The Gates of Europe

The Gates of Europe Plot Summary

Introduction

For centuries, the vast plains and fertile black soil of Ukraine have witnessed the rise and fall of empires, the clash of civilizations, and the enduring struggle of a people to define their own identity. Standing at the geographical frontier between Europe and Asia, Ukraine has been both a coveted prize for ambitious powers and a homeland whose inhabitants developed distinctive cultural traditions despite frequent foreign domination. When Kyivan Rus' flourished as a powerful medieval state, when Cossack horsemen defended the borderlands, or when modern nationalists articulated visions of independence, Ukrainians repeatedly demonstrated their resilience in the face of overwhelming challenges. Understanding Ukraine's complex past illuminates several crucial historical questions: How do national identities form and persist under imperial rule? What happens when a territory becomes the meeting point of competing religious and cultural traditions? How do borderland societies navigate between powerful neighbors with conflicting demands? This historical journey will appeal to readers interested in European geopolitics, the development of national consciousness, and the ongoing tensions between Russia and the West. By exploring Ukraine's position as a crossroads of civilizations, we gain valuable insights into one of the world's most contested and consequential regions.

Chapter 1: Ancient Foundations: From Scythians to Kyivan Rus' (600 BCE-1240)

The story of Ukraine begins with the Scythians, nomadic warriors who dominated the steppes north of the Black Sea from the 7th to 3rd centuries BCE. These skilled horsemen, described in vivid detail by the Greek historian Herodotus, left behind spectacular golden treasures in burial mounds that still dot the Ukrainian landscape. Their control of the grasslands coincided with Greek colonization along the Black Sea coast, where cities like Olbia and Chersonesus established trading networks connecting Mediterranean civilization with the Eurasian interior. This early pattern – nomadic cultures in the steppes interacting with settled agricultural and trading communities – would repeat throughout Ukrainian history. By the 6th century CE, Slavic tribes had become the predominant population in the forest and forest-steppe regions of what is now Ukraine. These agricultural communities gradually organized into tribal confederations, developing distinctive cultural practices and religious beliefs centered on nature worship. The arrival of Scandinavian warriors and merchants known as Varangians or Rus' in the 9th century catalyzed the formation of a powerful medieval state centered on Kyiv. Under Prince Volodymyr (980-1015), this emerging polity took a momentous step by adopting Byzantine Christianity in 988, a decision that would align Ukrainian lands with Eastern Orthodox civilization and establish cultural patterns that would endure for centuries. Kyivan Rus' reached its zenith under Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054), who codified laws, arranged strategic marriages with European royal houses, and patronized magnificent architectural projects like the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. During this "golden age," Kyiv became one of Europe's largest cities, a cosmopolitan center where Byzantine, Scandinavian, and Slavic influences merged to create a distinctive civilization. Literacy spread through monastic schools, while artisans produced exquisite icons, manuscripts, and jewelry. The Primary Chronicle, compiled by monks in the early 12th century, recorded the realm's history and established founding myths that would later inform competing national narratives. The political structure of Kyivan Rus' contained inherent weaknesses that became apparent after Yaroslav's death. Power was distributed among members of the ruling Rurikid dynasty according to a complex system of seniority, with the eldest prince holding Kyiv while relatives governed other cities. This arrangement led to frequent succession disputes and gradually undermined central authority. By the late 12th century, regional centers like Halych, Volodymyr, and Vladimir-Suzdal had developed into virtually independent principalities with their own political ambitions. Despite this fragmentation, a shared cultural and religious identity persisted across the realm, maintained by the Orthodox Church and dynastic connections. The Mongol invasion of 1240 dealt a devastating blow to Kyivan Rus', destroying cities and disrupting established political structures. Kyiv itself was reduced to a shadow of its former glory, with its population decimated and many buildings in ruins. However, the cultural legacy of Kyivan Rus' proved remarkably durable. Its religious traditions, legal concepts, artistic styles, and historical memory would continue to influence subsequent states and societies. Moreover, the idea of Kyivan Rus' as a glorious ancestral civilization would later become a crucial reference point for emerging national identities among Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians, each claiming to be the true inheritors of this medieval federation.

