Ukraine Books

This memoir tells about life in the Soviet Union during the Communist era. Tina Grimberg grew up in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, in a tiny flat with her parents and her older sister. She explains that, for over 70 years the world was divided into two parts, East and West, or the Communist Bloc and the Free World. This book tells about her life behind the Iron Curtain. After the fall of the Czar, during the Communist Revolution in 1917, the Communist took over and forbade all religion. Tina and her family were Jewish, but they were not allowed to practice their religion, even speaking Yiddish outside of the home meant trouble. Although the Iron Curtain is gone, her memories of that time remain. In the West everyone assumed that communism was a great evil. Grimberg reports that there were certainly aspects that were bad, evil even, but it wasn't all gray and dreary. For small children, it was a stimulating place with love of family strong, along with the endless lineups in the cold. It also meant trying to escape the all-seeing eyes, whether they belonged to the old ladies in their babushkas who guarded every courtyard, or to the Soviet state that monitored every step its citizens took. In the 1970's the Soviet Union, often referred to as Russia, agreed to allow certain "undesirables" (Jews and some minorities) to leave. Tina, then 15 years old, and her family were sponsored by kind strangers in Indiana, who helped the family settle in the United States. This subject of life behind the Iron Curtain is rarely told for children and the book is highly recommended. For ages 8-12 years. Reviewed by Barbara Silverman

Grimberg's collection of memories of life behind the Iron Curtain is an essential key to understanding a way of life which millions led in the 20th century. Though the Iron Curtain is gone, thus impact remains - and thus this autobiography of Tina, who was born in Kiev and grew up in a tiny flat with her family, is key to understanding, even today, the psyche of a country.

The phrase is apt because the narrator author has had more lives than the black cat and has seen more than the usual man's share of danger. And he appears to have had all the moves just like the legendary Catwoman.
Starting out as a common soldier in the Bolshevik Army of 1918, he went on to survive the Spanish Civil War, the Stalin purges, and partisan operations in WW II behind the German lines.
This is a fascination memoir and well deserves a place in the collection of the Special Ops aficianado or in the collection of the adventure novel reader. Well worth having.

This is a very good partial autobiography of Starinov, gleaned from several books he wrote and one his wife authored, translated and filled out by Suggs, who does a creditable job with the text and his interludes hanging things together where there are gaps. Starinov was apparently one of the Soviet Union's experts on booby traps and mine warfare during much of the thirties and forties. The first half of the book covers the period pre-WW2, the second half the war. In the first half, the author participates in the Russian Civil War, teaches classes in sabotage in the Soviet Union's military schools, serves in the Spanish Civil War, and gets wounded in the Winter War with Finland. The second half is an account of the author's service in WW2, which largely consisted of training personnel who were sent to act as partisans behind German lines. The author's specialty seems to have been destroying trains with mines, and he developed several for this purpose. Overall it's a good book, with much interesting information on the Soviet high command's culture in the 30's and 40's. The only failing of the book is that the lurid cover tells you of the author's participation in LRRP warfare (the term LRRP is used twice) when in fact the author was rarely in combat (and never during WW2) and was mostly concerned with things other than reconnaisance anyway. The cover also says he served in WW1, which is incorrect. If you can accept this one annoyance, the book is quite good, and full of information not elsewhere available.

This is a great book to learn all of the basic facts regarding the Battle of Poltava, and the results of the state of Europe afterward.

I say it's great for the basic facts, because it packs in what exactly happened leading to the battle to the end result including strategies and tactics, but it doesn't bring you in the mind of the soldier. To restate, you will read about all of the objective facts of the battle, and the maps help the reader visualize how the battle took place.

To learn about the Battle of Poltava on a more personal level, I recommend reading "The Battle That Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire," by Peter Englund. You'll see the war from the Swedish perspective there.

Poltava 1709

Few Americans have benefited from a formal education that included studies of the Great Northern War and the campaigns of Charles XII of Sweden. We seem to have to remind ourselves that, at one time, Sweden was a power to be reckoned with in European affairs. This interesting and well written book gives a quick review of the events leading up to the battle of Poltava, which marked the end of Sweden's dominance in northern Europe - and the start of Russian influence in the history of Europe.

The author discusses the events leading up to the ill-fated attempt to again `put Russia in her place'. He gives a very good description of the armies involved, as well as the contrasting tactics employed by each. branch. His description of the lives and careers of the two protagonists, Charles XII and Tsar Peter, add to the overall quality of the book. The maps are clear and enlightening, as is usually the case in other books of this series.

I strongly recommend this book to others who are interested in the subject. I feel that it reads as easily as a good novel and that it tends to inspire one to seek out further books on the subject.

