Understanding Ukraine and Russia, some suggested reading

2 March 2022

For anyone interested in reading more about the present situation in Ukraine, Serhii Plokhii, Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, recommends five books that explore the history, and relationship, between Ukraine and Russia.

It is a situation that probably could be recognized anywhere in the world — because what we see is the process of disintegration of one of the last world empires. The Russian Empire started to fall apart when the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman and other empires were falling apart. The Bolsheviks held it together, but it still fell apart in 1991, almost overnight. Everyone was surprised. It was a miracle that there was no major war or bloodshed. Now we realize that the war was just postponed.