For greater insight into the culture and complicated history of Ukraine, we present these titles.
Ukrainian Phrasebook & Dictionary
Planet Lonely, Marko Pavlyshyn
With Lonely Planet's Ukrainian Phrasebook, let no barriers - language or culture - get in your way. Grab this phrasebook and drop into Lviv, the pulsating heart of Ukraine, take in the holy monastery of Kyevo-Pecherska Lavra in Kyiv, or hike, bike and ski in the Carpathian National Nature Park.
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Lonely Planet Eastern Europe
Mark Baker
This edition includes Kaliningrad for the first time, alongside Albania and Macedonia and covers all of Eastern Europe. Regional itineraries offer a mix of classic and less travelled routes. Maps are included throughout
View in CatalogPutin’s War Against Ukraine
Taras Kuzio
The West has woken up to the uncomfortable fact that Russia has long believed it is at war with them, the most egregious example of which is Vladimir Putin's hacking of the US elections. For Western governments, used to believing in the post-Cold War peace dividend, it came as a shock to find the liberal international order is under threat from an aggressive Russia. The 'End of History - loudly proclaimed in 1991 - has been replaced by the 'Return of History.' Putin's War Against Ukraine came three years earlier when he launched an unprovoked war in the Donbas and annexed the Crimea. Putin's war against Ukraine has killed over 30, 000 civilians, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and Russian proxies, forced a third of the population of the Donbas to flee, illegally nationalised Ukrainian state and private entities in the Crimea and the Donbas, destroyed huge areas of the infrastructure and economy of the Donbas, and created a black hole of crime and soft security threats to Europe. Putin's War Against Ukraine is the first book to focus on national identity as the root of the crisis through Russia's long-term refusal to view Ukrainians as a separate people and an unwillingness to recognise the sovereignty and borders of independent Ukraine. Written by Taras Kuzio, a leading authority on contemporary Ukraine, the book is a product of extensive fieldwork in Russian speaking eastern and southern Ukraine and the front lines of the Donbas combat zone. Putin's War Against Ukraine debunks myths surrounding the conflict and provides an incisive analysis for scholars, policy makers, and journalists as to why Vladimir Putin is at war with the West and Ukraine.
Read More View in CatalogWar in 140 Characters
David Patrikarakos
A leading foreign correspondent looks at how social media has transformed the modern battlefield, and how wars are fought Modern warfare is a war of narratives, where bullets are fired both physically and virtually. Whether you are a president or a terrorist, if you don't understand how to deploy the power of social media effectively you may win the odd battle but you will lose a twenty-first century war. Here, journalist David Patrikarakos draws on unprecedented access to key players to provide a new narrative for modern warfare. He travels thousands of miles across continents to meet a de-radicalized female member of ISIS recruited via Skype, a liberal Russian in Siberia who takes a job manufacturing "Ukrainian" news, and many others to explore the way social media has transformed the way we fight, win, and consume wars-and what this means for the world going forward.
Read More View in CatalogWords for War
Oksana Maksymchuk, Max Rosochinsky
The poems collected in this volume engage with the events and experiences of war, reflecting on the themes of alienation, loss, dislocation, and disability; as well as justice, heroism, courage, resilience, generosity, and forgiveness. The anthology brings together some of the most compelling poetic voices from different regions of Ukraine.
