The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History - Hardcover

by Serhii Plokhy (Author)

Despite repeated warnings from the White House, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. Why did Putin start the war--and why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways? Ukrainians have resisted a superior military; the West has united, while Russia grows increasingly isolated.

Serhii Plokhy, a leading historian of Ukraine and the Cold War, offers a definitive account of this conflict, its origins, course, and the already apparent and possible future consequences. Though the current war began eight years before the all-out assault--on February 27, 2014, when Russian armed forces seized the building of the Crimean parliament--the roots of this conflict can be traced back even earlier, to post-Soviet tensions and imperial collapse in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Providing a broad historical context and an examination of Ukraine and Russia's ideas and cultures, as well as domestic and international politics, Plokhy reveals that while this new Cold War was not inevitable, it was predictable.

Ukraine, Plokhy argues, has remained central to Russia's idea of itself even as Ukrainians have followed a radically different path. In a new international environment defined by the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the disintegration of the post-Cold War international order, and a resurgence of populist nationalism, Ukraine is now more than ever the most volatile fault line between authoritarianism and democratic Europe.

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Praise for Serhii Plokhy

Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters

"Frightening.... With catastrophic climate change bearing down on us, nuclear power has been promoted by some as an obvious solution, but this sobering history urges us to look hard at that bargain for what it is."
--Jennifer Szalai, New York Times

"[An] enthralling study of the atomic age and its perils.... [A] meticulously researched history... [and] also a timely read."
--Lawrence Freedman, Financial Times

Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

"Superb.... [E]ngrossing and terrifying, surely one of the most important books ever written about the Cuban Missile Crisis and 20th-century international relations."
--James Rosen, Wall Street Journal

"Definitive.... With his masterly book, Mr. Plokhy has sounded a warning bell."
--Economist

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine

"Readers can find no better place to turn.... Plokhy navigates the subject with grace and aplomb."
--Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs

"In his elegant and careful exposition of Ukraine's past, Mr. Plokhy has also provided some signposts to the future."
--Economist