Chapter 2: Between Powers: The Polish-Lithuanian Era and Cossack State (1240-1654)

In the aftermath of the Mongol conquest, Ukrainian territories found themselves divided between competing powers. The western principality of Galicia-Volhynia maintained independence longest under the rule of Prince Danylo, who received a crown from the Pope in 1253 but ultimately had to acknowledge Mongol suzerainty. By the mid-14th century, most Ukrainian lands had been incorporated into the expanding Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while Galicia fell under Polish control. The Lithuanian takeover proved relatively benign for Ukrainian elites, as the conquerors adopted many aspects of Rus' culture and legal traditions. As one contemporary chronicler noted, "The old was not altered and new customs were not introduced." The Union of Lublin in 1569 created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and transferred most Ukrainian lands from Lithuanian to direct Polish administration. This political shift accelerated cultural Polonization among the Ukrainian nobility, who increasingly adopted Catholicism and the Polish language to preserve their status. Meanwhile, the Orthodox Church, once the guardian of Rus' identity, faced mounting pressure from Catholic authorities and internal decay. The religious frontier became especially contentious after the Union of Brest in 1596, which created the Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church that maintained Eastern rites while accepting papal authority. This compromise solution, intended to bridge the Orthodox-Catholic divide, instead deepened religious tensions and created new divisions within Ukrainian society. The most distinctive social development of this era was the emergence of the Cossacks – free warrior communities that formed in the sparsely populated steppe borderlands beyond the reach of state control. Initially comprising runaway serfs, adventurers, and frontier hunters, the Cossacks evolved into a military force that defended the Commonwealth's southeastern borders against Crimean Tatar raids. By the late 16th century, they had established an autonomous polity known as the Zaporozhian Sich, with its headquarters beyond the Dnieper rapids. The Cossacks developed their own democratic military organization, elected their leaders, and cultivated a distinctive ethos of freedom and equality among their members that stood in stark contrast to the increasingly rigid social hierarchy of the Commonwealth. The watershed moment came in 1648 when Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a Cossack officer wronged by Polish nobles, launched a revolt that transformed into a massive uprising. What began as a Cossack rebellion quickly gained support from peasants and townspeople, becoming a social and religious war against Polish rule, Catholic domination, and Jewish leaseholders who often served as intermediaries for absent Polish landlords. After defeating Polish armies in several battles, Khmelnytsky established a Cossack state known as the Hetmanate, with its own administrative and military structures. His diplomatic efforts to secure international recognition included negotiations with Poland, the Ottoman Empire, and Muscovy. Finding himself unable to maintain independence against powerful neighbors, Khmelnytsky turned to Moscow for protection. The 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement placed the Hetmanate under the Russian tsar's authority, though both sides understood the arrangement differently. For the Cossacks, it was a military alliance that preserved their autonomy; for Moscow, it represented the submission of new subjects. This fundamental misunderstanding would have lasting consequences as Russian control gradually tightened over subsequent decades. The Pereiaslav Agreement marked a pivotal geopolitical shift, beginning Ukraine's long and complex relationship with Russia that continues to shape Eastern European politics to this day.

Chapter 3: Imperial Subjugation and National Awakening (1654-1917)

