Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine - Hardcover

Reid, Anna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813336740 ISBN 13: 9780813336749

Publisher: Westview Press Inc, 1999

Synopsis

In this finely written and penetrating book, Anna Reid combines research and her own experiences to chart Ukraines tragic past. Talking to peasants and politicians, rabbis and racketeers, dissidents and paramilitaries, survivors of Stalins famine and of Nazi labor camps, she reveals the layers of myth and propaganda that wrap this divided land. From the Polish churches of Lviv to the coal mines of the Russian-speaking Donbass, from the Galician shtetlech to the Tatar shantytowns of Crimea, the book explores Ukraines struggle to build itself a national identity, and identity that faces up to a bloody past, and embraces all the peoples within its borders. } Borderland tells the story of Ukraine. A thousand years ago it was the center of the first great Slav civilization, Kievan Rus. In 1240, the Mongols invaded from the east, and for the next seven centureies, Ukraine was split between warring neighbors: Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Austrians, and Tatars. Again and again, borderland turned into battlefield: during the Cossack risings of the seventeenth century, Russias wars with Sweden in the eighteenth, the Civil War of 19181920, and under Nazi occupation. Ukraine finally won independence in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bigger than France and a populous as Britain, it has the potential to become one of the most powerful states in Europe.In this finely written and penetrating book, Anna Reid combines research and her own experiences to chart Ukraines tragic past. Talking to peasants and politicians, rabbis and racketeers, dissidents and paramilitaries, survivors of Stalins famine and of Nazi labor camps, she reveals the layers of myth and propaganda that wrap this divided land. From the Polish churches of Lviv to the coal mines of the Russian-speaking Donbass, from the Galician shtetlech to the Tatar shantytowns of Crimea, the book explores Ukraines struggle to build itself a national identity, and identity that faces up to a bloody past, and embraces all the peoples within its borders. }

About this title

Book Description:

A classic and vivid history of the Ukraine, fully updated to cover the recent crisis.

From the Back Cover:

Borderland tells the story of Ukraine. Centre of the first great Slav civilisation in the tenth century, and divided between warring neighbours for the next thousand years, Ukraine finally won independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bigger than France and as populous as Britain, it has the potential to become one of the leading states of Europe. Talking to peasants and politicians, rabbis and racketeers, dissidents and paramilitaries, survivors of Stalin's famine and of Nazi death camps, Anna Reid combines historical research and her own experiences to dissect the bloody and controversial past of this little-known land.

'If you think you couldn't be interested in Ukraine - and I thought I couldn't - you should read this book' Matthew Parris, A Good Read, Radio 4

'A beautifully written evocation of Ukraine's brutal past and its shaky efforts to construct a better future...Borderland is a tapestry woven of the stories of all its inhabitants, recording their triumphs and their conflicts with the fairness of a compassionate outsider' Financial Times

PHOENIX
NON-FICTION/HISTORY
UK £7.99
CAN $17.95

Cover photograph: [Details to follow]

Isbn: 1 84212 722 5

About this edition

• Publisher: Westview Press Inc
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0813336740
• ISBN 13: 9780813336749
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272