This book goes a long way towards explaining the complexity of Ukraine, a nation that is divided in accepting or rejecting the different identities the world knows of it. Is it the cradle of Russian civilization that includes present day Ukraine, Russia and Belarus or is it the frontier(eastern Ukraine in particular) where eastern Slavs (progenitors of Ukrainians, Russians and Belarussians) escaped to from suppressive powers of overlords (Poland and Russian princes, or is it the center where a new set of Russians-western Ukriane (Ukrainians or Ruthenians or Little Russians) came into being from the amalgamation of foreign influences (Polish, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Austria,Hungarian etc)?

From Gogol's work-Taras Bulba, one can get a picture of how easterners view themselves as Ukrainians (orthodox,eastern slavonic who fraternalise with their other eastern slavonic brothers) and who have been prominent in Russian or east slavic history(Yermak, Krushchev, Breshnev etc). Union Moujik as a story gives a clearer picture of the divide. Two brothers in the same house with one brother stressing on their roots and those they share common roots with(east), and the other brother attaching importance to the influences picked up in the past(west)

'Revolution in Orange' is the first book on the subject written for an academic audience. Particular interesting were the chapters on Russian and American influence on the events in 2004.

However, the chapter on the famous youth group 'Pora' was disappointing. The online history posted on Pora's website is at least as helpful.

Though this book will be of interest to researchers and academics, I would recommend Andrew Wilson's, 'Ukraine's Orange Revolution' for those looking for a more readable introduction.

I could hardly put this book down. I am a Canadian of distant Ukrainian heritage and was not sure that I would find this new study of the Ukrainian experience in Canada all that different from others I have looked at over the years. Was I wrong! Professor Luciuk has re-interpreted the entire breadth of this ethnic minority's history in Canada, and emphasized the multiple interventions made into Ukrainian Canadian society by the federal government, from jailing innocent immigrants as "enemy aliens" during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-2920, to creating the Ukrainian Canadian Committee in 1940, to exploiting the postwar immgirants (the DPs, or Displaced Persons) for anti-communist purposes at home and propaganda abroad while, at the most senior levels of officialdom, being utterly indifferent or even against independence for Ukraine, public pronouncements to the contrary! This book is extensively footnoted, which, at first, I wondered about, but then I got into these materials and found almost another book, rich in additional evidence about the themes this author covers in the main text. Some readers won't like Professor Luciuk's forthright style, or how he explodes some of the persistent myths and stereotypes about this community (eg the canard that thousands of Nazis hid in North America after the war is a fiction)but for anyone interested in Ukrainians in the diaspora, or 20th century immigration and ethnic history, this is a must have book. Highly recommended.

I grew up knowing that I was a Canadian "of Ukrainian descent" but all through my childhood, I didn't quite know what that meant. I did know that my father was born in the prairies, and I'd heard stories about my grandfather escaping serfdom in the old country only to be unjustly imprisoned once he came to Canada.

As a young adult, I searched vainly for books that would tell me a bit about my ancestry, but the closest I could get was to read books that skirted around Ukrainian history: those written by Polish, Jewish, Russian and German authors. All I could find about Ukrainian Canadians dealt with food, embroidery, dance. Not history.

The first fragment of light on this topic was a newspaper article printed in the mid-1980s in the Globe & Mail. This op-ed piece was written by Professor Lubomyr Luciuk and it detailed the fact that 8,000 Eastern European Canadians (5,000 of whom were Ukrainian Canadians) had been interned during World War I as "enemy aliens". I had never heard of such a thing. The Japanese in World War II, yes. But Ukrainians? I asked by father if he had ever heard of such an incident, and he looked at me sternly and said, "Of course I have. How many times have I told you about how your grandfather was imprisoned unjustly?"

What a revelation. This professor was writing about my own history. I went to the library and found that this Professor Luciuk had written a number of books, all dealing with aspects of Ukrainian Canadian history and geography. I checked them out and read them. And then I wrote Silver Threads, a folk tale loosely based on my grandfather's internment experience.

I didn't really feel that I was qualified to write such a book. What if I got the history wrong? So I got up my nerve and tracked down Professor Luciuk's phone number. I left a message on his answering machine, and a few weeks later, he called me. When I told him what I had done, he agreed to read the story. I mailed it to him, and he corrected the history.

Silver Threads is now taught in schools across Canada, and the internment of Ukrainians is a well-known fact, but if it hadn't been for Professor Luciuk's research, this small but significant fragment of Canadian history would have been lost.

Searching for Place is filled with such gems. For example, how many Canadians of Ukrainian descent realize that they are not one homogenous group? The first, second and third waves are as different as different can be: in politics, geographic origin, and religion.

In the 1930s, while Canada suffered from the Depression, many Canadians of Ukrainian descent were sympathetic Communism. Across the ocean, their compatriots were being killed en masse by that very same ideology. When political refugees fleeing Communism came to Canada and met up with those whom they had assumed would be sympathetic, friction was inevitable.