The decades following the Pereiaslav Agreement saw the gradual erosion of Cossack autonomy as Russian imperial control tightened. The turning point came during the Great Northern War when Hetman Ivan Mazepa allied with Sweden's Charles XII against Tsar Peter I. Their defeat at the Battle of Poltava in 1709 gave Peter the pretext to accelerate the integration of Ukrainian lands into the Russian imperial system. The hetman's office was repeatedly abolished and reinstated according to imperial priorities until Catherine II permanently eliminated it in 1764 and destroyed the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775. Simultaneously, the empress extended serfdom to Ukrainian territories and distributed vast land grants to Russian and Polonized Ukrainian nobles, fundamentally altering the region's social structure. By the late 18th century, geopolitical shifts had dramatically reconfigured Ukraine's position. The partitions of Poland (1772-1795) brought Right-Bank Ukraine into the Russian Empire, while Austria acquired Galicia. Russia's victories over the Ottoman Empire opened the Black Sea steppe for colonization and led to the annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1783. These newly acquired southern territories, sometimes called "New Russia," attracted diverse settlers including Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, and Greeks, creating a multicultural frontier society. The port city of Odesa, founded in 1794, rapidly grew into a cosmopolitan commercial center connecting the Ukrainian hinterland with Mediterranean markets. The 19th century witnessed the emergence of a Ukrainian national movement within the broader context of European romantic nationalism. The publication of Ivan Kotliarevsky's Eneida in 1798, a burlesque poem written in vernacular Ukrainian, marked the beginning of modern Ukrainian literature. Subsequent generations of intellectuals developed a vision of Ukrainian national identity based on language, folklore, and historical memory. The poet Taras Shevchenko, born a serf and later freed, became the movement's most powerful voice. His collection Kobzar (1840) expressed both the suffering of the Ukrainian people under imperial rule and aspirations for national liberation. For his revolutionary writings, Shevchenko was sentenced to ten years of military service with a prohibition against writing or drawing. Imperial authorities responded to these cultural developments with increasing repression. The Valuev Circular of 1863 and the Ems Ukase of 1876 severely restricted the use of the Ukrainian language in publications and education. These measures forced many Ukrainian activists to relocate to Austrian Galicia, which became a center of Ukrainian cultural and political life. In Lviv, institutions like the Shevchenko Scientific Society conducted scholarly research on Ukrainian history, language, and ethnography. By the early 20th century, Galicia had developed a network of Ukrainian educational, economic, and civic organizations that fostered national consciousness. This regional division in conditions for Ukrainian cultural development created lasting differences between Habsburg and Russian Ukraine. Meanwhile, industrialization transformed eastern Ukraine's economic landscape. The discovery of coal and iron ore deposits in the Donbas region attracted substantial foreign investment. Railways connected Ukraine's agricultural heartland with Black Sea ports, facilitating grain exports to Western Europe. This economic modernization created new social dynamics, including the growth of an urban working class and a commercial bourgeoisie, while also intensifying regional differences between industrialized eastern Ukraine and the more agricultural central and western regions. The social tensions generated by rapid economic change contributed to the revolutionary atmosphere that developed in the early 20th century. The Revolution of 1905, triggered by Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, temporarily liberalized the political environment. Ukrainian-language publications flourished, and Ukrainian political parties emerged from underground. However, the revolutionary momentum soon dissipated as the imperial government reasserted control. When World War I erupted in 1914, Ukrainians found themselves divided between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires and forced to fight against their ethnic kin. The war's unprecedented destruction, combined with the Russian Empire's internal contradictions, set the stage for the revolutionary upheavals of 1917 that would create opportunities for Ukrainian state-building while also unleashing new forms of violence and instability.

Chapter 4: Revolution, Soviet Rule, and World War (1917-1945)

