Books from Ukraine
The Ukrainian Book Institute is a government entity, part of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
View Rights PortalThe Ukrainian Book Institute is a government entity, part of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
View Rights Portal— Comprehensive and detailled analysis of the Euromaidan and the ongoing war in Ukraine — Brussels versus Moscow, Russian aggression and geopolitical interests — China's role in a new East-West conflict The years between 2013 and 2019 were almost as significant for Ukraine as the attainment of independence in 1991, as this very independence was in danger of being lost again after the Euromaidan. The nationwide popular uprising against the regime of President Yanukovych had led to a change of power: the former parliamentary opposition formed a new government, resulting in a loss of influence for Russia. Russian agents therefore tried to bring about a "Crimea scenario", another secession in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine. The resulting "Ukraine conflict", often called a civil war, is in fact a Russian war of attrition against Ukraine. President Putin intends to resolve it on his terms in the Minsk process: through a de facto "autonomous" part of the Donbass in the Ukrainian state, independent of Kiev, as a lever for Russian political influence. Winfried Schneider- Deters, a renowned expert on Ukraine, analyses narratively and in detail the events from 2013 to 2019 and places the Russian- Ukrainian conflict in the context of the dawning "Chinese century".
The Western understanding of what happened in Ukraine during World War II has been shaped by historical and ideological narratives created by the Kremlin. The Ukrainian version of the story has been dissolved in the concept of the “great victorious Russian people” and distorted by attempts to equate Ukrainian national army to German Nazis, while the occupation and colonisation of Ukraine by Russian Bolsheviks in the 1920s and 1930s has widely been ignored or artificially silenced. In her Four Essays on World War II, Olena Stiazhkina inscribes the Ukrainian history of the war into a wider European and world context. Amongst other aspects, she analyzes the mobilization measures on the eve of the war, thus questioning Soviet narratives. Scrutinising the social and political processes initiated by the Bolshevik leadership in the 1920s and 1930s, Stiazhkina concludes that mobilisation and militarisation were integral parts of Soviet power policy. The Soviet and contemporary Russian narratives about World War II have been used to justify the Kremlin’s policies towards democratic countries. Today, Russia remains deeply engaged in the falsification of the past, which underpins the claims of the so-called “Russian World” and the ongoing war against Ukraine. Olena Stiazhkina’s book promotes a new, historically adequate understanding of what happened in Ukraine before, during, and after World War II.
The transformation of a mental Ukraine into a real Ukraine, people - into a nation, a territory – into a state is a semantic axis of this trilogy. Book 1. Ukraine and Ukrainians in 1917-1939 The first book is devoted to the interwar period – a key stage of ethnic modernization and mobilization of Ukrainians, the culmination of the Ukrainian Revolution, and the battle for Ukraine in the context of the First World War. Book 2. Between World War II and the Cold War: Wars in the Destiny of Ukraine The second book tells about Ukrainians in the Second World War, after which the Ukrainian lands were united within one state, and in the Cold War, which made possible the sovereignty of Ukraine. Book 3. 30 Years of Independence: Challenges, Trials, Answers The third book is dedicated to the period of Ukrainian Independence and summarizes the thirty years of Ukrainian post-totalitarian transit. Contradictions of internal development, geopolitical challenges, three modern Ukrainian revolutions, and the Russian-Ukrainian war are the focus of understanding the path of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the global world.
As a child, she could not understand why people in films about the blockade of Leningrad were always lying down. And when Mariupol was besieged by the Russians, and she and her husband lived for many days without water, food and heat under constant shelling, she realized that when you lie down, you save strength and energy. "77 Days of February" included reports written by journalists of the Reporters media in the period between February 23 and May 9 — two symbolic dates for Russian military ideology. The invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine stopped the number of days and pushed Ukrainians back to the intervening time, where February — the month of the beginning of the great war — still lasts. In the meantime and in these candid stories, there is pain, fear, hatred, and sometimes despair. But the main thing is hope. This is a bare nerve and an honest voice of the new Ukrainian reality.
"What can you learn in war? Do you become numb, do you get used to it at some point? Does war make you "hard", uncaring, above pain? No. These are just clichés. Every day brings new horrors. At best, one learns for some time to suppress strong feelings, because to give in to them would weaken one's life instinct." In a very stirring and shocking, but sometimes humorous language, Christoph Brumme tells of the situation in Ukraine, the everyday life of his family and friends, of fears, longings and political assessments. The diary entries of the war and the resistance of the Ukrainians, starting from the first signs of the impending war in mid-January 2022 until the printing of this book, 1st May 2022, impressively bear witness to the brutality of these events.
