Eleven English-language non-fiction historical books about Ukraine

Here is the list of books selected by Chytomo for the Ukrainian Bookshelves Worldwide project, implemented jointly with the Ukrainian Literary Center with the support of the Stabilization Fund for Culture and Education of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut.

Ukraine. What Everyone Needs to Know

• Author: Serhy Yekelchyk
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2020

A popular, but not simplified book, which is built on the principle of concise answers to the most frequently asked questions about Ukraine, like “Was Ukraine always part of Russia?”, “Who were the Cossacks?”, or “When and why did Ukraine give up its nuclear arsenal?” and even “How can one evaluate President Zelensky?”. Serhy Yekelchyk finds convincing answers for those who are just starting to get acquainted with Ukraine. Experienced readers can compare their own answers with those offered by the historian.

Ukraine in Histories and Stories. Essays by Ukrainian Intellectuals

• Author: Volodymyr Yermolenko (ed.)
• Publisher: Stuttgart: Ibidem, 2020

A remarkably important book that represents the diversity of “Ukrainian voices”. Leading Ukrainian writers, historians, philosophers reflect on key issues of identity and entangled histories of their motherland. Some texts deal with Ukrainian-Polish, Ukrainian-Jewish relations, as well as stereotypes about Ukraine in Germany. The attentive reader will discover in the book not only the main problem areas of Ukrainian intellectual debates, but will also be able to feel the European and global connections of Ukrainian history.

Thinking the Twentieth Century

• Author: Tony Judt and Timothy Snyder
• Publisher: New York: The Penguin Press, 2012

This “spoken book” is an excellent example of the intellectual dialogue that opens the door to the research laboratory and the way of thinking of two prominent historians of our time. Tony Judt and Timothy Snyder talk about pluralism and the tempations of Marxism, about the Holocaust and the uses of its memory, about intellectual responsibility and the idea of Europe. They also talk about Central and Eastern Europe as an integral part of European history. This beautiful in style, thought-provoking and rich in argument book is the last publication by Tony Judt and a must-read for everyone who strives to understand the 20th century.

Stalin’s Genocides

• Author: Norman M. Naimark
• Publisher: Princeton – New York: Princeton University Press, 2010

The Stanford professor`s small, convincingly written book is one of the first English-language monographs to prove the genocidal nature of the Soviet Union`s social and national policies under Stalin`s leadership. Norman Naimark examines Stalin`s deeds: from the policy of “dekulakization” – through the Holodomor of 1932–33 – to the forced deportations of entire ethnic groups (including the Crimean Tatars), and concludes that they should be treated as genocides.

Jews and Ukrainians. A Millennium of Co-Existence

• Author: Paul Robert Magocsi, Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern
• Publisher: Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016

This beautifully crafted and richly illustrated large-format publication is the best introduction to the complex and controversial history of Ukrainian-Jewish relations. Accessibly written by renowned specialists on the subject, this synthesis is a truly interdisciplinary achievement: chapters on the historical past and religion are side by side with chapters on architecture, art and music.

Ukrainian Nationalism. Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929–1956

• Author: Myroslav Shkandrij
• Publisher: New Haven – London: Yale University Press, 2015

One of the best and most original monographic studies of the phenomenon of Ukrainian nationalism. Skilfully showing the dynamics and evolution of the nationalist movement, the author – a professional literary scholar – brilliantly draws intellectual portraits of not only Dmytro Dontsov, but also Olena Teliha, Yurii Lypa, Ulas Samchuk, Dokiya Humenna. This book is an example of contextual historical and literary analysis, which opens wide prospects for further study of the intellectual history of the Ukrainian twentieth century.  

Harvest of Despair. Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule

• Author: Karel C. Berkhoff
• Publisher: New York: Belknap Press, 2004

A book by the Dutch historian is one of the most complete and correct attempts to give a comprehensive picture of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. The author analyses the nature of German Nazi policies, the Holocaust, the problem of collaboration, the everyday life of the occupied territories. In explaining the motives of the population’s behavior, Karel Berkhoff pays special attention to the traumatic experience of the Soviet era, the repressions and persecutions.

Freedom and Terror in the Donbas. A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s

• Author: Hiroaki Kuromiya
• Publisher: Revised edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003

Without any exaggeration, Hiroaki Kuromiya`s work is the best synthetic history of Donbas, which covers the entire historical development of this region until the collapse of the Soviet Union. First published in 1998, this widely acclaimed masterful regional history is no less fascinating to read in light of our knowledge of the tragedy of these lands caused by the Russian occupation.

Kaleidoscopic Odesa. History and Place in the Contemporary Ukraine

• Author: Tanya Richardson
• Publisher: Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008

Tanya Richardson`s fascinating anthropological study is one of the best books in English about the legendary Ukrainian city of Odesa. The author carefully analyzes the dynamics of local and national identities in the everyday life of the millionaire city on the Black Sea after the Orange Revolution of 2004. Rethinking of imperial heritage, understanding of Ukrainian patriotism, re-thinking local mythology – all these topics later became components of resistance to Russian aggression, which determines the further importance of their research and prompts to return to this highly valuable publication.

Lemberg, Lwow, L’viv 1914–1947. Violence and Ethnicity in a Contested City

• Author: Christoph Mick
• Publisher: West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2016

Christoph Mick`s comprehensive book brings together and analytically confronts Polish, Jewish, German, Ukrainian and Soviet perspectives on the biggest city of Western Ukraine and the capital of East Galicia. Although the German historian consciously focuses on the issues of violence and ethnic confrontation, his book allows us to feel the richness of the multilingual, multireligious and multiethnic history of L`viv. And, despite the fact that the author avoids extensive theoretical conclusions, his work summarizes significant amounts of archival materials and gives a proper sense of the complexity of Ukrainian history.

Lost Kingdom. The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation. From 1470 to the Present

• Author: Serhii Plokhy
• Publisher: New York: Basic Books, 2017

This exceptionally important synthesis of the history of Russian nationalism at its cross section with Russian imperialism is unique in a way the Author pays conscious and continuous attention to the “Ukrainian dimension” of the formation of Russian nation and state. As Serhii Plokhy confesses, he was compelled to write this book by the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014, and his conclusion that the future of Europe depends “on the ability and readiness of the Russian elites to accept the post-Soviet political realities and adjust Russia`s own identity to the demands of the post-imperial world” sounds especially relevant nowadays.