The Gates of Europe

A History of Ukraine

By: Serhii Plokhy

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Ukraine is currently embroiled in a tense fight with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence. But today's conflict is only the latest in a long history of battles over Ukraine's territory and its existence as a sovereign nation. As the award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues in The Gates of Europe, we must examine Ukraine's past in order to understand its present and future.

Situated between Central Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, Ukraine was shaped by the empires that used it as a strategic gateway between East and West—from the Roman and Ottoman empires to the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. For centuries, Ukraine has been a meeting place of various cultures. The mixing of sedentary and nomadic peoples and Christianity and Islam on the steppe borderland produced the class of ferocious warriors known as the Cossacks, for example, while the encounter between the Catholic and Orthodox churches created a religious tradition that bridges Western and Eastern Christianity. Ukraine has also been a home to millions of Jews, serving as the birthplace of Hassidism—and as one of the killing fields of the Holocaust.

Plokhy examines the history of Ukraine's search for its identity through the lives of the major figures in Ukrainian history: Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, whose daughter Anna became queen of France; the Cossack ruler Ivan Mazepa, who was immortalized in the poems of Byron and Pushkin; Nikita Khrushchev and his protege-turned-nemesis Leonid Brezhnev, who called Ukraine their home; and the heroes of the Maidan protests of 2013 and 2014, who embody the current struggle over Ukraine's future.

As Plokhy explains, today's crisis is a tragic case of history repeating itself, as Ukraine once again finds itself in the center of the battle of global proportions. An authoritative history of this vital country, The Gates of Europe provides a unique insight into the origins of the most dangerous international crisis since the end of the Cold War.

©2015, 2021 Serhii Plokhy (P)2022 Basic Books

Critic reviews

"Buy this book. Give copies to your children and grandchildren. Buy copies for your friends. Make sure they read it.” Ukrainian Weekly

"A sympathetic survey of the history of Ukraine along the East-West divide, from ancient divisions to present turmoil.... A straightforward, useful work that looks frankly at Ukraine's ongoing "price of freedom" against the rapacious, destabilizing force of Russia.” Kirkus Reviews

"For a comprehensive, engaging, and up-to-date history of Ukraine one could do no better than Serhii Plokhy's aptly titled The Gates of Europe. Plokhy's authoritative study will be of great value to scholars, students, policy-makers, and the informed public alike in making sense of the contemporary Ukrainian imbroglio.” Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University

Stunning

Ukraine needs to win the 2022-2023 war. Much of the world will regret if Putin succeeds. The atrocities and trauma that have gone on for centuries in Ukraine are stunning in the worst sense.
This book broadly outlines the events and this approach allows the reader to fully grasp the story.

Very specific

This is one of the few available books about Ukrainian history in English. I’m glad someone write this for English speakers like me to read. However if I would make one change to this book I might actually make it less specific about certain events and occurrences. The amount of specific people’s names and group names was a little difficult to remember. But of all the problems to have with a history book, I don’t think that a big one

A Scan of Ukraine's ENTIRE History

This book doesn't go into intense detail, but it's sheer breadth is duly impressive. Next, I'd like to read a book that goes into deeper detail about events since the Orange Revolution.

Excellent

Explains the modern situation clearly by revealing the historical roots of the conflict. Long live ukraine.

Best single volume history of Ukraine

Definitive, sweeping history that provides excellent context for current events. Very effective at laying out hugely complicated regional and ethnic issues

An extraordinarily good book

This history of Ukraine from its earliest moments draws a portrait through the ages of a most complex region. I have always been especially interested in Eastern Europe and the Mongols but could not put this down after that. For the first time understanding of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth dawned. I began to take my knowledge of Cossacks beyond "And Quiet Flows the Don".
The various partitions creating yet more ethnic minorities throughout Eastern and Central Europe left Ukraine riven religiously and politically, crushed between empires on all sides. Yet somehow its people kept rising from their knees, producing more food, industrial products and manpower than most of its neighbours. Black moments, too, especially periodic pogroms of its many Jews. But what a tale of endurance and re-emergence.
Essential reading.

Extensively Researched

The book goes into great depth, based on extensive research. Without pushing a particular narrative, the reader hears all the major points that shaped Ukrainian history, language and culture since before the proto-Slavs settled the area now known as Ukraine.

Outstanding

This was quite possibly one of the best historical non-fiction texts I've ever come across. Mr. Plokhy's work is exceptionally well-researched and contextualized within the broader scope of European and world historical events, movements, and societal shifts. I would recommend this to anyone who is curious about what is driving the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Straightforward

Explained the many diverse separations within Ukraine but also these influences can also unify the different peoples of the country when faced with a great evil from the outside.

Comprehensive and Enlightening

This comprehensive, in depth account of Ukraine’s history and relationship with regional neighbors puts todays crisis into clarifying perspective.
It took me a few hours of listening to get used to this narrators style. Although his articulation is clear and precise; I found it a bit too mono-tonous and tedious, sleep inducing; which eventually became tolerable, half way through.