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Serhii Plokhy

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The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Serhii Plokhy (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 2,307 ratings

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A New York Times bestseller, this definitive history of Ukraine is “an exemplary account of Europe’s least-known large country” (Wall Street Journal).

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.

This revised edition includes new material that brings this definitive history up to the present. As Ukraine once again finds itself at the center of global attention, Plokhy brings its history to vivid life as he connects the nation’s past with its present and future.

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Review

Narrator Ralph Lister has an impressively large British-accented voice that leads listeners through the text with insistence.-- "AudioFile"

About the Author

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. A leading authority on Eastern Europe, he has lived and taught in Ukraine, Canada, and the United States. He is the author of ten books, including the award-winning The Last Empire, which received the Lionel Gelber Prize, the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize, and the Antonovych Ukrainian Book Prize.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01LYNQA6B
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; 1st edition (May 30, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 30, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 9358 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 536 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #476,042 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #360 in History of Russia eBooks
- #1,205 in Russian History (Books)
- #6,280 in History (Kindle Store)

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Serhii Plokhy

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Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard and the director of the university's Ukrainian Research Institute. The author of numerous books, including "The Last Empire," which received the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book on international relations, and "Chernobyl," which was awarded the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction, Plokhy lives in Burlington, Massachusetts.

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Hedgie

Outstanding History of Ukraine

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2024

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Well researched, readable, and comprehensive. Essential reading.

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Jeff Kelleher

In a fragmented and battered country, national identity is real

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2023

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I just returned from a week of touring the reconquered battlefields of Ukraine. This book was invaluable in understanding it all.

Author Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian-American Professor of History at Harvard. His identity as a professor is evident, in a mostly good sense. The subject is vast and complex, and his erudition is up to the task. No mere journalist could have written this book, or even popular writers as diligent as David McCullough or Stephen Ambrose. It required decades of immersion.

Poor Ukraine has been occupied by Vikings, Lithuanians, Byzantines, Mongols, Poles, Austrians, Germans, and Russians. It has suffered horribly under some of them, particularly the Mongols in the 13th Century, Stalinist Russians in the 1930s, and Nazi Germans in 1941-43. Through all this, Is there such a thing as a distinct Ukrainian identity?

If there is a central theme to the book, it is found in Plokhy’s rich and nuanced answer, which is “Yes.” Ukrainians have always been adaptive, and a national identity has persisted, even if sometimes below the surface. It burst forth into full maturity with the massive Maidan pro-democracy demonstrations of 2004 and 2013-14 in Kyiv’s central square. It is found today in its people’s heroic resistance to a decidedly FOREIGN invasion.

The book was published before the invasion. If you could not tell from it alone, you would learn from later works that Plokhy is not neutral on the right and wrong of that conflict. But this is no nationalist screed. As historian Noel Malcolm once said about the Bosnian War, “objectivity does not require neutrality.”

While written clearly, even elegantly, it is not easy reading, because of the deluge of historical figures and movements. But push through and be rewarded.

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Oksana Piaseckyj

A must read for the informed American reader!

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2016

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I believe John Herbst, former US Ambassador to Ukraine, best characterizes the book with his critique, quote “Serhii Plokhy offers a short yet comprehensive history of Ukraine that contextualizes Mr. Putin's current policies as aggression against the wishes of the Ukrainian people, as well as the order established at the end of the Cold War. A pleasure to read, The Gates of Europe will take those familiar with the Moscow narrative on a mind expanding tour of Ukraine's past."

Prof. Serhii Plokhy, the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard and the director of the university's Ukrainian Research Institute, has written a history not to offend. Which is almost impossible as Adoplhe Thiers, in his preface to “Histoire de la Révolution Française” in 1838 wrote…”I intend to write the history of a memorable revolution which profoundly disturbed men, and which still divides them today. I do not conceal from myself the difficulties of the enterprise ... whereas we have the advantage of having heard and observed these old men who, still full of memories, and still aroused by their impressions, reveal to us the spirit and the character of the causes, and teach us to understand them. The moment when the actors are about to expire is perhaps the suitable one to write history: one can glean their evidence without sharing all their passions ... “I have pitied the combatants and I have freely applauded the generous spirits.”… Quoted from “A Savage War of Peace, Algeria 1954-1962” by Alistair Horne.

