by Orest Subtelny

Author Information: Professor of History at York University, Toronto. Author also of Domination of Eastern Europe: Native Nobilities and Foreign Absolutism, 1500-1715.

Dan's Recommendation: A 736 page history of Ukraine from the prehistoric to the present. Particularly useful for the extensive attention given to the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Some readers will be surprised at the fairly positive impression Subtelny had of Kuchma. The impression is more understandable when the date of publication is considered (Dec 2000). At that point, Kuchma's government had recently given up Ukraine's nuclear weapons (a complete de-nuclearization unprecedented in history), and, of course, still had Yushchenko and Tymoshenko's reformist Cabinet (though efforts would soon succeed in driving them out).

Altogether, this was a great look at Ukrainian history from a Ukrainian perspective. In it, he addresses many of the myths about Ukraine perpetuated under the Soviet Union.

Book Links

Abridged Lecture on Ukrainian Independence at University of Manitoba
CV posted at York University
Further Description at York
Amazon