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The question of where Russian history ends and Ukrainian history begins has not yet received a satisfactory answer. Generations of historians referred to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, as the starting point of the Muscovite dynasty, the Russian state, and, ultimately, the Russian nation. However, the history of Kyiv and that of the Scythians of the Northern Black Sea region have also been claimed by Ukrainian historians, and are now regarded as integral parts of the history of Ukraine. If these are actually the beginnings of Ukrainian history, when does Russian history start?

In Ukraine and Russia, Serhii Plokhy discusses many questions fundamental to the formation of modern Russian and Ukrainian historical identity. He investigates the critical role of history in the development of modern national identities and offers historical and cultural insight into the current state of relations between the two nations. Plokhy shows how history has been constructed, used, and misused in order to justify the existence of imperial and modern national projects, and how those projects have influenced the interpretation of history in Russia and Ukraine. This book makes important assertions not only about the conflicts and negotiations inherent to opposing historiographic traditions, but about ways of overcoming the limitations imposed by those traditions.

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This book explores the governance, population, trade, craftsmen, and churches of Kamianets-Podilsky and discusses city's enduring significance.

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Famous as ferocious warriors, the Ukrainian Cossacks developed their fighting skills in the religious wars against the Tartars, Turks, Poles, and Russians. In this fascinating study, Serhii Plokhy examines the "confessionalization" of religious life in the early modern period, showing how Cossack involvement in the religious struggle between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism helped shape not only Ukrainian but also Russian and Polish cultural identities. ... Read more

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Letters from Heaven features an international group of scholars investigating the place and function of ‘popular’ religion in Eastern Slavic cultures.The contributors examine popular religious practices in Russia and Ukraine from the middle ages to the present, considering the cultural contexts of death rituals, miracles, sin and virtue, cults of the saints, and icons. The collection not only fills a void in religious scholarship, but also responds to current theoretical challenges.

Reflecting critically on the heuristic value of popular religion and on the concept of popular culture in general, Letters from Heaven is characterized by a shift of focus from churches, institutions, and theological discourse to the religious practices themselves and their interconnections with the culture, mentality, and social structures of the societies in question.An important contribution to the fields of religion and Eastern Slavic studies, this volume challenges readers to rethink old pieties and to reconsider the function of religion.

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To the surprise of many, the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991, and out of its ruins arose an independent Ukraine. This was a remarkable achievement, and one that owed much to activities in Galicia, as Paul Robert Magocsi reveals here.

Magocsi begins with a brief historical survey of Galicia, where Ukrainian national and cultural interests have long flourished. His subsequent essays focus on the role played by Galicia during the nineteenth century, when Ukrainians were struggling for recognition as a distinct nationality. He places Galicia in the larger context of Ukrainian and eastern European politics, then follows with studies of the nuts and bolts of nation building - language, culture, ideology and so on. He also explores the influence of the Habsburg Empire in creating unique conditions for Ukraine's national and social revival, and considers the impact of both Habsburg and Soviet rule on the Ukrainian national psyche.

This study provides a solid background for understanding nineteenth-century Galicia as the historic Piedmont of the Ukrainian national revival. It is essential reading for historians, public-policy makers, and all those interested in regional differentiation within Europe's second largest country - Ukraine. ... Read more

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Covers Ukrainian history from the earliest times towith emphasis on the modern period. Introduces Ukraine, throughentries, to the reader through a combination of general articles on population, geography, economy, politics, and culture descriptions of institutions, cultural monuments, political parties, battles and wars and biographical sketches of key individuals in politics, the arts and sciences, the church, and the military. ... Read more

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Leonard Friesen presents a study of the transformation of New Russia--the region north of the Black and Azov seas--from its conquest by the Russian Empire in the late eighteenth century to the revolutionary tumult of 1905. Friesen is particularly interested in the dynamic and multifaceted relations between the region's peasants, European colonists, and Russian estate owners. He gives special attention to the settlement process whereby once free peasants were enserfed within a generation, as well as the period of servile emancipation after 1861, when the paths of the region's agriculturalists converged in unexpected ways. Overall, Friesen sees the region as vital to an understanding of the empire as a whole. He demonstrates how peasants, nobles, and estate owners were key actors in a series of rural revolutions that eventually threatened the empire itself.

This book contributes to our understanding of Imperial Russia, as well as contemporary Ukraine, by describing and analyzing rural developmental patterns over time. It explores how, when, and why agriculturalists made adjustments to long-established agrarian and social practices, and provides a fresh perspective on the link between the end of empire and the rural developments that preceded it.

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Exploring the post-Communist transition that has taken place in the Ukraine, this text covers: nation and state building; national identity and regionalism; politics and civil society; economic transition; and security policy. ... Read more

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The book reviews economic reforms in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the beginnings of transformation in 1991, and compares them with the experience of other transformation countries. It provides a full-fledged discussion of the transformation process, organised in five independent parts: (i) macroeconomic stabilisation and growth; (ii) institutional conditions for systemic change; (iii) reforms of the financial sector and the banking system; (iv) reform of the agriculture and food processing sectors; (v) energy sector reform. The approach of the authors is empirical, providing insiders' understanding and evaluation of the reform process. A diversity of authors is represented, ranging form policymakers to policy analysts, and from industrialists to researchers. While addressing specific questions from specialists in the field, all texts are easily readable in non-technical format. ... Read more

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Patricia Grimsted's internationally acclaimed reference series provides the only comprehensive information available in any language about the development, holdings, and published reference aids for the rich archives and manuscript collections of the Soviet Union. In this, the first of a two-part third volume of the work, Grimsted focuses on Soviet Ukraine and Moldavia.

The first section of this book provides an annotated bibliography of basic reference works for those using archival materials. Subsequent sections offer directories of institutions now located in Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and other oblasts, and in Soviet Moldavia. Appendixes contain procedural information about Soviet archival organization and access restrictions and a table of geographic names in relevant languages. ... Read more

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This book provides an examination of Ukraine in the 1940's, thereby providing a portrait of the political setting in which the events of World War II took place. ... Read more

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A collection of twenty-three essays by the late Ivan L. Rudnytsky, a leading historian of modern Ukraine noted for his original interpretation. ... Read more

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Yuri Shcherbak--former Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S.--is a writer and physician who came to international prominence with his exposé on Chornobyl, as a founder of the Ukrainian Green Party, as Ukraine's first minister of environmental protection, and as its first ambassador to Israel. The Strategic Role of Ukraine assesses the period during which Ukraine rose to become an important part of the European geo-strategic posture. The collection treats Ukraine's relations with the United States, other nations in the region, and Israel; the Chornobyl aftermath; the status of Sevastopol; NATO enlargement; and the question of Ukrainian-Jewish relations. It includes a chronology of Ukraine-U.S. relations (1989-1997) and the text of the NATO-Ukraine Charter. Specialists and students alike will appreciate this comprehensive and focused overview of contemporary Ukraine.