Similarly, how many Canadians of Ukrainian descent realize just how hostile Canada was to their arrival? Myth has it that these early settlers in their sheepskin coats were welcomed with open arms as they covered the prairies with wheat fields and train tracks. But Professor Luciuk's book points out the dismay government officials felt when they realized that these immigrants did not easily forget their origins. They tended to settle all together and speak only Ukrainian. In the government's mind, a "good Canadian" was one who would change his unpronounceable name to something simpler, marry an Englishwoman, be content to farm, and above all, forget his homeland.

This book will be of interest to all Canadians who would like to know more about why Ukrainians came to Canada and what is was they were forced to abandon. While the first and second immigration waves are covered, the third wave, which happened after World War II, is given special emphasis. Life in the DP camps is an intriguing chapter, as is the chapter dealing with shock and horror of Ukrainian Canadian soldiers in World War II who meet Ukrainian displaced persons.

I found it fascinating to read about the origins of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress: a "surgical intervention" on the part of the Canadian government, who forcibly took property away from one faction of Ukrainian Canadians and handed it over to another.

The most intriguing part of this book has to be the end notes, which make up more than half the whole book. I found myself reading Searching for Place with two bookmarks on the go: one for the chapters and the other for the inside story contained in the notes. I recommend this book highly.

Russell Miller's book, The Spy with a Clean Face, follows corporate executive, occasional CIA operative Charlie Connelly through Latin America, Asia and eventually to the dead zone of Chernobyl. Connelly's credentials as an international businessman makes the perfect cover as the CIA utilizes his high sense of patriotism and his ability to travel legitimately to maneuver him as they deem necessary.
Miller's highly descriptive prose combined with a vast knowledge of locations balances his book gracefully between adventure, history and travel guide. It also provides you a glimpse into the treacherous world of espionage without the overly ambitious plots or unbelievable characters found in similar books. Miller's abundant use of impressive descriptions combined with a thinking man's plot will keep you reading. Highly recommended.

Tony Lazzarini
President
Military Writers Society of America

The Spy with a Clean Face
by Russell Miller

As the Soviet Union disintegrated, Ukraine was left weapons rich and cash poor. While Russia and the west vied for political influence of the country, opportunists acted to turn a quick profit on weapons sales to unstable middle-east factions. Charley Connelly, a career international sales executive has become an unsuspecting agent for the CIA and is now called upon to intercede in a dangerous game for which he is ill prepared. Miller takes us on a whirlwind romp through Latin America and the Middle East to a nail biting conclusion in the shadow of Chernobyl. Miller's insight and experience have made him a mast of his craft.

This book is the best book that i ever read. It outlines all the horrible things that the Soviet Union did to the Tatars. I believe that all people should read this book, and relize that not much has changed!

Having Crimean Tatar ancestry I was very excited by reading this book. It focuses on the history after the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia. I wish they paid more attention on the Crimean Khanate history but this could be the topic of another book.

Emotionally powerful and beautifully written, this account of the author's search for information about six relatives murdered in the Holocaust raises profound questions about the nature of historical and personal memory. The author's reconstruction of his relatives' deaths -- at the hands of SS Einsatzgruppen, gas chambers, and their own Ukrainian and Polish neighbors -- is graphic, horrific and difficult to read. But the author always emphasizes remembering his relatives' lives more than their deaths. At the heart of his story is a tale of heroism, by a Polish Catholic boy, which makes it possible for the author (and the reader) not to hate. On the negative side, the account overuses repetition, and the author frames his account with somewhat pedantic commentaries on Genesis, often having, as far as I can see, only tenuous parallels with the principal narrative. Even with these minor blemishes, this is a masterful work of Holocaust literature. I highly recommend it.

There were parts of this book I liked a lot, but it had a lot of problems.

The book is repetitive and dwells on many useless details that do not add to any aspect of the various stories being told.

The author does not seem to be able to decide what he's doing. He says that he wants to know what happened to lost relatives but what he really wants to do is reminisce about his grandfather; visit and describe holocaust survivors without ever telling much detail of their stories; and comment upon biblical and classical texts in an effort to draw meaning from the holocaust. Although logically starting his search by visiting the town in which the relatives resided, the author apparently arrived without a plan. He randomly runs into an old woman who tells him a snippet about what she saw happen to some Jewish people. Then he leaves and spends years traveling all over the globe to talk to survivors who would have no way of knowing what happened because they left or were in hiding. In the last pages of the book he returns to the relatives' home town and again, randomly, runs into people on the street. This time he is lucky and finds someone who knows what happened. If he were really trying to find out what happened to his family, he didn't need to travel around the world to do that. He just needed to stay in town a little longer and do some investigative work.

I found the story telling precious. There are a couple of instances in which the author tells you that characters about whom he's written at length told him stories that he can't tell us. I hate being told repetitively, "I know something you don't know." It's insulting to the reader and should just be left out.

Summary: The effort to develop a greater context for the story of the author's relatives is legitimate but executed so heavy-handedly that the story of the lost relatives is diminished. A good editor with a hatchet could have cut a couple hundred pages out of this book and made it much better.

