“The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine” by Serhii Plokhy [Book Review]

Reading “The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine” by Serhii Plokhy has had a profound impact on me. Never before did I understand the history of this region which is at the same time both volatile and beautiful; situated at the eastern gateway to Europe its ancient past harks back to the very first settlement of the continent which necessarily implies that it has also been the focus of intense and sustained contact by surrounding nations over the course of several millennia. This book is a documentation (a record) of the origins, founding, struggles, and successes of the Ukrainian people.

STAR RATINGS:

“GATES OF EUROPE” BOOK STATS:

• Published 2017
• 395 total pages
• 354 pages of text
• 27 chapters
• One 10-page map inset
• 1 very thorough Historical Timeline section
• 1 helpful Who’s Who In Ukrainian History section
• 1 short Glossary section
• 1 chapter-by-chapter Further Reading section
• 1 Index section
• Hardcover available

MIND BLOWN! COOL THINGS I LEARNED:

• Ukraine’s history goes back millennia as a corridor of contact to many nations
• Ukrainians often preferred the Tatars and others over alliances with the Rus’ nations
• Ukraine has been fragmented into eastern and western halves historically
• There were many different Ukrainian dialects from Ruthenian all the way to the Belarusian border
• Ukrainians posses an indomitable spirit!

“GATES OF EUROPE” BOOK REVIEW:

“The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine” is simply a beautifully written book about a beautiful people who have suffered thousands of years of unimaginable atrocities and hardships. Yet despite all that Ukrainians have managed to maintain their ethnic and linguistic pride and forge a nation out of the scraps of inter-generational war and aggression. They have created something beautiful out of the ugliest of conditions.

Author Serhii Plokhy introduces the reader to the Ukrainian region via the farthest reaches of the historical record, going back to Herodotus himself. He sketches the land and its inhabitants via the few descriptions that survive with us today. The earliest accounts of this region are a tale of monsters and men intermixing in a movie-like setting as the ancients would have described them; Ukraine is truly a mythical medieval land.

As Ukrainians are Slavic people of the most ancient cast, naturally author Serhii Plokhy invokes their connection to the rest of the Slavic tribes which stretch from the Crimean Peninsula all the way past the Pontic Steppes up into the far reaches of the Baltic and Scandinavian necks. What I did like about his writing is that he firmly plants the reader into Slavic territory, so to speak, and establishes that as the backdrop to the many multiple and sustained invasions that will occur over the course of the book’s historical narrative.

Let me say, that narrative is intense!

For the uninitiated like me, the use of terms and names can get quite overwhelming but one excellent thing about Serhii Plokhy’s writing is that he continually reinforces dates and names to the reader. It’s a small thing but very helpful in attempting to digest the often copious amounts of information each chapter contains in terms of relevant material. So, restating a date like 1708 at several points over several paragraphs is preferable to only once in the beginning and then assuming your readers are as expert as you are on the subject, if you get my drift.

As the chapters progress so does the complexity of the storyline of the Ukraine. As such I would liked to have seen more in the way of in-text maps and graphs. While his 10 maps at the very beginning of the book are indispensable, they are all you get. Having small maps of regional areas supporting his textual arguments would afford the reader less distraction while maintaining his/her interest.

This suggestion should even go as far as providing pictures of the various historical figures and even images of nationalist symbols or other relevant infographic data. For all the statistical data that the author employed, and there was a fair amount, a few charts and graphs wouldn’t have hurt; this is especially true as the author has a tendency to bounce around in his explanations from time to time.

On the positive side, the chapters are just long enough that you don’t drown in detail. Each chapter is a gem in and of itself as an efficient encapsulation of a single important era of Ukraine’s history. As a preeminent scholar of Ukrainian history, Serhii Plokhy weaves a wonderful narrative of the extremely complex history of his nation, it is full of twists and turns, prevarications and vacillations!

“The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine” is a comprehensive guide to the history of one of Europe’s most hotly-contested borderlands. Playing an important part in the foundational culture of Europe, Ukraine is a country that has faced many obstacles in its path to independence that would have shaken others of lesser ilk. I highly recommend this book, there is something in it for everyone to learn from and from which to be inspired.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Plokhy, Serhii. 2017. “The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine.” New York: Basic Books.
• ISBN-13: 978-0465094868
• Amazon Link.