Ukraine and Russia Resources: Nonfiction

Winner of the Art of Eating Prize 2020 Winner of the Guild of Food Writers' Best Food Book Award 2019 Winner of the Edward Stanford Travel Food and Drink Book Award 2019 Winner of the John Avery Award at the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards for 2018 Shortlisted for the James Beard International Cookbook Award 'The next best thing to actually travelling with Caroline Eden - a warm, erudite and greedy guide - is to read her. This is my kind of book.' Diana Henry 'A wonderfully inspiring book about a magical part of the world' Viv Groskop, author of The Anna Karenina Fix 'Part travelogue, part recipe book, this is a love letter to "the sea that welcomes strangers", soaked in colour, history, myth and the flavours of many cultures.' Nick Hunt author of Where the Wild Winds Are This is the tale of a journey between three great cities - Odessa, built on a dream by Catherine the Great, through Istanbul, the fulcrum balancing Europe and Asia and on to tough, stoic, lyrical Trabzon. With a nose for a good recipe and an ear for an extraordinary story, Caroline Eden travels from Odessa to Bessarabia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey's Black Sea region, exploring interconnecting culinary cultures. From the Jewish table of Odessa, to meeting the last fisherwoman of Bulgaria and charting the legacies of the White Russian émigrés in Istanbul, Caroline gives readers a unique insight into a part of the world that is both shaded by darkness and illuminated by light. Meticulously researched and documenting unprecedented meetings with remarkable individuals, Black Sea is like no other piece of travel writing. Packed with rich photography and sumptuous food, this biography of a region, its people and its recipes truly breaks new ground. 'Eden's blazing talent and unabashedly greedy curiosity will have you strapped in beside her. If Sybille Bedford or Patrick Leigh Fermor had included a few recipes in their accounts of their journeys, you'd know exactly where to shelve this gem.' Christine Muhlke, The New York Times 'The food in Black Sea is wonderful, but it's Eden's prose that really elevates this book to the extraordinary. She captures people, history, and the ineffable soul of cities with astonishing, almost novelistic precision - more than once, even in the headnotes, I felt myself getting lost in the world of the story. I can't remember any cookbook that's drawn me in quite like this.' Helen Rosner, Art of Eating judge

A Chernobyl survivor and award-winning historian "mercilessly chronicles the absurdities of the Soviet system" in this "vividly empathetic" account of the worst nuclear accident in history (The Wall Street Journal). On the morning of April 26, 1986, Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine. Dozens died of radiation poisoning, fallout contaminated half the continent, and thousands fell ill. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy draws on new sources to tell the dramatic stories of the firefighters, scientists, and soldiers who heroically extinguished the nuclear inferno. He lays bare the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry, tracing the disaster to the authoritarian character of the Communist party rule, the regime's control over scientific information, and its emphasis on economic development over all else. Today, the risk of another Chernobyl looms in the mismanagement of nuclear power in the developing world. A moving and definitive account, Chernobyl is also an urgent call to action.

The Russian regime under President Vladimir Putin has embarked on a coherent long-term strategy to regain its influence over former satellites and to limit Western penetration in key parts of this region. Moscow is intent on steadily rebuilding Russia as a major power on the Eurasian stage and will use its neighbors as a springboard for expanding its dominance. In this first systematic analysis detailing Russia's post-Cold War imperialism, Bugajski challenges the contemporary equivalent of Cold War appeasement, which views Russia as a benign and pragmatic power that seeks cooperation and integration with the West.

Ukraine's struggle for a national identity plagued this former Soviet Union state long before the Cold War shook the world. Its central location between Eastern Europe and Western Asia invited many different cultures to settle the land, ultimately populating a powerful early medieval society known as Kievan Rus. However, readers will learn how Kievan Rus's Golden Age quickly crumbled with decades of Mongol invasions, Polish-Lithuanian occupation, and Russian empirical ruling. Explore how Ukraine flirted with independence in the early 20th century, only to be quickly taken over by harsh Soviet rule in 1922. Despite its independence from the USSR in 1991, devastating consequences of the socialist rule have allowed the world to witness Ukraine's ceaseless efforts to attain a stable government, struggling through the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, rigged elections, and the Orange Revolution. Kubicek's survey is comprehensive and concise-a perfect resource for high school students and undergrads, as well as general readers looking to further their knowledge of this up-and-coming nation. A timeline of key events, biographical sketches of major figures in Ukrainian history, and a bibliographical essay including print and nonprint sources supplement the work. Chapter 1: Introduction to Ukraine Chapter 2: Kievan Rus: The Foundation of Ukrainian Culture Chapter 3: The Polish-Lithuanian Period and Rise of the Cossacks Chapter 4: Ukraine Under the Russian Empire Chapter 5: Western Ukraine Under the Hapsburg Empire Chapter 6: Revolution and the Establishment of Soviet Authority Chapter 7: Ukraine Under Soviet Rule Chapter 8: The Drive for Ukrainian Independence Chapter 9: Post-Soviet Ukraine, 1991-2004 Chapter 10: The Orange Revolution and Beyond.

