The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine

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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. What is the source of all of these efforts to destroy Ukrainian independence? Vladimir Putin. Before beginning his second term as president in 2012, he declared that the reintegration of post-Soviet space was one of his prime objectives and the Ukraine is the largest and most valuable former Soviet republic there is. Cosa 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?

Buy this bookGive copies to your children and grandchildren. Buy copies for your friends. Make sure they read it. Narrator Ralph Lister has an impressively large British-accented voice that leads listeners through the text with insistence.” 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."Truly this is an area of the world where suffering in the first half of the 20th century was ceaseless. The front cover is a photograph of the Palais de Justice and Panteleimon Church, Odessa about 1890/1900. 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. 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." 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' Michael Ignatieff

Aceasta nu este o lucrare pop-science. Acesta este un adevărat manual de istorie, care nu doar înșiră o succesiune de evenimente și figuri, ci te face să înțelegi fenomene. 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.LOOK INSIDE: This option displays the ten maps, the Introduction, Chapter 1 On the Edge of the World, Chapter 2 The Advent of the Slavs and part of Chapter 3 Vikings on the Dnieper. The same is true of Serhii Plokhy's history of Ukraine, though he is far more objective and fair in his presentation of Ukrainian history than the mere nationalists on either side of the Ukrainian debate. Plokhy is definitely not pro-Russian, but he doesn't come across as someone on the far side of Ukrainian nationalism. He's a Ukrainian patriot who recognizes that the history of Ukraine consists of the union of a plurality of identities, languages, faiths, and cultures. The author explains as well the religious intricacies of the Uniate Church (a blend of Orthodox and Catholicism) and Russian Orthodox. There has always been a pull of Ukrainian nationhood towards the West. The brutalization by the Soviet Union to Ukraine culture (and also Eastern European countries and the Baltic countries) encouraged this Western pull. Even with the dominance of Russia/Soviet Union of Ukraine over the centuries, there was always a stirring and simmering of Ukrainian nationalism to form a country.