The collapse of the Russian monarchy in February 1917 triggered a remarkable period of Ukrainian political mobilization. In Kyiv, Ukrainian activists formed the Central Rada (Council), initially seeking autonomy within a democratic Russian federation. Led by historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky, the Rada evolved from a cultural organization into a revolutionary parliament. As the Provisional Government in Petrograd weakened, the Rada issued increasingly assertive declarations, culminating in the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in November 1917. After the Bolshevik coup in Russia, the Rada declared complete independence on January 22, 1918, but soon faced Bolshevik invasion and had to seek German protection through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The period from 1918 to 1921 saw Ukraine become a battleground for multiple forces: German occupiers, Bolsheviks, the White Army, Polish forces, anarchist peasant movements led by Nestor Makhno, and various Ukrainian governments. In April 1918, the Germans replaced the Rada with a conservative Hetmanate under Pavlo Skoropadsky. After Germany's defeat, power shifted to the Directory led by Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Symon Petliura. Meanwhile, in former Habsburg territories, Ukrainians established the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, which briefly united with the Dnieper Ukrainian state before succumbing to Polish forces. By 1921, the Bolsheviks had secured control over central and eastern Ukraine, while western Ukrainian lands were divided among Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. The early Soviet period brought contradictory policies toward Ukrainian national aspirations. During the 1920s, the regime implemented "Ukrainization," promoting Ukrainian language and culture while recruiting native cadres into the Communist Party. This cultural renaissance, led by figures like Mykola Skrypnyk and writer Mykola Khvylovy, saw remarkable achievements in literature, theater, and film. However, Stalin's rise to power ended this relative liberalism. Beginning in 1929, the Soviet regime implemented forced collectivization of agriculture, provoking widespread peasant resistance. Moscow responded with increasingly brutal measures, culminating in the man-made famine of 1932-1933 that killed approximately four million Ukrainians. As the Ukrainian communist leader Mykola Skrypnyk observed before his suicide under pressure: "The national question is in essence a peasant question," revealing the regime's understanding that Ukrainian national identity was deeply connected to its rural population. The Great Terror of 1937-1938 further decimated Ukrainian society, targeting intellectuals, party officials, and ordinary citizens accused of "nationalist deviations" or other invented crimes. Nearly 700,000 people were arrested in Ukraine during this period, with about two-thirds executed. This systematic destruction of potential opposition effectively crushed Ukrainian autonomy within the Soviet system. Meanwhile, in Polish-ruled western Ukraine, authorities pursued policies of national assimilation that generated Ukrainian resistance, including the formation of the radical Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929. Led by figures like Stepan Bandera and Andriy Melnyk, the OUN advocated revolutionary violence to achieve independence. World War II brought new horrors to Ukrainian lands. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 allowed the Soviet Union to annex eastern Poland, including western Ukrainian territories. In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the USSR, quickly occupying all of Ukraine. The German occupation regime treated Ukrainians as subhuman colonial subjects, while implementing the Holocaust that murdered approximately one million Ukrainian Jews. Some Ukrainians initially welcomed German forces as liberators from Soviet oppression, and nationalist forces attempted to establish an independent state in Lviv in June 1941. However, Nazi racial policies and brutal occupation practices quickly dispelled these hopes, leading many Ukrainians to join Soviet partisan units or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) that fought against both Nazi and Soviet forces. As Soviet forces recaptured Ukrainian territories in 1943-1944, they reestablished Communist control and incorporated western Ukraine into the Soviet Ukrainian republic for the first time. The UPA continued armed resistance into the early 1950s, but faced overwhelming Soviet military power. By 1945, Soviet Ukraine had expanded to include all territories with Ukrainian ethnic majorities, creating a more or less unified Ukrainian territory within the Soviet system. However, this territorial consolidation came at an enormous cost: Ukraine lost up to 7 million citizens during the war, while its cities and industrial infrastructure lay in ruins. The war's legacy would shape Ukrainian society for generations, creating new divisions between regions that had experienced different occupation regimes and competing narratives about collaboration and resistance.

Chapter 5: From Soviet Republic to Independent Nation (1945-1991)

