Fifty years later, Russia’s victory over Sweden at Poltava and the subsequent labeling of Ukraine’s eastern half as “Little Russia” populated by “Little Russians” forged an enduring narrative that remains central to Putin’s justification for the February 2022 invasion. Often, these claims were literal, as in the 1667 partitioning of the Cossack state, or Hetmanate, between Muscovy and Poland. The book’s twenty-eight chapters, divided into five sections, do a masterful job of tracing Ukraine’s immense diversity-geographical, economic, political, cultural, and religious-and how Ukrainian politicians, intellectuals, military, and religious leaders have navigated the diverse claims made about its people and to their land. From ancient times to the election of President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the first impeachment trial of former US president Trump, Plokhy explores how these countervailing pressures have shaped a distinct Ukrainian identity. Examples of the tug-of-war between East and West run through the narrative: foremost among them the schisms between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic and Uniate Churches (or between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) and between the traditions of Western democracy and state sovereignty and Eastern-later Soviet-imperialism and authoritarianism. What is clear from Plokhy’s account, however, is that the current contest between East and West in Ukraine has a very long history, although none as brutal as what we have seen in the last several months. Time will tell whether recent Ukrainian victories, aided by European and North American allies, will vanquish Putin’s drive for a twentieth-first century Russian Empire and achieve Ukraine’s long-standing goals of joining the European Union and NATO.
In the context of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine launched in February, Plokhi’s introductory words resound even more forcefully: “Ukrainians probably have just as much right to brag about their role in changing the world as Scots and other nationalities about which books have been written asserting their claim to have shaped the course of human history.” Just over a year ago, the eminent historian of Ukraine, Serhii Plokhy, published a revised version of his 2015 book, The Gates of Europe.
This is part of a series on the Ukraine Crisis.
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