War and Punishment

June 26, 2023
The war in Ukraine is the crescendo of a long struggle between Ukrainian nationalism and a Russian imperialism that denies its existence, according to this impassioned history. Russian journalist Zygar (All the Kremlin’s Men) recaps centuries of Ukrainian efforts to escape Russian domination, including 17th-century Cossack rebellions, 19th-century poet Taras Shevchenko’s jump-starting of Ukrainian-language literature, and far-right Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera’s anti-Soviet insurgency during WWII. Counterpointing this narrative is an examination of Russian writers and ideologues, including Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who mythologized a primeval unity of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples to justify Moscow’s rule over Kyiv. The book’s second half focuses on Ukraine’s history after independence in 1991, spotlighting the careers of rival presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky and depicting the kaleidoscopic wrangling between oligarchic political factions, broadly divided between the Ukrainian-speaking west of the country and the Russian-speaking east, and shaped by the Kremlin’s meddling. Zygar gives a lucid, colorful account of this intricate history, especially of independent Ukraine’s often corrupt politics and relations with Moscow. The result is an illuminating analysis of the conflict’s deep roots in a symbiosis of cynical power plays and cultural delusions.

July 1, 2023
An award-winning writer explains the cultural background to Putin's ill-fated invasion of Ukraine. As an independent journalist, Zygar, author of The Empire Must Die and All the Kremlin's Men, has long been an outspoken critic of Putin and especially his invasion of Ukraine. After the Kremlin made opposition to the war illegal, the author fled his native Russia and went into exile in Germany, where he continues to work as a columnist. In this authoritative book, Zygar provides historical context for the invasion and rejects Putin's claim that Ukraine has never been a legitimate political entity. The result is a sprawling text with hundreds of characters, stretching from the time of Peter the Great to the present. Zygar describes Russia's impulse for empire building as akin to a drug. "Imperial history is our disease; it is inherently addictive," he writes. Ukraine has often been the victim of this addiction, and it has been repeatedly attacked, occupied, and dismembered only to rebuild itself. The most remarkable aspect of the story is that over the centuries, the spark of Ukrainian independence has never been fully extinguished, and it caught fire when the Soviet Union collapsed. Putin believes that he is destined to reconstitute the Soviet empire, but Zygar argues convincingly that it will all end badly. As the author shows, Putin is increasingly isolated and paranoid, losing touch with reality. Zygar calls on Russians to come to genuine terms with their bloody history and reject the state-sanctioned version of events. The failure of the most recent invasion could be the trigger for this process. This is not an easy read, and sometimes the narrative seems like a quagmire of names and claims. Still, Zygar's knowledge is undeniable, and the book is worth the effort for those who want to understand the bigger picture. A brave, passionate book setting Russia's invasion and Ukraine's resistance into the broad sweep of history.

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July 21, 2023

Even award-winning Zygar (All the Kremlin's Men), the founding editor in chief of Russia's only independent news TV channel, Dozhd, did not foresee the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He expertly distills decades of Russian, Ukrainian, and Eastern European history and finds some of the roots of the conflict in the constant Russian and West European border shifts. He writes in present tense, which results in an invigorating narrative, as he argues that Russkiy mir (the Russian world) was an 18th-century literary invention, a way to group Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus together despite distinct cultural differences. The 1945 Yalta Conference granting the then--Soviet Union three seats on the United Nations Council reaffirmed this idea, giving future leader Putin hope. Putin's maniacal pursuit of this fallacy is grounded in past mythology, Zygar writes; in reality, the battle started more than 300 years ago. Readers are shown the myths, legends, and military actions leading to the present conflict, and the imperative for all nations to trade archaic notions of hubris for peace is emphasized. Zygar's extensive research through October 2022, including personal interviews, is admirable. VERDICT A stirring, academic, yet accessible narrative and analysis of the current war in Ukraine and previous border conflicts. Best suited for informed or curious readers.--Jessica A. Bushore

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