Read More View in CatalogI’ll Never Change My Name
Valentin Chmerkovskiy
"Val embodies what it means to live the American dream." — Robin Roberts, Good Morning America Valentin Chmerkovskiy, the world championship-winning and beloved Dancing with the Stars ballroom dancer invites fans into his life as never before, sharing the experiences, including the failures and successes, that have shaped him, from his early childhood in Ukraine to growing up as an immigrant in the U.S. to his rise to international fame. Val has captivated viewers of Dancing with the Stars since his first performance in 2011. While DWTS demonstrates Val’s beautiful physicality, this moving memoir illuminates his soul, revealing a deep, thoughtful person who channels his emotions and socially conscious views through his art. The beloved dance champion and choreographer assesses his life and career so far—where he’s come from and where he hopes to go. For the first time, Val looks back at his childhood in Odessa, Ukraine, and his Jewish family’s immigration to the United States—including what it was like to grow up as a stranger desperate to fit into a different culture, how he worked to become a premiere dancer, and, of course, the collaborations and competitions with his brother and fellow DWTS sensation, Maksim "Maks" Chmerkovskiy. Val speaks warmly of his close-knit family and shares intimate and inspiring stories meant to offer hope and motivation not only to fans but to everyone with a dream. Enduring anti-Semitism in their native land, Val’s parents wanted a better life for their children—a desire that led them to leave everything they knew and start again thousands of miles away in a foreign country. It was a gamble that paid off—after years of practice and discipline, Val, along with his older brother Maks, have reached the pinnacle of success. Though he admits he sometimes still feels like an outsider, Val expresses his enduring gratitude for everything that America represents and pays homage to his adopted nation and the opportunities it has afforded him and his family. Inspiring, heartfelt, and compulsively readable—and showcasing sixteen-pages of never-before-seen photographs, as well as a foreword by brother Maks—Val’s memoir is filled with the moments that have moved and shaped him, and is sure to touch readers’ hearts as well.
Read More View in CatalogBeginner Pysanky: Ukrainian Easter Eggs
Lorrie Popow, Donna Wolfe
Lorrie Popow and Donna Wolfe have loved the art of pysanky since both of them have been children. This book is a step-by-step tutorial on how to create the beautiful egg art that originated in Ukraine a very long time ago. Text, illustrations, and full-color photos will guide you through selecting an egg, preparing dyes, writing with wax and a kistka, and varnishing a pysanka.
Read More View in CatalogManual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future
Kate Brown
A chilling exposé of the international effort to minimize the health and environmental consequences of nuclear radiation in the wake of Chernobyl. Dear Comrades! Since the accident at the Chernobyl power plant, there has been a detailed analysis of the radioactivity of the food and territory of your population point. The results show that living and working in your village will cause no harm to adults or children. So began a pamphlet issued by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health—which, despite its optimistic beginnings, went on to warn its readers against consuming local milk, berries, or mushrooms, or going into the surrounding forest. This was only one of many misleading bureaucratic manuals that, with apparent good intentions, seriously underestimated the far-reaching consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. After 1991, international organizations from the Red Cross to Greenpeace sought to help the victims, yet found themselves stymied by post-Soviet political circumstances they did not understand. International diplomats and scientists allied to the nuclear industry evaded or denied the fact of a wide-scale public health disaster caused by radiation exposure. Efforts to spin the story about Chernobyl were largely successful; the official death toll ranges between thirty-one and fifty-four people. In reality, radiation exposure from the disaster caused between 35,000 and 150,000 deaths in Ukraine alone. No major international study tallied the damage, leaving Japanese leaders to repeat many of the same mistakes after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Drawing on a decade of archival research and on-the-ground interviews in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, Kate Brown unveils the full breadth of the devastation and the whitewash that followed. Her findings make clear the irreversible impact of man-made radioactivity on every living thing; and hauntingly, they force us to confront the untold legacy of decades of weapons-testing and other nuclear incidents, and the fact that we are emerging into a future for which the survival manual has yet to be written.
Read More View in CatalogUkraine: What Everyone Needs to Know
Serhy Yekelchyk
This volume is an updated edition of Serhy Yekelchyk's 2015 publication, The Conflict in Ukraine. It addresses Ukraine's relations with the West from the perspective of Ukrainians. It looks at what we know about alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, the factors behind the stunning electoral victory of the political novice Volodymyr Zelensky, and the ways in which the events leading to the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump have changed the Russia-Ukraine-US relationship.