On Christmas Day, 1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to declare an American victory in the Cold War: earlier that day Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as the first and last Soviet president. The enshrining of that narrative, one in which the end of the Cold War was linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the triumph of democratic values over communism, took center stage in American public discourse immediately after Bush's speech and has persisted for decades--with disastrous consequences for American standing in the world. As prize-winning historian Serhii Plokhy reveals inThe Last Empire, the collapse of the Soviet Union was anything but the handiwork of the United States. On the contrary, American leaders dreaded the possibility that the Soviet Union--weakened by infighting and economic turmoil--might suddenly crumble, throwing all of Eurasia into chaos. Bush was firmly committed to supporting his ally and personal friend Gorbachev, and remained wary of nationalist or radical leaders such as recently elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Fearing what might happen to the large Soviet nuclear arsenal in the event of the union's collapse, Bush stood by Gorbachev as he resisted the growing independence movements in Ukraine, Moldova, and the Caucasus. Plokhy's detailed, authoritative account shows that it was only after the movement for independence of the republics had gained undeniable momentum on the eve of the Ukrainian vote for independence that fall that Bush finally abandoned Gorbachev to his fate. Drawing on recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, Plokhy presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Union's final months and argues that the key to the Soviet collapse was the inability of the two largest Soviet republics, Russia and Ukraine, to agree on the continuing existence of a unified state. By attributing the Soviet collapse to the impact of American actions, US policy makers overrated their own capacities in toppling and rebuilding foreign regimes. Not only was the key American role in the demise of the Soviet Union a myth, but this misplaced belief has guided--and haunted--American foreign policy ever since.

A New York Times Best Book of the Year A Time Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner One of NPR's Best Books of 2019 Journalist Adam Higginbotham's definitive, years-in-the-making account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster--and a powerful investigation into how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the twentieth century's greatest disasters. 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.

Published and updated annually, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States deals with the twelve independent republics that became members of the Commonwealth of Independent States following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1992. The text focuses strongly on recent economic and political developments with shorter sections dealing with foreign policy, the military, religion, education, and specific cultural elements that help to define each republic and differentiate one from the other. Approximately one-third of the book is devoted to Russia, but also includes sections on Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. How the Commonwealth of Independent States came into being and how it has evolved since 1992 is also discussed. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail along with its informed projections make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors and students.

Includes discussion on the rationale of teaching about genocide; the history of genocide; and 10 cases studies of genocide perpetrated in the 20th century.

When, on 21 November 2013, former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych decided to postpone an EU Association Agreement, few would have predicted that this would lead to a prolonged inter-communal conflict in Europe's borderland. What started as a peaceful demonstration of support for Ukraine's pro-European course by thousands of people in Maidan Square in Kiev soon developed into a vicious confrontation dividing families, communities and the Ukrainian nation. Since the beginning of the confrontation, a lot has been written about its root causes, the motivations of the main actors, and possible scenarios for the future. However, few have looked at what came to be called the 'Ukraine crisis' from the point of view of Russo-Ukrainian relations, and grasped the perspectives of various groups involved, as well as the discursive processes that have contributed to the developments in and interpretations of the conflict. The authors of this Edited Collection each present a facet of the intense and dangerous turmoil provoked by the breakdown in relations, and contribute to a deeper understanding of a crisis that now afflicts both European and global affairs. Contributors: David Marples, Nicolai Petro, Olga Onuch, Denys Kiryukhin, Greta Uehling, Ivan Katchanovski, Mikhail Pogrebinskiy, Andrew Wilson, Taras Kuzio, Marlene Laruelle, Peter Rutland, Edward W. Walker, Mark Galeotti, Paul Chaisty, Stephen Whitefield, Elena Chebankova, Stephen Hutchings, Joanna Szostek, Marta Dyczok, Mikhail A. Molchanov, Richard Connolly, Paul D'Anieri, Edwin Bacon and Alexander Osipov.

For most of us, traveling means visiting the most beautiful places on Earth-Paris, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon. It's rare to book a plane ticket to visit the lifeless moonscape of Canada's oil sand strip mines, or to seek out the Chinese city of Linfen, legendary as the most polluted in the world. But in Visit Sunny Chernobyl, Andrew Blackwell embraces a different kind of travel, taking a jaunt through the most gruesomely polluted places on Earth. From the hidden bars and convenience stores of a radioactive wilderness to the sacred but reeking waters of India, Visit Sunny Chernobyl fuses immersive first-person reporting with satire and analysis, making the case that it's time to start appreciating our planet as it is-not as we wish it would be. Irreverent and reflective, the book is a love letter to our biosphere's most tainted, most degraded ecosystems, and a measured consideration of what they mean for us. Equal parts travelogue, expose, environmental memoir, and faux guidebook, Blackwell careens through a rogue's gallery of environmental disaster areas in search of the worst the world has to offer-and approaches a deeper understanding of what's really happening to our planet in the process.