itself, as Ukraine once again finds itself in the center of the battle of global proportions. An authoritative history of this vital country, The Gates of Europe provides a unique insight into the origins of the most dangerous international crisis since the end of the Cold War. |
Contents
CHAPTER 1 | 3 |
CHAPTER 2 | 13 |
CHAPTER 3 | 23 |
CHAPTER 4 | 31 |
CHAPTER 5 | 41 |
CHAPTER 6 | 49 |
PART II | 61 |
CHAPTER 7 | 63 |
CHAPTER 18 | 201 |
CHAPTER 19 | 215 |
CHAPTER 20 | 229 |
CHAPTER 21 | 245 |
CHAPTER 22 | 259 |
CHAPTER 23 | 277 |
PART V | 289 |
CHAPTER 24 | 291 |
CHAPTER 8 | 73 |
CHAPTER 9 | 85 |
CHAPTER 10 | 97 |
CHAPTER 11 | 109 |
CHAPTER 12 | 119 |
PART III | 131 |
CHAPTER 13 | 133 |
CHAPTER 14 | 147 |
CHAPTER 15 | 161 |
CHAPTER 16 | 175 |
CHAPTER 17 | 187 |
PART IV | 199 |
CHAPTER 25 | 307 |
CHAPTER 26 | 323 |
CHAPTER 27 | 337 |
EPILOGUE | 347 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 355 |
HISTORICAL TIMELINE | 357 |
WHOS WHO IN UKRAINIAN HISTORY | 367 |
GLOSSARY | 373 |
375 | |
381 | |
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Common terms and phrases
3VTTJBO 6LSBJOF 6LSBJOJBO attack Austrian authorities became began Black Sea Bohdan Khmelnytsky Bolshevik border Byzantine Catholic central century Chernihiv chronicler Church commonwealth communist Constantinople Cossack Cossack hetman Crimea Crimean Tatars cultural Danylo Dnieper Dnieper Ukraine Donbas eastern economic elites emperor ethnic Europe European former Galicia German Grand Duchy Greek GSPN Hetmanate imperial independence Jewish Jews Kharkiv Khazars Khmelnytsky Khrushchev Kyiv Kyivan Rus leaders Lithuania Little Russian Lviv major Mazepa military Mongol Moscow Muscovite nationalist Odesa Orthodox Ostrozky Ottoman parliament peasants PěDF percent Petliura PG UIF Podolia Poland Poles Polish political Pontic steppes population princes Rada Red Army regime region republic revolution Right-Bank Ukraine rule ruler Russian Empire Ruthenian Scythians Slavic Slavs southern Ukraine Soviet Union Stalin steppes Tatars territory tion took troops tsar turned UIBU UIF lSTU UIFJS UIFN Ukraine’s Ukrainian national Ukrainian party Vikings Volhynia Volodymyr XFSF XJUI Yaroslav Zaporozhian