Ukraine’s Maidan, Russia’s War: A Chronicle and Analysis of the Revolution of Dignity is a book by Mykhailo Wynnytskyj, which covers in detail and consistently the events in Ukraine in 2013-2018. This historical work combines the point of view of a scientist and a participating observer who took an active part in the protests. During the Revolution of Dignity, Mykhailo Wynnytskyj was a regular commentator in the English-language media, analyzing current events in his blog "Thoughts from Kyiv". Later he wrote this book, which was first published in 2019 in English and became the author's contribution to defending Ukraine's position in the many years of information war.
An exclusive gift edition on the cultural heritage of Ukraine with special features - lace cutting, golden foil embossing, blind embossing, textured varnish. This is a book of initiation, a journey through thousands of years of Ukrainian history and culture. The book became a visiting card of Ukraine, an official state symbol. The artbook 'The Ark Ukraine' comprises all cultural heritage of Ukraine under one cover: artifacts of traditional culture, masterpieces of professional art, symbols and archetypes, prominent historical and cultural figures - all that deserves the status of 'the Ukrainian brand'.
The book contains the memories of military chaplains of various denominations who, since the beginning of the war in the east of Ukraine, performed pastoral care among Ukrainian soldiers.
The collection of materials of oral history and local history journalism is the first archeographic and memorial publication in Ukraine, which directly reproduces the causes, circumstances and socio-demographic consequences of the post-war famine of 1946-1947 in Ukraine. The collection includes an archeographic overview, scientific and analytical articles on the peculiarities of famines in Ukrainian villages and cities in the 1920s and 1940s, a memorial and biographical account of O.M. Veselova’s ascetic activity, thoughtful reflections by A.I. Bondarchuk, an eyewitness to the famine disaster, and a collection of memoirs and journalistic materials arranged according to the administrative and territorial division of Ukraine. This collection is an attempt to preserve and express Ukrainians’ collective memory of this tragic event. For historians, local historians, museum workers, and the people of good will.
The first edition of this book was published in 1996. It can also be called the first popular history of Ukraine, which, according to the author, can be "read without bromine" and which affirms the fundamental normality of Ukrainian history. The new edition corrects some inaccuracies and errors of previous editions, as well as adds new sections, including a section on the last two decades of independent Ukraine, up to the time of the 2013-2014 revolution, the war with Russia and the election weeks of 2019.
The book explores the place and role of the Cossacks and nobility of Ukraine-Rus’ as well as the Cossack state (Hetmanate) in the European-Ottoman wars. The book’s author depicted the long period of confrontation between the Christian and Islamic civilizations in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, important for the world historical process. The reader's attention is drawn not only to the military actions of the Cossacks against the Ottoman Empire, whose elite unit was the Janissary Corps, but also to the illustration of the peaceful relations of Ukraine with the Ottomans and Girays during the years 1500-1700.
Emerging Art in Ukraine is a book to be the first comprehensive publication about contemporary young art in Ukraine, that has flourished in the country in recent years. The authors named the project EMERGING ART since they are trying to demonstrate to the world the art of new age, young talents who each have an individual style, a specialised education, exhibition experience and promising creativity. And who grew up as both individuals and creative personalities alongside our country during its era of independence. Along with their works, the reader will find these artists’ biographies as well as their answers to questions exploring what art is for them and where they find inspiration; the manifestation of national identity in their works; changes in creativity during the war; and, of course, their hope for the future of Ukrainian art.
The unknown and classified KGB history of the largest country in Europe - Ukraine is the history of people, events, documents and files. The files have answers to many questions. The most important of which - why did a war begin again in Europe? Why is it so important for Russia to conquer Ukraine? Why are Ukrainians putting up such a powerful resistance? Historian Volodymyr Viatrovych, who declassified the secret archives of the Soviet special services from the Cheka to the KGB, talks about the history of Ukraine, the USSR and Eastern Europe from 1918 to 1991. The reader, is offered, along with various heroes and traitors, those who thought they were in control of events, and those who thought they had no power over them, to recreate the nearly century-old chess game between the Ukrainian liberation movement and the creators of the "prison of nations." Described in reports and recreated by a historian, this work looks at the cunning “special operations”, deadly moves, information wars and complex games among several players that are all an attempt to find an answer to the question: what creates our destiny - human will or circumstances?