Read More View in CatalogUkraine and Russia
Paul D'Anieri
D'Anieri explores the dynamics within Ukraine, between Ukraine and Russia, and between Russia and the West, that emerged with the collapse of the Soviet Union and eventually led to war in 2014. Proceeding chronologically, this book shows how Ukraine's separation from Russia in 1991, at the time called a 'civilized divorce', led to what many are now calling 'a new Cold War'. He argues that the conflict has worsened because of three underlying factors - the security dilemma, the impact of democratization on geopolitics, and the incompatible goals of a post-Cold War Europe. Rather than a peaceful situation that was squandered, D'Anieri argues that these were deep-seated pre-existing disagreements that could not be bridged, with concerning implications for the resolution of the Ukraine conflict. The book also shows how this war fits into broader patterns of contemporary international conflict and should therefore appeal to researchers working on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia's relations with the West, and conflict and geopolitics more generally.
Read More View in CatalogSilence Is the Sound of Fear
Moritz Küstner
In March 2014, Vladimir Putin signed an agreement that declared Crimea to be a part of the Russian Federation. The annexation of the peninsula was preceded by a controversial referendum, and neither the referendum nor the annexation have so far been recognized by the international community. The events are still shaping Ukrainian politics and the country's relations to Russia. Over the last six years, the Donbass region has been torn apart by a war stoked by Russia, which so far has left more than 10,000 people dead. Crimea's economy has also taken a severe hit since the annexation. Tourism, its main source of revenue, has all but disappeared, and the fact that the peninsula is cut off from the Ukrainian mainland frequently causes supply shortages. The sanctions imposed against Russia and the crackdown on freedom of expression and the free press have dramatically changed people's way of life. In particular, the Crimean Tartars, a Muslim minority who had called for a boycott of the referendum in 2014, suffer intimidation and reprisals at the hands of the Russian authorities. The photographer Moritz K stner spent five years, from 2015 to 2019, documenting the changes affecting Crimea and the lives of the Crimean Tartars. Kustner has created a dense narrative interweaving texts and photos that tell stories about individual lives, displacement, hope, resistance, and new beginnings. Text in English and German.
Read More View in CatalogI Want You to Know We’re Still Here
Esther Safran Foer
Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married, and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching. So when Esther's mother casually mentions an astonishing revelation--that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust--Esther resolves to find out who they were, and to learn how her father survived. Armed with only a black-and-white photo and hand-drawn map, she travels to Ukraine, determined to find the shtetl where her father hid during the war. What she finds not only reshapes her identity but gives her the opportunity to properly mourn. I Want You to Know We're Still Here is the riveting and deeply moving story not only of Esther's journey but of four generations living in the shadow of the Holocaust. They are four generations of survivors, storytellers, and memory keepers, determined not just to keep the past alive but to imbue the present with life and more life.
Read More View in CatalogAnatomy of a Genocide
Omer Bartov
“A substantive contribution to the history of ethnic strife and extreme violence” (The Wall Street Journal) and a cautionary examination of how genocide can take root at the local level—turning neighbors, friends, and family against one another—as seen through the eastern European border town of Buczacz during World War II. For more than four hundred years, the Eastern European border town of Buczacz—today part of Ukraine—was home to a highly diverse citizenry. It was here that Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews all lived side by side in relative harmony. Then came World War II, and three years later the entire Jewish population had been murdered by German and Ukrainian police, while Ukrainian nationalists eradicated Polish residents. In truth, though, this genocide didn’t happen so quickly. In Anatomy of a Genocide, Omer Bartov explains that ethnic cleansing doesn’t occur as is so often portrayed in popular history, with the quick ascent of a vitriolic political leader and the unleashing of military might. It begins in seeming peace, slowly and often unnoticed, the culmination of pent-up slights and grudges and indignities. The perpetrators aren’t just sociopathic soldiers. They are neighbors and friends and family. They are also middle-aged men who come from elsewhere, often with their wives and children and parents, and settle into a life of bourgeois comfort peppered with bouts of mass murder. For more than two decades Bartov, whose mother was raised in Buczacz, traveled extensively throughout the region, scouring archives and amassing thousands of documents rarely seen until now. He has also made use of hundreds of first-person testimonies by victims, perpetrators, collaborators, and rescuers. Anatomy of a Genocide profoundly changes our understanding of the social dynamics of mass killing and the nature of the Holocaust as a whole. Bartov’s book isn’t just an attempt to understand what happened in the past. It’s a warning of how it could happen again, in our own towns and cities—much more easily than we might think.