I gave this book only three stars , because it bills itself as a holocaust story when it is not. If this book were touted as a story of search and self discovery, it would have received five stars. The writing quality was five stars. This author is a gifted essayist. If you want to read a 500 page essay, then you will like this. Like many Jews, Mendelsohn grew up with grandparents from the old country speaking heavily accented Yiddish inflected English. They told colorful tales from their Shtetles. They told stories within stories in the Yiddish tradition. The author was most entranced with his grandfather and loved hearing his tales about growing up in Bolechow. Bolechow was a village at times part of the Ukraine and at others part of Poland not far from Lvov. All of Mendalsohns grandparents' siblings came to the states. However, one brother, Shmiel, returned to Bolechow to make his life there. He prospered, married , and had four daughters. His youngest was 13 when the nazis arrived. All six perished during WWII. With snippets of information, a few photographs, a few documents, the author goes on a mission to discover their exact fate. That is he wanted to know exactly how they lived and how and when they died. He learns that Shmiel had at least one and probably two trucks which the Nazi's coveted. He learns that the prettiest of his daughters, Frydka, was the most charismatic and lively of the girls. He learns that their Ukrainan and Polish neighbors felt a seething anti-semitism towards them. He learns that the Poles and Ukrainians often joined in the nazi brutality. So what else is new? In his search he forges a new and stronger relationship with his photographer brother, Matt, delves into biblical texts, rebbinical interpretations of those texts, and travels the globe seeking survivors from Australia, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Israel. Along with snippets of information, mere wisps that only flesh out the characters of his search minimaly, we read his thoughts on a myriad of subjects. This author clearly wanted to enlarge the barest of historical data into a book long tome. The information he gleaned in his search could be written in no more than 20 pages. There are numerous repetitive references, descriptions of turns of phrases and meaningful glances. He digresses into comparisons between the story of Noah and Soddom and Gomorrah with the destruction and death of innocents in the Holocaust. I did not find the comparisons convincing justification for the evil perpetrated in the Holocaust. He further compared Rashi's and Friedman's interpretations of these parts of the Talmud as well as the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Issac. He delves into the Lech lecha portion of the Talmud which was his Bar Mitzvah Torah portion. He throws in the Homerian classics like the Iliad and the Oddysey as a comparison of his journey for the truth. Over and over we get the message that the story is in the journey and not what he discovers about these 6 relatives. He quotes and refers to Proust as an ideal to whom he aspires. I have to say that I really don't care for Proust. I think his writing is entirely too verbose and flowery. Sadly, each of the six family members who perished could have been saved had his grandfather been able to provide $5000 for each of them to guarantee that they would not have become a burden on the U.S. Unfortunately, he could not. Nevertheless, it is merely academic that any of the six would have been allowed to leave Poland and get a U.S. visa at that time even if he had been able to provide the financing. Mostly, the U.S. state department was then and probably still is anti-semetic. They threw up barriers at every turn to keep Jews out of our country. History will not look kindly on them including and especially Joe Kennedy who as the English ambassodor under Roosevelt refused to give the fleeing Jews visas to the states. Roosevelt refused to allow the St. Louis to dock with its fleeing desperate Jews many of whom paid dearly to board the ship. They were the rich and educated. Yet they were returned to the ovens in Germany. Germany planned the incident and used it to prove that no one in the world really cared what he did to the Jews. For the most part he was correct. One can read Constantine's Sword to see that the Catholic church turned a blind eye. Yet instead of being a Holocaust book of great depth and information, we are led on this journey of self discovery recounted in enough detail to fill a 500 page book. Mendelsohn is a talented author. He can turn a phrase. He can make the detailed descriptions of his journey interesting to the reader. I actually think that children of survivors might find this book interesting as a suggestion of what they too might do before all the surviviors are dead. If that is what you want then you will be satisfied. Otherwise, you will be disappointed. This is not a holocaust story.

I am so thankful to have read this story. I read many reviews here and some seem to have missed the point completely. They definitely saw a tree or two, but the forest is really where it's at! This book, in my opinion, takes patience, just as it took patience for Mendelsohn to travel and interview all of those people along the way.

Early on I figured out that he intended to tell more than the story of those lost six. In telling their story, he was telling the story of the six million. In telling the story of these memories, he told the story of his own journey. In telling about his family he showed me things about my own family. His inclusion of scripture showed how the stories of our time are really the stories of all time. He was no great Jew - but he discovered his faith and heritage along the way. In our fast food society (no longer eating the same foods made by our grandparents and great-grandparents!) we just want the bottom line now. This story was more than just a period at the end of Uncle Schmiel's life.

I do agree the book could have used a bit of editing (so do I so I should know!) and I would have enjoyed captions on Matt's photos, but I definitely liked having them woven throughout the story. I'm not Jewish and I'm not a writer, but after reading this book I would very much like to be the main character of a good story!