Post-war Soviet Ukraine faced the enormous task of rebuilding its shattered economy and society. While officially recognized as a founding member of the United Nations, Ukraine remained firmly under Moscow's control. The regime prioritized heavy industry and military production, reconstructing and expanding industrial complexes in eastern Ukraine. Agricultural recovery proceeded more slowly, with collective farms struggling to reach pre-war production levels. In western Ukraine, Soviet authorities conducted forced collectivization, provoking armed resistance from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army that continued into the early 1950s. Simultaneously, population transfers dramatically altered the region's ethnic composition, as Poles were expelled westward and eastern Ukrainians and Russians moved in. Stalin's last years saw renewed ideological campaigns targeting Ukrainian culture. After his death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev, who had previously served as Ukraine's Communist Party leader, initiated de-Stalinization and more flexible nationality policies. In 1954, Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Peninsula from Russian to Ukrainian jurisdiction, primarily for economic and administrative reasons. The "Khrushchev Thaw" allowed limited cultural revival, with writers like Oles Honchar publishing works that subtly questioned aspects of Soviet reality. However, when Ukrainian intellectuals began more openly challenging Moscow's nationality policies in the 1960s, authorities responded with arrests and imprisonment. This generation of dissidents, known as the "Sixtiers" (Shistdesiatnyky), included figures like Ivan Dziuba, whose treatise "Internationalism or Russification?" provided a Marxist critique of Soviet nationality practices. Despite political repression, Ukraine experienced significant economic and social development during the Soviet period. By the 1970s, it had become a major industrial center, producing about 17% of the USSR's industrial output. The Donbas remained a key coal and steel region, while new industries developed in mechanical engineering, chemicals, and electronics. Urbanization accelerated, with cities like Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk growing rapidly. Education expanded dramatically, with literacy becoming nearly universal and higher education accessible to much broader segments of society than before the revolution. However, these achievements came with significant costs: environmental degradation, housing shortages, and the suppression of civil liberties. The dissident movement that emerged in the 1970s connected human rights advocacy with national aspirations. The Ukrainian Helsinki Group, formed in 1976 to monitor Soviet compliance with human rights agreements, included members like Mykola Rudenko, Levko Lukianenko, and Oksana Meshko who endured lengthy prison terms for their activism. Meanwhile, western Ukraine, especially Galicia, maintained stronger national consciousness and religious traditions, including the underground Greek Catholic Church that had been forcibly "reunited" with Russian Orthodoxy in 1946. These currents of resistance, though suppressed, preserved alternative visions of Ukrainian identity that would resurface during Gorbachev's reforms. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 1986 became a turning point in Ukrainian attitudes toward Moscow. The catastrophic reactor explosion, which contaminated vast areas and endangered millions, revealed the Soviet leadership's callousness toward Ukrainian lives. Initial attempts to conceal the disaster's extent and the delayed evacuation of affected communities fueled growing distrust of central authorities. As Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) weakened central control, Ukrainian society mobilized around environmental, cultural, and ultimately political demands. The Popular Movement for Perestroika (Rukh), formed in 1989, evolved from a reform-oriented organization into a pro-independence force. Ukraine declared sovereignty in July 1990 and, following the failed August 1991 coup attempt in Moscow, proclaimed full independence on August 24, 1991. In a referendum on December 1, 1991, over 90 percent of voters supported independence, including majorities in all regions. This decisive result, combined with the election of former Communist official Leonid Kravchuk as president, facilitated a peaceful transition. Ukraine's decision to leave the USSR effectively sealed the fate of the Soviet Union, which formally dissolved on December 25, 1991. After centuries of foreign domination, Ukraine had finally achieved independence, though it would soon face the daunting challenges of building democratic institutions, transitioning to a market economy, and defining its geopolitical orientation between Russia and the West.

Chapter 6: Sovereignty Challenged: Democracy, Revolution, and War (1991-Present)

