"The thought-provoking contributions in this volume will clarify some of the unfamiliar pages of Ukrainian history and identity. They shed light on the origins of the complex identity of Ukraine, its imperial past, the contradictions of the interwar Soviet period, and the present, showing that modern war is not accidental or caused by the sick imagination of one person. The reader has the opportunity to see in the actions of the Russian aggressor a kind of attempt to reconstruct the Soviet period of nation-building in Ukraine during the interwar period, to understand the reaction of the Ukrainian people as another attempt to protect its independence and freedom." -- Olga Ryabchenko, Professor, Head of the Department of World History at the H. Skovoroda Kharkiv National University and Visiting Scholar, University of Cambridge

"There is no other comparable publication on Ukraine with this specific methodological approach. Ukraine, its history and present, has to be (re)introduced to anglophone Non-Ukrainians ? and this not only in the light of the ongoing Russian war of aggression against this largest country of Europe but with regard to Ukraine as a sui generis case of European-type statehood and national identity. Each of the three sections is divided into >primary sources<, >conversation pieces< and >analytical articles<. A particular strength are the >conversation pieces< in the three section is the didactic value of the book. This makes it also an excellent textbook for highschool and university teaching." -- Stefan Troebst, Professor of East European Cultural History, Leipzig University, former Deputy Director of the Leipzig Centre for the History and Culture of East-Central Europe, GWZO