Read More View in CatalogRed Famine
Anne Applebaum
"From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag and the National Book Award finalist Iron Curtain, a revelatory history of one of Stalin's greatest crimes--the consequences of which still resonate today. In 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural collectivization--in effect a second Russian revolution--which forced millions of peasants off their land and onto collective farms. The result was a catastrophic famine, the most lethal in European history. At least five million people died between 1931 and 1933 in the USSR. But instead of sending relief the Soviet state made use of the catastrophe to rid itself of a political problem. In Red Famine, Anne Applebaum argues that more than three million of those dead were Ukrainians who perished not because they were accidental victims of a bad policy but because the state deliberately set out to kill them. Applebaum proves what has long been suspected: after a series of rebellions unsettled the province, Stalin set out to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry. The state sealed the republic's borders and seized all available food. Starvation set in rapidly, and people ate anything: grass, tree bark, dogs, corpses. In some cases, they killed one another for food. Devastating and definitive, Red Famine captures the horror of ordinary people struggling to survive extraordinary evil. Today, Russia, the successor to the Soviet Union, has placed Ukrainian independence in its sights once more. Applebaum's compulsively readable narrative recalls one of the worst crimes of the twentieth century, and shows how it may foreshadow a new threat to the political order in the twenty-first."
Read More View in CatalogSummer Kitchens
Olia Hercules
Olia Hercules owes some of her earliest and fondest memories to the 'summer kitchens' of her parents, grandparents, neighbours and friends in Ukraine. These small buildings are separate from the main house, and always positioned near a fruit plot or veg patch so families can enjoy the home-grown produce as it ripens, and preserve the surplus in preparation for winter. The number of summer kitchens is dwindling these days, but there is still so much we can learn about making the most of the vibrant summer produce throughout the rest of the year. Summer Kitchens contains recipes such as Borsch with duck and smoked pears, Burnt aubergine butter and tomato toast, Pot roast chicken with herb crème fraîche, Nettle, sorrel and wild garlic soup and Poppyseed babka. With beautiful photography and writing on the people and lush landscapes of Ukraine, this book will transport you to idyllic summer kitchens past and present.
Read More View in CatalogBeyond Borscht
Tatyana Nesteruk
Authentic Recipes for the Hearty, Comforting Foods of Eastern Europe Bring the warming, fresh and savory flavors of Ukraine, Russia, Poland and beyond into your kitchen with this beautiful and personal collection of family recipes passed down through generations. From growing up in a close-knit Slavic community that gathered daily to celebrate food, Tatyana Nesteruk learned the art of honoring tradition while also making the recipes accessible for the modern home cook. Her simple instructions and treasure chest of time-honored dishes will have you flawlessly re-creating the food you love—or have yet to discover! Capturing the classic tastes of Eastern Europe is easy no matter where you live, thanks to Tatyana’s nifty cooking hacks, such as rinsing cottage cheese to quickly transform it into the beloved Russian tvorog (farmer’s cheese). Dive into timeless recipes like Beef and Cheese Piroshki (hand pies), Smoked Salmon and Caviar Blini and Classic Beef Borscht. Whip up epic main dishes like Shashliki (Shish Kebabs), Plov (Beef and Garlic Rice Pilaf) and Potato Latkes with Chicken, and pair them with delicious sides like Mushroom Buckwheat and Olivier Potato Salad for a truly unbeatable spread. With desserts like Sweet Cherry Pierogi, Russian Tea Cookies and Poppy Seed Roll, you’ll be transported back to the old world by the end of the night. If you grew up eating this incredible cuisine, visited this part of the world and can’t stop dreaming of the food, or are trying these authentic dishes for the first time, the unique, comforting and nostalgic flavors packed into Tatyana’s recipes will send your taste buds on an unforgettable journey.