This quote is appropriate for the period of 1890 to 2015 in “The Gates of Europe, from page 175 to page 354. I have spoken with people involved in all of these periods of Ukrainian history. I listened to their experiences with great interest. Many of them, no longer are alive, but their tales are still vividly with me. My grandfather, born in 1881, Dr. Lew Hankewycz experienced this political drama at the age of 14 (1895) when he was expelled from the gymnasium (high school) for comparing the poetry of the Ukrainian Taras Shevchenko to the poetry of the Polish Adam Mickiewicz.

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!

The publisher writes that prof. Plokhy argues that “we must examine Ukraine’s past in order to understand its present and future.”… In which case you must first read Prof. Plokhy’s “The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus” to understand the Past, and in general Ukraine’s twisted historiography. I would then start reading from part III of this book, from page 131 “Between the Empires” to page 354, which ends the book in the spring of 2015.

It is no small matter that his writing always gets good reviews from some of the most respected and prestigious members of his community. He is, after all, the best English writing historian on topics Ukrainian. His admirers, based on the book jacket include:
• Andrew Wilson, professor of Ukrainian studies at University College London, author of “ Ukraine Crisis: What it Means for the West”
• John Herbst, former US Ambassador to Ukraine, now Director of the National Defense University
• Michael Ignatieff, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, author of “Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics”
• Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of, “Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar”
• Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University, author of “ Stalin's Genocides: Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity”
• Peter Pomerantsev, is a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute in London and author “Nothing is True and Everything is Possible”.

I was very surprised that Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of one of the best Stalin studies, “Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar”, claims Prof. Plokhy’s work is “revisionist”. What Montefiore tells me is he supports the Russian Imperial Historiography. This historiography was crafted for Peter I by Teofan Prokopvych. Prokopvych was first a supporter and sycophant to Hetman Mazepa and after Mazepa’s defeat at Poltava 1709, he became a sycophant and spiritual advisor to Tsar Peter I. This book is based on current knowledge and general agreement that the Russian Imperial Historiography is no longer workable, since it does not reflect today’s geopolitical reality.

It is so refreshing to read an American scholar who does not transliterate from Russian. However, I question his consistency. He writes Dnipro as Dnieper. Why is Halychyna Galicia? I am puzzled why in most of the book he writes Moldavia and then near the end of the book he writes Moldova. These are quibbles, although the use of Dnieper is annoying, since historically this river is most important in Ukrainian history. Timothy Snyder in his review of this book uses the name Dnipro for this historic river!!
The Spectator: The history of Ukraine — from Herodotus to Hitler by Timothy Snyder
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/the-history-of-ukraine-from-herodotus-to-hitler/

Crimea
Prof. Plokhy gives the real reason for why Khrushchev in 1954 transferred Crimea to Ukraine, quote, “Despite the propagandistic effort to represent the transfer of the peninsula as a manifestation of fraternal amity between the two nations the real reasons were more prosaic. The key factor was geography. Cut off from Russia by the Kerch Strait and linked by communication lines to the Ukrainian mainland, the Crimea needed assistance from Ukraine to rebuild its economy, which not only the war and German occupation but also the expulsion of the Crimean Tartars undermined”. The second (1991) President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk in a recent interview, said the same thing about Crimea as Prof. Plokhy.

We can see the logic of Khrushchev’s reasoning by the current blockade of Crimea!

It should not be forgotten that before 1954 the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR) transferred to the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) its historic territories which bordered on the Smolensk, Kursk, Belgorod (Bilhorod) and Voronezh oblasts (regions). The Rostov region in 1924 was transferred to the city of Taganrog(Tahanrih). In the transferred territories the majority of the population at that time identified themselves as Ukrainian. Ukraine also transferred to Russia the region of Shakhty in
Donbas and Starodub in the Chernihiv/Sivershchyna region. It resulted in the transfer to the RSFSR of land from Ukraine equal to the area of Crimea with a Ukrainian population of over 1.2 million people.