"To be alive today is to have a story to tell. To be alive is precisely to be the hero, the center of a life story. When you can be nothing more than a minor character in somebody else's tale, it means that you are truly dead." This is where it's at. Mendelsohn wasn't bragging about what a great story teller he is! He just knew there was a story to tell and wanted to tell it in a different way that would teach us along the way. If you just want morbid Holocaust stories, try the evening news. This book is about life.

One of the best and most treasurable books on the subject of memory and the Holocaust, this is a book in particular of and for the second generation, the children and grand-children of Holocaust survivors who bear--like Mendelsohn who, spitting image of his murdered great-uncle Shmiel the subject of this book, could make his older relatives cry just by walking into the room--so much of the burden of memory and loss. I won't repeat the premise of the book which has been amply covered by the other reviewers, except to add that this book in many ways is designed as a kind of Citizen Kane of Holocaust literature, in which the author finds witnesses who tell their stories, each a slightly different refraction as though through a prism of an ultimately unknowable truth, and thereby pursues the many threads of a mystery buried in the recesses of the past in order to discover, reveal and clarify, to bring closure and permit one to live on. In doing so, the author gives a final, and enduring dignity to the lives of his great-uncle and family who would otherwise have disappeared into oblivion with the simple epitaph, "killed by the Nazis." The writing is very personal, but to see it as self-indulgent as some reviewers have suggested, is mistaken. This is a personal quest as much as it is an archeology, and the author's mental landscape is thus very much a part of the unraveling, and in light of his erudition and expert writing, highly enriching. Yes, the reading demands patience, but that is the nature of a quest, whose value lies as much, if not primarily, in the process--in the arduousness of the pilgrimage, as it were--as much as in the attainment of the destination. A survivor remarks, in one of the vignettes, "There were the Egyptians with their pyramids. There were the Incas of Peru. And there was the Jews of Bolechow." Every personal tragedy is all-encompassing for the one who endures it, every loss of an individual the loss of a world. It is a tribute to the powers of the author that he makes us care--very much--about the life, and the death, of the Jews in the town of Bolechow more than half a century ago, sitting astride modern history, leaving but faint traces in the memories and the lives of the survivors, of a great, vanished civilization.

I recently picked this book up used at my local library for $1. The cover burst advertised that it was nominated for a Man Booker Prize, and the back cover copy boasted that it was an international bestseller that was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

My thoughts on that after reading the book: WTF?

The quick synopsis of the plot is this: Gold-digging Ukrainian immigrant hussy latches on to an elderly Ukrainian widower in England, marries him, and tries to take his money and his house. His two adult daughters (Vera and Nadezhda) try to prevent it from happening. And that's pretty much it. There is an attempt at incorporating many zany characters along the way, and we learn about Vera and Nadezhda's strained relationship, and their relationship with their kooky father. Oh, and every single character is disgusting and hate-able. I almost found myself rooting for the hussy.

Man, this book needed an editor, or at least one more (ruthless) revision. But it was nominated for the Booker, so what the hell do I know? What I do know, though, is this manuscript as is would never have made it out alive if presented to my writer's group.

For instance, the author doesn't seem to have much confidence in her own writing. Written in the first person of the Nadezhda character, the narrative is constantly interrupted by the character's explanation of things in parenthesis. Even during dialogue! And it is a constant interruption. More than a handful of times I just wanted to scream out, "Let the f-ing characters talk! Stop interrupting!"

The other no-no that the author does is to somehow allow her lead first-person narrator to know what someone else is thinking. This is after the old man's young wife is treating him particularly bad:

Maybe he would beat her if he could, but he cannot. For the first time he realises how helpless he is. His heart fills with despair.

Oh really? How do you know this, Nadezhda? My writer's group would have taken me to task if I had presented them with this.

As a writer, you are influenced by many authors and countless books. Sometimes you'll read something so good (think John Irving in his prime) that it inspires you, and shows you just how transcending the written word can be. Then you have a novel like this--which also influences you as a writer. By showing you what not to do.

I need to read some Owen Meany now to cleanse myself. I feel so dirty. But what do I know? This thing was a best-selling, award-nominated novel.

Between the usual solid review from Mr. Fleisig and the catchy title, the novel called out for a spin. Ms. Lewycka has made a fine contribution to the vast collection of Russian fiction, although of course "Russian" doesn't really apply here. The insights into the old days in the home country, the transition during the war, and views into the immigrant experience in England and life in recent Ukraine were welcome and usually interesting.

The author combined a decent amount of humor (amusing at times, occasionally funny) with what in reality is a serious theme. You can see her experience with the care of elderly in the family dynamics that drive the novel. Papa struggles with old age while being mentally alert enough for technical discussions and his book-within-a-book on tractors. His daughters in turn wrestle with how to handle Papa, compounded of course by the plan to marry the mismatched Valentina and the turmoil that inevitably follows.

