Ukraine: The Forging of a Nation

by Yaroslav Hrystak

Published in Ukrainian in 2022; English translation published in the UK in 2023; 438 pages in length, including acknowledgements and a selected biography.

Reviewed by Peter McKenzie-Brown

My off-the-wall book presentation stretches the geography theme quite a bit. The author is a Ukrainian academic; the book was translated by Dominique Hoffman in 2023, as the country defended itself against war and invasion from the USSR. In the book’s acknowledgements, Hrystak says “I have the impression that thanks to her, my book sounds better in English than in Eukraine. I am thankful.”

A professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Kiev, the author delivers an enlightening history intended for serious readers like the gentlemen reading this review. Among other things, you will discover that familiarity with Western European history is of little help in comprehending the vast lands and people of Ukraine. Ethnically, the country is quite diverse.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, people around the world witnessed the remarkable reality of contemporary Ukraine, which has a key place in Western Europe: It is the breadbasket of Europe – a reality described in the book’s first interlude chapter, titled “A Brief History of Ukrainian Bread.” The book’s other two such chapters are titled “A Brief History of Ukrainian Song” and “A brief History of the Ukrainian Borderland.”

In this superb book, the author presents the millennium of Ukrainian history with humour, but also covers the dangers the country has often encountered. It tells the Ukraine story through what strikes me as a balanced analysis of events, conflicts, and developments that have shaped it over the course of centuries. So doing, he weaves a rich and detailed tapestry of a country in continual transformation.
 
Ukraine is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand the country’s dramatic past and its global significance - from the 17th-century Cossack uprising to the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and Ukrainian independence, and from the evolution of the Ukrainian language to the warning signs that anticipated Russia’s invasion almost three years ago.

This book is the definitive story of Ukraine and its people, as told by one of its most celebrated voices. Published in 2022, the book required a long introduction to account for Russia’s invasion.

More than 1,000 years ago, Vikings from Scandinavia moved east, mixing with Slavic tribes to form a huge realm centered on Kyiv, in today’s Ukraine. Although comprising a distinct culture, Ukrainians never coalesced as a state, and the opportunity vanished in 1772-1796, when its neighbors partitioned the territory. Russia absorbed most Ukrainians, and Austria-Hungary the rest. Nonetheless, Ukrainian nationalism flourished throughout the 19th century. Under Lenin, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic enjoyed modest autonomy, but its peasants were strongly resistant to Stalin’s laws of collectivization.

This book is riveting to history nerds like yours truly. Hrytsak tells the story of his nation through a meticulous examination of the major events, conflicts, and developments that shaped it over the course of centuries. Granted that I haven’t read other histories of this country, but my strong opinion is that this one is definitive.