Painful Subjects
There are two painful topics covered in the book which need comment. One is the Holodomor. Prof. Plokhy prefers to use the term “Great Ukrainian Famine”! Why is the Holodomor not listed in the Index? What is the reason? The deposed President of Ukraine Yanukovych also delisted the Holodomor from his presidential web site!? The “Great Ukrainian Famine” is discussed on pages 249 to 254.

The other is Ukraine’s fight for freedom during the period of 1940 to 1960, discussed on pages 245 to 305.

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.

Holodomor
On the topic of Plokhy’s “Great Ukrainian Famine” he puts his bet on 4 million Holodomor victims, whereas Timothy Snyder puts his bet on 2.4 victims Holodomor victims.

What I don’t understand, is why historians ignore Duranty’s, Stalin’s, and Khrushchev's statements on the Holodomor, as well as the confirming census figures for the Soviet Union. In 1926 there were 31,195,000 Ukrainians within the USSR and in 1939 there were 28,111,000. A decrease of 11%! In 1926 there were 77,791,000 Russians within the USSR and in 1939 there were 99,591,000 Russians. An increase of 28%!

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.

Stalin told Churchill that 10 million starved to death in Ukraine!

Khrushchev in his memoirs “Khrushchev Remembers” writes, quote “…I can't give an exact figure because no one was keeping count. All we knew was that people were dying in enormous numbers. ”. Khrushchev knows the numbers. He had intimate dealings with Kaganovich, the Project Manager of the Holodomor Project; they must have discussed it over horilka and salo (vodka and fat back). Khrushchev met Lazar Kaganovich as early as 1917 and when in 1925, Kaganovich became Party head in Ukraine, Khrushchev, fell under his patronage and thereafter rose rapidly through the Party ranks. That is why having close links to Kaganovich, Khrushchev as well as Stalin had reliable Holodomor Famine figures. Kaganovich survived to the age of 97, dying in 1991.

Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (1940 to 1960)
Plokhy’s attitude to Ukrainian’s fighting for Independence reminds me of the Soviet attitudes of the Great Patriotic War (WW II).

Plokhy’s unfortunate statement on page 284, quote …“securing Ukrainian Independence gave way to realities of Ukrainians wearing Nazi Swastikas and putting down the liberation movements of fellow Slavs”… What he is referring to is the Ukrainian 14th Waffen SS which fought Tito’s Communists. Throughout the War this unit only fought communists!

Ukrainians fought in Polish, German and Soviet uniforms. None of them fought for Poland, Germany or Russia. The Ukrainians in the American Army did fight for the United States.

The Swastika that Prof. Plokhy overly emphasizes was in a small insignia, of an eagle with a small wreath in its claws, in which you can barely see a swastika! Every German Army uniform had it. It should be noted that all Soviet military formations wore a Hammer and Sickle and under the Hammer and Sickle insignia and banners the Red Army went on to literally Rape “liberated Europe”.

Ukrainians had the only military formations in WW II, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), to fight both Totalitarian Empires, German and Russian. In 1970 in Argentina I spoke with a young man from Volyn in Ukraine who told me, that in 1961 he was a witness to a military action by Ukrainian Insurgents in Volyn.

All the Ukrainians that I had spoken with, told me that they fought for an Independent Ukraine, and not as Plokhy implies for the Nazis. See Michael O. Logusz “Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th grenadier Division 1943-1945” and {Маців Б. “ У 45 Українська Дивізія << Галичина>> Історія у світлинах від заснування у 1943 р. до звільнення з полону 1949 р.} , ISBN 978-966-1518-19-2.

Gorbachev
There is also no bibliography, which does not allow me to verify Prof. Plokhy’s claim that Gorbachev’s father was Russian. There is a section called “Further Reading” but it is not a bibliography.

In 1991 I met and spoke with a KGB General who came from the same Kuban Cossack Village as the Horbach family. The Russian version of the surname Horbach is Gorbachev. According to him Gorbachev was Ukrainian.

Tatiana Lysenko the author of "The Price of Freedom" wrote about the Gorbachevs. She responded to my request for more information, quote..." Both ethnic Ukrainians! It was told to me by the well-known Moscow writer Nina Danhulova (deceased) who personally knew Raisa and Mikhail, and came from the same area as Mikhail Gorbachev. ...
Michael's grandfather Andrey Horbach was of Ukrainian origin (Kuban Cossack).... Kuban Cossacks are ethnic Ukrainians, and it (Stavropol territory) was previously Ukrainian Kuban land ... So Michael was pure ethnic Ukrainian …”.

