2020; 185 pages (of text,
anyway). Author: Serhy Yekelchyk. Part of a 131-book set called the “What Everyone Needs to Know” series. New Author? : Yes. Genres : Political History; Ukraine; War; Political
Science; Non-Fiction. Overall Rating : 9½*/10.
That war between Ukraine and Russia sure is in
the news a lot lately. Russia seems to
be the one doing all the invading, although I never did read what their
justification is.
I vaguely remember Russia
pulling this sort of stunt a few years back. They took over and then annexed the Crimean
peninsula from Ukraine. I think they said it
was because all the citizens there were Russians, although that doesn’t make
much sense.
The recent Russian assault on Kyiv was a failure, and now they’re concentrating on invading a region
called Donbas. It sounds like they claim
its inhabitants are also mostly Russians.
Weird.
Oh well, it’s a long way from
the USA, so why should I care? I mean,
what’s the worst that could happen? Hmm,
I guess that would be Russia opting for the nuclear option, wiping out all of
Europe and America, followed by our nuclear retaliation, wiping out all of
Russia, China, and the rest of Asia.
Y'know, it might behoove everyone to study up on the situation in Ukraine.
What’s To Like...
Ukraine: What
Everyone Needs to Know is divided into seven sections, namely:
1. Why Ukraine? (pg. 1, 5 q.)
2. The Land and the People (pg. 13, 4 q.)
3. The Making of Modern Ukraine (pg. 24, 16 q.)
4. Ukraine After Communism (pg. 56, 11 q.)
5. The Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan (pg.
78, 13 q.)
6. Russia’s Annexation of the Crimea and the War in Donbas
(pg. 104, 16 q.)
7. The War in Ukraine as an International Issue (pg.
140, 17 q.)
Serhy Yekelchyk makes clever use
of a question-and-answer format for each section. As shown above, the sections, and the number
of questions per section, are not of equal length. I was surprised by how well that worked, and although I’d like to
read a book on the complete history of Ukraine at some point, what I’m really interested
in right now is the historical and political reasons that have resulted in the
present-day Russia-Ukraine conflict, and what the NATO powers
should be doing about it. This book
succeeds nicely in that regard.
The author is Ukrainian (now living in Canada), and as
expected, this book has a pro-Ukrainian slant.
In fairness however, it’s hard to give a pro-Russian spin to their invasions
of the Ukraine, and Serhy Yekelchyk does present a “warts and all” account of
Ukraine since they gained independence after the USSR broke up. Corruption was rampant, and ballot-stuffing,
bribery, embezzlement, and nepotism were all “business as usual” for the first
two decades. Things marginally improved
when Poroshenko was elected in 2014, then took a quantum leap forward with
Zelensky’s meteoric rise in 2019, although even there, Yekelchyk details some
of the lessons learned during the early days of Zelensky’s tenure.
Places in the book are given in the Ukrainian spelling, so the capital city is spelled “Kyiv”
and not “Kiev” (and pronounced “Keev”),
and the southern seaport is spelled with one 'S': "Odesa". I was amazed that Mennonites crop up in Ukraine’s history, and recognized the name Vitalii Klitschko, a former
Heavyweight Boxing Champion who is now an important Ukrainian politician.
There are some interesting
tie-ins to American politics. Dr. Yekelchyk
addresses the thorny issue of whether (and how much) Russia interfered in the 2016 US
elections, as well as the “Hunter Biden Affair”,
repeatedly touted by Trump during that campaign.
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.4/5
based on 72 ratings and 8 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.97/5 based on 375
ratings and 54 reviews
Kewlest New Word ...
Volte-face
(n.) : a complete and abrupt
turnaround in attitude, opinion, or position.
Others: Autochthonous (adj.); Kleptocratic
(adj.); Lustration
(n.).
Excerpts...
When mass protests began in 2014, the
Yanukovych clique employed a familiar strategy of framing the unrest as an
identity conflict, a war against Russian culture in Ukraine. Yet, they soon lost control over the genie
they summoned when Putin’s Russia marched in to “protect” its
“compatriots”. It mattered little
whether the latter even wanted to be protected, for on the eve of the war,
opinion polls in the Donbas showed that only about a third favored separating
from Ukraine and joining Russia. The
conflict quickly shifted its focus from building a multicultural Ukraine to
rebuilding a greater Russia. (loc. 1997)
On New Year’s Eve, (…) the popular comedian Volodymyr Zelensky announced
on television his intention to participate in the election. Zelensky represented the direct opposite of
establishment candidates — he had zero political experience and the mien of an
honest everyman. A successful
entrepreneur, he rose to fame as the star of an unpretentious Russian-language
comedy television show, but he also possessed the Charlie Chaplin-like charisma
of a “little man” refusing to accept this world’s injustices. (loc.
3138)
Kindle Details…
Ukraine:
What Everyone Needs to Know currently sells for $8.57 at Amazon, but I gratefully snatched it up when it
was discounted for one day to a mere $0.10. There is a companion
volume in the What Everyone Needs to Know
series titled The Conflict in Ukraine; which
goes for $8.79, but it’s just the earlier version of this book.
“Without Ukraine,
Russia ceases to be an empire.” (loc.
1255)
I can’t think of much to
nitpick about in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to
Know. The book was published in
2015, but Serhy Yekelchyk periodically added updates to the text, including things
like the impact of the coronavirus pandemic; then issued a new version in
2020. Be aware, however, that the 2022
invasions by Russia are not included, even in this updated version. This
doesn’t bother me since no one knows just how that’s going to turn out.
Amazon indicates this is a 230-page book, but the text ends at page 184 (76% Kindle), with the next 25 pages
devoted to Notes, Further Reading, and an extensive Index. Even including all those add-ons, the e-book version still ends at
page 209. Accessing the map is clunky (you can’t make South point downward), but I
didn’t find that particularly irksome.
The footnotes work well, but they just simply reference Yekelchyk’s
sources listed in the Notes section.
9½ Stars. Up until the 2022 invasions by Russia, news about Ukrainian current events here in the West has been sporadic. The 2004 Orange Revolution got decent coverage, but then Ukraine faded into obscurity until the 2013/14 Euromaidan protests. I was looking for a book that would give some continuity to Ukraine’s recent history, and Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know did exactly that. I strongly suspect Serhy Yekelchyk will continue to update and revise this book as the present war plays out and I'm looking forward to the insight he imparts to it.
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