You're reading: 25 great English-language books about Ukraine

Ukraine has inspired dozens of authors to write histories, memoirs, fictional novels and even advice on finding a Ukrainian romantic partner. The Kyiv Post has picked out 10 must-reads about Ukraine and Ukrainians that have been published in English, as well as 15 other books by authors who have contributed to the growing library of books about Ukraine in the English language.

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder

An absolute must-read for everybody interested in the modern history of Ukraine, as well as Poland and Belarus. Yale historian Timothy Snyder names these territories “the bloodlands,” because 14 million people were killed here between 1930 and 1945. The victims included Ukrainian peasants killed during Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s Holodomor artificial famine, Soviet prisoners of war starved to death in prison camps, and Jewish people killed by the Nazis. Snyder points out the striking parallels between two dictators – the Soviet Union’s Stalin and Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler. “Hitler and Stalin thus shared a certain politics of tyranny: they brought about catastrophes, blamed the enemy of their choice, and then used the death of millions to make the case that their policies were necessary or desirable,” Snyder writes.

Ukraine: A History, by Orest Subtelny

Published in 1988, this book by a professor of history and political science at York University, Canada, is still one of the best works on Ukraine’s history from the early ages up to the mid-2000s. Used by many students as a history study book, this work is essential for anyone interested in learning an objective history of Ukraine, without Russian, Soviet or modern Ukrainian ideological distortions.

Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer

A young Jewish-American, the author’s namesake, travels to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis during World War II. He is accompanied by a Ukrainian translator, Alex, Alex’s grandfather, and a mongrel dog in a simultaneously comic and tragic journey into a hidden past. Published in 2002, the book was adapted in 2005 into a film of the same name, starring the star of Lord of the Rings, Elijah Wood, and Eugene Hütz, Ukrainian-born singer and the frontman of the Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka

Although the story takes place in Peterborough in England, most of its heroes are Ukrainian emigres to the United Kingdom, either of the second generation or newcomers. Born in the U.K. to a family of Ukrainian descent, sisters Vera and Nadezhda try to foil the marriage of their father to Valentina, a mail-order bride from Ukraine. Published in 2005, this funny debut novel by Lewycka was loved by many in the U.K. and Ukraine.

Ukraine: Witness to Revolution, by Kyiv Post journalists

This Kindle book contains first-hand accounts by the Kyiv Post journalists about the Euromaidan Revolution. The Kyiv Post produced reams of reports during the three-and-a-half dramatic months from late November 2013 to February 2014, when Ukrainians braved icy weather to rally against the corrupt former president, Viktor Yanukovych. The Kindle book includes the personal impressions and stories of the Kyiv Post’s reporters about a revolution that changed Ukraine forever. The journalist’s essays are weaved into a concise but detailed account of the events of the EuroMaidan Revolution, and the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

The Harvest of Sorrow, by Robert Conquest

First published in 1986, this book by British historian Robert Conquest was written with the assistance of the U.S. historian James Mace, who was later acclaimed in Ukraine as one of the best researchers of the Holodomor famine. After setting out an in-depth study of the Stalin-era collectivization of 1929-31 and the man-made famine in 1932-33, the authors proved that the famine was a case of genocide against the Ukrainian nation, which took away millions of lives. The book was awarded the Shevchenko National Prize, the highest cultural award in Ukraine, in 1994.

Dream Land, by Lily Hyde

In the form of a family story, British author and former Kyiv Post journalist Lily Hyde tells the story of the return of thousands of Crimean Tatars to Crimea, the land of their ancestors, or, as they call it, the “dream land.”

Beheaded: The Killing of a Journalist, by Jaroslav Koshiw

This book, by another former Kyiv Post journalist and editor, Jaroslav Koshiw, investigates one of the grimmest stories in independent Ukraine – the kidnapping and murder of independent journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000. Koshiw has also written other books about contemporary Ukrainian events and politics, including “MH17: The story of the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner” and “Abuse of Power.”

An Orange Revolution: A Personal Journey Through Ukrainian History, by Askold Krushelnycky

In this book, Askold Krushelnytsky, the Kyiv Post’s chief editor in 1998, vividly describes the events of Orange Revolution, the mas public uprising against the rigged presidential elections in 2004. He also gives a brief history of the Ukrainian nation itself, from its earliest times to the present.

In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine, by Tim Judah

The Balkans correspondent for the Economist, Tim Judah traveled from the west to the east of Ukraine in 2014 covering Russia’s war against Ukraine. The result of his observations and interviews, this book pays special attention to the human cost of war.

15 other authors, works of note:

Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist, has written “Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How To Fix It” and “How Ukraine Became a Market Economy and Democracy.”

Alexei Bayer, a Kyiv Post columnist who lives in New York, writes thrillers, including “Murder at the Dacha” and “The Latchkey Murders.”

Alex Frishberg, a lawyer who divides his time between Ukraine and America, has written “Doing Business in Ukraine,” “The Steel Barons” and “An International Love Affair.”

Marvin Kalb, a U.S. journalist, has written “Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine, and the New Cold War.”
Andrey Kurkov and Sam Taylor, are the authors who wrote “Ukraine Diaries,” a firsthand account of the EuroMaidan Revolution

Taras Kuzio is a British citizen based in Toronto, Canada, who has written several books on Ukraine, including the 2015 “Ukraine: Democratization, Corruption, and the New Russian Imperialism.”

Paul R. Magosci, the chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Toronto, has written “A History of Ukraine” and other books.

David R. Marples, a Canadian historian and professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, has written several books, including “The Collapse of the Soviet Union” and “Heroes and Villains: Creating National History in Contemporary Ukraine.”

Alexander J. Motyl, a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a prolific columnist, has written “Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism” and other scholarly works on Ukraine.

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University and director of the university’s Ukrainian Research Institute. Recently he has written “The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine” and “The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union.”

Anna Reid, a journalist and author, wrote “Borderland,” one of the first books about Ukraine and its history to be published after Ukraine gained independence.

Richard Sakwa, a professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent, is the author of “Frontline Ukraine,” a book detailing the origins and background to the Ukraine crisis.

Alex Shaw has written several crime thrillers that, while not exclusively set in Ukraine, will be familiar to readers in the region.

Andrew Wilson is a United Kingdom author and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He has written numerous books on politics in Ukraine and the region, including “The Ukrainians,” “Ukraine’s Orange Revolution,” “Ukraine Crisis” and “Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World.”

Serhy Yekelchyk, a Ukrainian-Canadian historian, wrote “Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation,” detailing the events of Ukraine 2004 Orange Revolution.