24 February 2022 was not the beginning of Russia's war on Ukraine. Back in 2014, Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine, bolstered a separatist conflict in the Donbas region, and attacked Ukraine with units of its regular army and special forces. In each instance of Russian aggression, the U.S. response has often been criticized as inadequate, insufficient, or hesitant. The Moscow Factor: U.S. Policy toward Sovereign Ukraine and the Kremlin is a unique study that examines four key Ukraine-related policy decisions across two Republican and two Democratic U.S. administrations. Author Eugene M. Fishel asks whether, how, and under what circumstances Washington has considered Ukraine’s status as a sovereign nation in its decision-making regarding relations with Moscow. This study situates the stance of the United States toward Ukraine in the broader context of international relations. It fills an important lacuna in existing scholarship and policy discourse by focusing on the complex trilateral—rather than simply bilateral—dynamics among the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia, in 1991–2016. This book brings together for the first time documentary evidence and declassified materials dealing with policy deliberation, retrospective articles authored by former policymakers, and formal memoirs by erstwhile senior officials. The study is also supplemented by open-ended interviews with former and returning officials.
This book is not about war."How Ukraine lost Donbas" is the latest history of two regions of Ukraine, Donetsk, and Luhansk.This book is about the economic catastrophe of the region, Russian propaganda expansion, the formation of powerful financial and political clans, and the origins of separatism.We talk about how the powerful elites of Donbas first lit the fire of enmity, then burned in it themselves, pushing their region into the abyss of bloodshed.
The Frontline presents a selection of essays drawn together for the first time to form a companion volume to Plokhy’s The Gates of Europe and Chernobyl. Here he expands upon his analysis in earlier works of key events in Ukrainian history, including Ukraine’s complex relations with Russia and the West, the burden of tragedies such as the Holodomor and World War II, the impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and Ukraine’s contribution to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Juxtaposing Ukraine’s history to the contemporary politics of memory, this volume provides a multidimensional image of a country that continues to make headlines around the world. Eloquent in style and comprehensive in approach, the essays collected here reveal the roots of the ongoing political, cultural, and military conflict in Ukraine, the largest country in Europe.
A book by a prominent Ukrainian historian, professor of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Natalia Yakovenko includes selected articles on identity formation, worldview, the concept of “correct” power and duty of the nobility in early modern Ukraine
Interior Design in Ukraine / Interior Solutions in Residential Premises" is the first full-fledged publication on interior design in residential premises in Ukraine. The book highlights more than 50 of the brightest and most professional interiors created by Ukrainian designers and architects in recent years. The book is a combination of unique ideas and a variety of styles. Projects inspired by Ukrainian history, culture, nature and craft traditions deserve special attention, in most of which designers use materials and furniture from Ukrainian manufacturers.
The book contains over fifty interviews with artists, curators, and art critics, who talk about their reactions to contemporary events in Ukraine as citizens and as artists. Together with the author, they reflect on creative response of the modern art community to the events in Ukraine during the Revolution of Dignity and the war with Russia (before the full-scale invasion) and the role of art and artists in conflict. The book includes over 100 reproductions of visual works that have been provided by the courtesy of artists, Ukrainian museums, and private galleries.“Artists who record the overstrain of the present leave behind the artifacts for future cultural archaeologists. Socially engaged artists practice art because they understand the urgency of the situation, but even those artists who claim that they do not address the theme of war demonstrate the opposite in their works. It is this zone of conscious and subconscious artistic influence that creates the environment of this book.” — Olesya Gerashchenko (Shambur)
The history of Ukraine is turbulent and rich, and the nature is truly unique, so it is not surprising that there are many attractive and interesting tourist sites. But which ones are worth seeing first? According to a number of definitive criteria, UNESCO has identified 7 main natural and cultural sites of Ukraine and included them in the World Heritage List. Moreover, there is also a list of sites considered for nomination in the World Heritage Sites List,which is called the UNESCO Tentative List; in Ukraine there are 17 more such sites. The guidebook by Roman Malenkov, a traveller and founder of the local history website "Ukraine Incognita", will tell about them all.