The History of Ukraine

Ukraine has been fighting for its existence for over a thousand years. The story of how it survived helps explain everything happening there today. Long before the current headlines, Ukraine was one of Europe's most contested territories. It gave birth to Kievan Rus, one of the medieval world's great powers. It suffered the Mongol invasion, centuries of Polish Lithuanian and Russian domination, one of the worst famines in human history under Stalin, and a catastrophic Nazi occupation. Through all of it, Ukrainians held onto a distinct language, culture, and national identity that refused to be extinguished. This book provides the essential historical context that makes Ukraine's present situation comprehensible. It traces the country from its earliest Slavic roots to its declaration of independence in 1991 and the events that followed, explaining the deep historical currents that continue to shape its relationship with Russia and the wider world. Kievan Rus and its place as one of medieval Europe's most powerful states. Centuries of division and conquest by Poland, Lithuania, and the Russian Empire. The Holodomor, Stalin's engineered famine that killed millions of Ukrainians.