Read More View in CatalogMamushka
Olia Hercules
The Ukrainian-born chef presents “a gorgeous love letter to the food of her homeland” with this vibrant and varied collection of recipes (SAVEUR). In Mamushka, Olia Hercules takes readers and home cooks on a culinary tour of Eastern Europe—from the Black Sea to Baku, Kiev to Kazakhstan. This beautifully illustrated cookbook features more than one hundred recipes for fresh, delicious, and unexpected dishes from this dynamic and often misunderstood region. Olia Hercules was born in Ukraine and lived in Cyprus for several years before moving to London and becoming a chef. In this gorgeous and deeply personal cookbook, she shares her favorite recipes from her home country with loving stories about her culinary upbringing and family traditions. “Forget what you think you know about Ukrainian food; with OIia Hercules, it's fun and colorful.” —Epicurious
Read More View in CatalogThe Gates of Europe
Serhii Plokhy
A New York Times bestseller, this definitive history of Ukraine is “an exemplary account of Europe’s least-known large country” (Wall Street Journal). As Ukraine is embroiled in an ongoing struggle with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence, celebrated historian Serhii Plokhy explains that today’s crisis is a case of history repeating itself: the Ukrainian conflict is only the latest in a long history of turmoil over Ukraine’s sovereignty. Situated between Central Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, Ukraine has been shaped by empires that exploited the nation as a strategic gateway between East and West—from the Romans and Ottomans to the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. In The Gates of Europe, Plokhy examines Ukraine’s search for its identity through the lives of major Ukrainian historical figures, from its heroes to its conquerors. This revised edition includes new material that brings this definitive history up to the present. As Ukraine once again finds itself at the center of global attention, Plokhy brings its history to vivid life as he connects the nation’s past with its present and future.
Read More View in CatalogLessons from the Edge
Marie Yovanovitch
An inspiring and urgent memoir by the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine—a pioneering diplomat who spent her career advancing democracy in the post-Soviet world, and who electrified the nation by speaking truth to power during the first impeachment of President Trump. By the time she became U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch had seen her share of corruption, instability, and tragedy in developing countries. But it came as a shock when, in early 2019, she was recalled from her post after a smear campaign by President Trump’s personal attorney and his associates—men operating outside of normal governmental channels, and apparently motivated by personal gain. Her courageous participation in the subsequent impeachment inquiry earned Yovanovitch the nation’s respect, and her dignified response to the president’s attacks won our hearts. She has reclaimed her own narrative, first with her lauded congressional testimony, and now with this memoir. A child of parents who survived Soviet and Nazi terror, Yovanovitch’s life and work have taught her the preciousness of democracy as well as the dangers of corruption. Lessons from the Edge follows the arc of her career as she develops into the person we came to know during the impeachment proceedings. “A brilliant, engaging, and inspiring memoir from one of America’s wisest and most courageous diplomats—essential reading for current policymakers, aspiring public servants, and anyone who cares about America’s role in the world.”—Madeleine K. Albright “At turns moving and gripping and always inspiring … a powerful testament to a uniquely American life well-lived and a remarkable career of dedicated public service at the highest levels of government.”—Fiona Hill, New York Times best-selling author of There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century
Read More View in CatalogMidnight in Chernobyl
Adam Higginbotham
Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history’s worst nuclear disaster. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a masterful nonfiction thriller, and the definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. Midnight in Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of one of the great disasters of the twentieth century, of human resilience and ingenuity, and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will—lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary.
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