Independent Ukraine faced formidable challenges: establishing democratic institutions, transitioning to a market economy, and defining its geopolitical orientation between Russia and the West. The 1990s brought economic collapse, with GDP falling by 60 percent and hyperinflation wiping out savings. The first president, Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994), focused on nation-building and establishing Ukraine's international position, including the surrender of nuclear weapons inherited from the USSR. However, his administration struggled with economic reforms, allowing former Communist officials and enterprise directors to acquire state assets at bargain prices, creating a class of powerful oligarchs who would dominate Ukrainian politics and economy for decades. Leonid Kuchma, president from 1994 to 2005, stabilized the economy and introduced a new constitution in 1996, establishing a semi-presidential system. Under Kuchma, Ukraine pursued a "multi-vector" foreign policy, maintaining relations with both Russia and the West. However, his presidency became increasingly authoritarian, marked by corruption scandals, media censorship, and the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000. These abuses, combined with attempted electoral fraud in the 2004 presidential election, triggered the Orange Revolution – massive peaceful protests that brought opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko to power after a court-ordered repeat election. This peaceful uprising demonstrated Ukrainians' commitment to democratic values and their willingness to defend them through civil resistance. The Orange Revolution raised hopes for democratic transformation and European integration, but these were largely unfulfilled. President Yushchenko (2005-2010) faced constant political infighting with his former ally, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The global financial crisis of 2008 hit Ukraine particularly hard, contributing to Yushchenko's crushing defeat in the 2010 election. His successor, Viktor Yanukovych, quickly consolidated power, jailed opposition leaders including Tymoshenko, and pursued closer ties with Russia while officially maintaining European aspirations. When Yanukovych suddenly refused to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013, thousands of Ukrainians gathered on Kyiv's Maidan square to protest this abrupt change in the country's direction. What began as a student demonstration evolved into the Euromaidan Revolution (also called the Revolution of Dignity), a three-month protest movement demanding European integration, rule of law, and an end to corruption. After security forces killed over 100 protesters in February 2014, Yanukovych fled to Russia. Russia responded by annexing Crimea in March and supporting separatist movements in eastern Ukraine, leading to armed conflict in the Donbas region. This hybrid war, combining conventional military operations with disinformation campaigns and political subversion, has claimed over 13,000 lives and displaced nearly 2 million people. The conflict has also accelerated Ukraine's Western orientation, as the country sought international support against Russian aggression. Despite these challenges, post-Euromaidan Ukraine has made significant progress toward reform and European integration. Under presidents Petro Poroshenko (2014-2019) and Volodymyr Zelensky (elected 2019), Ukraine has implemented important reforms in areas including banking, healthcare, decentralization, and anti-corruption. The Association Agreement with the EU, including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, finally came into force in 2017, while Ukrainians gained visa-free travel to the Schengen Area. Civil society has flourished, with thousands of non-governmental organizations monitoring government actions and advocating for continued reforms. These developments represent a remarkable achievement given the ongoing conflict and the legacy of Soviet and post-Soviet governance practices. Russia's full-scale invasion launched on February 24, 2022, marked a new phase in Ukraine's struggle for sovereignty. Despite predictions that Kyiv would fall within days, Ukrainian forces mounted effective resistance, forcing Russian troops to retreat from northern Ukraine by April. The war has devastated cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv, caused massive civilian casualties, and triggered Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. However, it has also strengthened Ukrainian national unity and accelerated international support, including unprecedented military aid from Western countries and EU candidate status granted in June 2022. While the conflict's ultimate outcome remains uncertain, it has demonstrated both Ukraine's resilience in the face of aggression and the international community's recognition of Ukraine's right to exist as a sovereign European nation.

Summary

Throughout its long and turbulent history, Ukraine has been defined by its position at the crossroads of empires and civilizations. From the medieval glory of Kyivan Rus' to the democratic aspirations of the Euromaidan Revolution, Ukrainians have repeatedly asserted their distinctive identity while navigating between powerful neighbors. This fundamental dynamic – the tension between external domination and the persistent drive for autonomy – has created a multilayered national consciousness that accommodates regional differences while maintaining core cultural elements that have survived centuries of imperial rule. Ukraine's geographical position as a gateway between East and West has made it both a coveted prize for expansionist powers and a vital cultural bridge between different European traditions. Ukraine's historical experience offers important lessons for understanding contemporary geopolitics and identity formation. First, it demonstrates how national consciousness can develop and persist despite prolonged statelessness and repression, challenging deterministic views of nation-building. Second, it illustrates the dangers of imperial overreach and the human costs of totalitarian ideologies, as evidenced by the Holodomor and Nazi occupation. Finally, Ukraine's post-Soviet journey highlights both the difficulties of democratic transition in post-totalitarian societies and the powerful appeal of civic values like freedom and dignity. As Ukraine continues to defend its sovereignty against external aggression while pursuing internal reforms, its story reminds us that the struggle for self-determination remains a fundamental human aspiration, often requiring extraordinary resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

About Author

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Serhii Plokhy

Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian and American historian. Plokhy is currently the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, where he was also named Walter Channing Cabot Fellow in 2013. A leading authority on Eastern Europe, he has lived and taught in Ukraine, Canada, and the United States. He has published extensively in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. For three successive years (2002-2005) his books won first prize of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies.For his Ukrainian-language profile, please see: Сергій Плохій

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