Dysfunction takes over and there the novel had less appeal for me. Some of the action seemed too forced, or perhaps it's that I don't really like reading about major dysfunction and bad behavior and people doing stupid things. I preferred hearing more about the family's background and watching the younger daughter (and narrator and native English) learn more about the past, including that of the older sister, and for the two of them gradually to come to some accommodation.

A book-within-a-book can be a real dud, just as with a play-within-in-play. The essay on tractors worked better than one might expect, although I can understand if a reader finds it unattractive. Similarly, a reader with little interest in the former Soviet Union or its people will not appreciate one of the novel's strengths. Therefore, I recommend this more for a specific audience and pass as an option for the general reader or a book club.

This is a very funny book, and its evocation of life in the English Midlands is comically well-observed.

Underlying the humour though, is a story of tragedy and survival in a time of genocide.

The eighty-something father who is seduced by a thirty-something Ukranian woman (with "most superior breasts"!) is sympathetically drawn despite his obvious flaws, and his occasional rambling monologues on politics & philosophy are genuinely informative.

The antagonism and eventual raprochement between the two sisters is funny, touching and totally believable.

All the characters are well-drawn.

I strongly recommend this great book.

_A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian_ was recommended to me on the premise that an octagenarian Ukrainian immigrant marries a much younger, glamourous Ukrainian woman; hilarity ensues. Is it a love match, or is the younger woman merely a gold-digger seeking citizenship and the "good life" in the West? How the geriatric widower and his two well-meaning middle-aged daughters see the relationship tells much about their pasts: the time and circumstances in which they grew up and where they are at that particular moment in their lives.

A good deal of the story plodded along - as a previous reviewer noted, it would have made a much better short story than a book - I became increasingly frustrated as the story developed, although this may have been intentional, Lewycka wanting me to empathize with the well-meaning (if exasperated) daughters. The conclusion was rewarding, and I felt was the strongest writing of the book as well - Lewycka quite movingly shows the internal mechanisms that all families face: sibling rivalry, the struggles of caring for elderly parents, differences in political and social outlook - with the additional burden of cultural differences between those born in Ukraine and those born in Britain.

While some may apparently found it funny, I didn't think so; perhaps the relationships between characters and the events were a little too close to home for me to find any humor in them. (Or maybe I don't have as good a sense of humor as I thought I did.) A good diversionary read, but not a great book.

I didn't really enjoy this book. Some parts were entertaining/humorous, but I found the book hard to pick up. It definitely did not capture my attention. The general consensus of our book club was that we would not recommend this book to our friends.

Looking at the cover of this book, I immediately thought to myself that this is not Ukraine--not as I know her! The cover was an insightful indication of the biased rhetoric that was to follow.

The top cover photo is of "Local characters: Two paupers, one blind aged 70, the other sighted, aged 58, 1870s. Courtesy of State Historical Museum, Moscow."

The bottom image on the cover is by "Georgii Petrusov, Lunch in the Fields, (1934), Courtesy of Galerie Alex Lachmann, Cologne, 'The idealization of Russian family and collective...'"

The back cover repeats the front, bottom photo by "Georgii Petrusov, Lunch in the Fields, (1934), Courtesy of Galerie Alex Lachmann, Cologne, 'The idealization of Russian family and collective...'"

Now, I ask the reader, why would a person put on a cover (and repeat on the back cover) of a book purporting to describe the history of Ukraine, photos from Russia and call the book "...A Journey through the History of Ukraine"?

According to the lavish review written by The Times on the back of the book, Anna Reid spent three years living in Kyiv as a reporter and is "remarkably clear-headed about the many competing versions of Ukraine's history and its mostly invented heroes. A wise and generous government in Kiev (sic) would give her a medal." I ask: why would the Ukrainian government give Ms. Reid a medal for stating that Ukraine has "mostly invented heroes"?

The author's very obvious Russian slant/bias is apparent from not only the cover and page one of the book, where she opens with a quote from a Russian novelist and playwright, Mikhail Bulgakov (a Russian born in Kyiv, Ukraine to Russian parents), but continues throughout the book. Again, I ask why wasn't a quote used from a Ukrainian if the book deals with Ukrainian history? If the author wanted to quote Russians and use photos from Russia, why not write a book on Russia and give it a title with Russia in the name?

Of the ten chapters in the book, chapter two has a quote from Ukraine's bard Taras Shevchenko and also a traditional Ukrainian curse (which I've never heard, but encountered for the first time in this book). We, again, hear from Ukrainian bard Taras Shevchenko in chapter four's introduction, but his quote isn't deemed important/meritorious enough to stand alone, so a quote by Hugh Seton-Watson accompanies it.

In chapter nine, there is a quote from the "first verse and chorus of the Soviet national anthem" (eight lines) followed by two lines attributed to an unnamed "Rukh leader." I ask: why are we forced to read lines from the Soviet national anthem in a book dealing with the history of Ukraine?