Gail Sheehy, a contributing political editor to Vanity Magazine and the author of "The Man Who Changed the World (Gorbachev's biography)", 1990. Quote..."Gorbachev's ancestors were Ukrainian Cossacks...settling in the southernmost wilds of the territory of Stavropol...”.

Notwithstanding my critical observations, “The Gates of Europe” is a must read for the informed American reader.

75 people found this helpful

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Bruiser

History at its best.

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2024

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Very detailed analysis and good writing.

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R socal

Expansive and readable history

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2022

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I practically couldn't put this book down. This history of Ukraine brings to life even more the courage and emotion of the Ukrainian people during Putin's invasion. It's as if Putin is trying to snuff out 1,000 years of collective national aspiration.
In a work like this covering the entire history of the region it is inevitable that certain things will be left out or given short shrift. One that bothered me was a very cursory treatment of the Church. Even today as we see on TV desperate old women praying in bunkers the indelible imprint of the Church on the Ukrainian soul is in evidence. I think the author was a bit unfair when he dismissed the "official" church history the Primary Chronicle. Of course, like all historical sources, this reflects the bias of the monks which wrote it, but I don't remember him criticizing any other historical source.
Also, the whole issue of Jewish/Ukrainian conflict was treated in such a way that I was left wondering "what really happened?" It was practically a blank canvas left for us to fill in with our own presumptions.
But these are very minor issues and the only thing which really bothered me was how he treated Trump in the very last part of the book. I almost think as a Harvard professor the peer pressure forced him to insert critical material. In truth, Manafort was in trouble for trying to avoid paying taxes not for his activities in Ukraine. Also, Trump's phone call to Zelensky was not a shake down as the author implies, but a request for Ukraine to cooperate with any investigation by AG Barr (which apparently never happened). Basically a big nothing burger, but you would not know that from Plokhy's account.

8 people found this helpful

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Nelson Senra

Muito bom

Reviewed in Brazil on December 27, 2023

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Leitura exigente. A abordagem remonta aos primórdios da história da história ucraniana, desde tempos imemoriais. Mas, havendo paciência e determinação na leitura o resultado é excelente. Aprende-se muito sobre a região e entende-se bastante porque está havendo o conflito na atualidade. E vê-se com clareza a estupidez da agressão russa ao invadir o território ucraniano.

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S Pérez

Un libro excellente , pero mi copia en pasta blanda se está deshojando.

Reviewed in Mexico on April 29, 2023

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El libro es excellente. Tomo el curso gratiuito de Timothy Snyder “History of Ukraine” de Yale University que se encuentra en YouTube (en inglés) y este libro es el texto principal para su curso.
Estoy encantada con el libro, pero desgraciadamente se está deshojando y lo voy a tener que mandarlo a arreglar.

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Andrej

Great Overview of the Ukrainian History

Reviewed in Germany on February 9, 2023

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I really liked the book! The size was just enough to get a short overview of Ukrainian history. It is easy to read and I think the main historical points are nicely described. It is also a good read for those who want to understand the narratives that russian propaganda is using right now against Ukraine and how false they are!

3 people found this helpful

philippe desberg

Lecture indispensable

Reviewed in France on December 20, 2022

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Dans le contexte de la guerre en Ukraine il est parfois difficile d'y voir clair.
On nous dit que les Russes et les Ukrainiens sont un seul et même peuple, que les accords de Minsk n'ont pas été respectés par les Ukrainiens, que la Crimée a toujours été russe, que le Donbass et Luhansk souhaitent être rattachés a la Russie. On nous dit aussi que la corrosion en Ukraine est endémique, que les Ukrainiens ont aidés les nazis dans les camps.
Ce livre permet de voir objectivement ce qu'il en est vraiment.
Afin de comprendre les voisins prétendent impérialistes de Putin, la lecture de ce livre( par moments peut être un peu trop détaillée) est fortement recommandée

One person found this helpful

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jose luis sanchez

Fantastic

Reviewed in Spain on November 28, 2022

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Marvellous

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