Chapter ten has a quote from Gogol. Most people still think, erroneously, that he is a great Russian writer. However, to her credit, Ms. Reid does state much earlier in the book (chapter three) that Gogol is a Ukrainian--Gogol (Hohol) was a Ukrainian born in the Poltava region of Ukraine. Gogol, a Ukrainian, became a great Russian writer--this anomaly resulted in studies over the decades. Edyta M. Bojanowska, Ph.D., Harvard University, offers her analyses of this nineteenth-century writer from a new perspective, giving convincing arguments and reflecting critical thought in the process. Dr. Bojanowska teaches (is a Lecturer on Slavic Languages and Literatures) at Harvard University, where she was a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows. Her book is available on Amazon.com--buy it, read it, and become enlightened--Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian and Russian Nationalism.

Why not quotes from Ukrainians like Ivan Franko (a Ukrainian scholar, publicist, poet, political and civic leader, publisher, novelist, literary historian, and nationalist, who had Lviv University renamed in his honor. He had over 6,000 books in his personal library; he completed over 5,000 translations for sixty authors in 14 languages. In 1956, UNESCO sponsored the centenary of his birth, an event that was noted internationally.) Franko is just one example--why not quotes from Lesia Ukrainka, Olha Kobylianska, or other Ukrainians?

Ms. Reid likes to give her Russified version of events, followed by: "The Ukrainian version of events, of course..." which implies that the Ukrainian version is in all cases wrong and something to be dismissed and ridiculed.

She describes her drive "from Khortytsya Island in Zaporizhya: `Covered in snow, the countryside looked one-dimensional, like an over-exposed black-and-white photograph.'" Maybe Ms. Reid should have taken that photo and used the photograph on the cover of her book. It would have depicted the steppes of Ukraine and Ukraine's chornozem (on its website, the Embassy of Ukraine describes chornozem as meaning `black earth'--it has become internationally recognized and refers to Ukrainian soil, celebrated as the most fertile possible. Because of her fertile land, Ukraine was once known as the Breadbasket of Europe.).

In this book, you can't venture far without derogatory remarks and comments, such as: "...the Cossacks weren't up to much. Weren't they violent? Weren't they drunk? Above all, weren't they failures? Didn't even Gogol make fun of his Cossack hero Taras Bulba?"

Let me first of all address the issue of Cossacks (Kozaks). Everyone should view the video entitled, "Ukraine: Ancient Crossroads, Modern Dreams." In my review of that video, I quote from the movie: In one segment, the narrator explains that "Kozaks did more than fight and dance, they also financed the building of many churches...the Kozaks brought many fine churches and other developments to the region, but, perhaps, their most important achievement was holding off the bondage of serfdom..." This must-see video is available for purchase on Amazon.com, or through interlibrary loan.

Regarding Ms. Reid's reference to Gogol and Taras Bulba, Professor Bojanowska addresses this issue expertly in her scholarly study (Harvard University Press) entitled: "Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian and Russian Nationalism." Pages 271-279 are rich with references, quotes, and scholarly insight. "...Taras Bulba stands out as a savvy political leader. He understands how history and politics are made and is able to promote an ideology, rather than just blindly follow one. Though his single-mindedness makes him an exemplary patriot, Gogol's portrayal of him is more complex than a simple affirmation of his values and actions, as is commonly assumed." "Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian and Russian Nationalism" is available for purchase on Amazon.com, or through Interlibrary loan.

As another example of disparaging discourse on Ukraine, Ms. Reid describes Shevchenko's grave: "was covered with a Cossack-style mound and marked with an oak cross. In the 1880s the wooden cross was replaced with an iron one, in 1931 with an obelisk, and in 1939 with a hideous monumental bronze statue, which still stands today." I propose to readers that the word "hideous" is Ms. Reid's description. That she thinks it's hideous is really of no interest to me. When I read a history of a country, I like to read the facts, not someone's opinion and biased description.

A disparaging comparison from Ms. Reid follows: "`Poland is not yet lost' was the title of a Napoleonic Polish marching song; `Ukraine is not dead yet' is the less-inspiring opening line of the present-day Ukrainian national anthem."

Her derogatory descriptions continue: "...OUN split in two--the more moderate `Melnykivtsi,' under the Civil War veteran Andriy Melnyk, and the fanatical `Banderivtsi', under the young head of OUN's terrorist unit, Stepan Bandera."

The Encyclopedia of Ukraine describes Stepan Bandera as a "revolutionary, politician and ideologue of the Ukrainian nationalist movement." The Encyclopedia of Ukraine describes Andrii Melnyk as a "military figure and political activist." I submit that the words "fanatical" and "terrorist unit" have no place in this discussion if it's to remain truly objective and depict historical events. The Encyclopedia of Ukraine is "the most comprehensive work in the English language on Ukraine, its history, people, geography, economy, and cultural heritage. This site was created and is updated/maintained by a team of scholars and editors from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) (University of Alberta/University of Toronto). Hundreds of specialists from around the world have contributed and continue to contribute to the Encyclopedia."

For readers who want a true, unbiased history of Ukraine, an excellent 150-minute video called "The Ukrainian Experience," covers Ukraine's history in five parts: part 1: From Antiquity to the Rise of Kiev (Kyiv); part 2: From the Fall of Kiev (Kyiv) to the Rise of the Hetman State; part 3: From the Ruin to the 1905 Revolution; part 4: Modern History of Ukraine; and, part 5: The Diaspora and Ukrainians in Canada.

This video is "The story of Ukraine from the founding of Kiev (Kyiv) to the recent Declaration of Independence as told by Roman Onufrijchuk, writer and lecturer with the Department of Communications at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C., enhanced with colorful visuals, anecdotes, pathos, humor and music. This series was produced during 1992 as a Centennial Project by: the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, B.C. Provincial Council, #208 - 1015, Burrard St., Vancouver, B.C. V6Z 1Y5, phone: 604-687-2052."

Another excellent source for impartial information on Ukraine's history is Professor Orest Subtelny's (published to international acclaim) Ukraine: a History. Orest Subtelny is a Canadian historian of Ukrainian descent, and a Professor at the Department of History and Political Science, York University, Toronto, Canada. The third edition (2000) is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

There are good sources of information on Ukraine's history; unfortunately, "Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine" falls far short of a good reference source. As I read through some of the reviews, seeing statements such as "I purchased this book for research purposes (I needed some familiarity with Ukraine), and this book more than sufficed"--I cringed!

A person doing research needs material that is factual, not something that is laced throughout with subjective, biased comments. Consider this review: "...this book gave a wonderful condensed history of the (sic) Ukraine."--I cringed some more!! By the way, the name of the country is one word: "Ukraine," the phrase: "the Ukraine" is incorrect!

Another review continues: "...There are some historical inaccuracies in the book, but one assumes that these (sic) data were (sic) supplied to the author by both Polish and Russian sources. Otherwise, this (sic) a good book for (sic) reader interested in getting his "feet wet" on this newly independent nation." May I suggest to the author of this review that "some historical inaccuracies" do not "otherwise (make it a) "good book."

I wonder whether this "A Customer" is the same one that I encountered when I wrote a rebuttal review of "Ukraine: Ancient Crossroads, Modern Dreams"? "A Customer" in his/her review recommended "Save your money. This video taught me nothing about the (sic) Ukraine, its countryside, its people, or its culture." My review, in part, reads: Ukraine (Ancient Crossroads, Modern Dreams) is a must-see video! Not only is it recommended by the Ohio State University Center for Slavic and East European Studies, but the university offers a free loan (call 614-292-8770, or write to Keisel.1@osu.edu). For a complete review/debunking of the review of "A Customer," please go to that page and read my review. "Ukraine: Ancient Crossroads, Modern Dreams" is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

Here's what this "A Customer" wrote about Ms. Reid's book: "Borderland" is an excellent book by a very perceptive and knowledgable (sic) writer." It's interesting that when "A Customer" writes a review, his/her Amazon account is closed so that when you mouse over that name, no profile appears. I do believe that this person puts out false/misleading information, and then conveniently disappears so that answers won't be forthcoming to legitimate questions. Also interesting, is the fact that two reviews appear by "A Customer": one dated May 16, 2000 (rated 2 stars), and the other dated February 15, 2001 (rated 5 stars). Both reviews are from accounts that were closed--if you mouse over the names, no information is available regarding a profile for either person. Is this the same person, closing an account, only to reopen it a short while later so that he/she may continue to write reviews and influence the rating system? There are very many "A Customer" entries when you search the reviewers.

Imparting truthful information is one thing; imparting biased information is inexcusable. The author used credible sources/references to conveniently lure the unsuspecting reader into a complacent belief that the rest of the words that follow are objective reporting. Chapter six on "The Great Hunger" (Holodomor) is a good one, and merits reading. This could have been a remarkable "journey through the history of Ukraine"; unfortunately, the author squandered that opportunity by littering the roads with very obvious bias and subjective slants.

As all the postings and appraisal of Anna Reids book reflects this is a very good introduction to Ukrainian history. That is with stress on both *good*, *introduction* and *up to 1997*. If you have allready read several histories of Ukraine, chances are slim you will find much new here. If you need an update on the orange revelution, you will simply not find what you look for here. If you find another book to cover the orange revelution, it might even be an advantage that it is published in 1997, in the sense that it is likely to focues more on the Kuchma era than a book published more recently will.

It is not unlikely that you anyway will enjoy here anectodical introductions to each chapeter though, using personal experiences as illustrations to the different regions and historical periods of the country. To illustrate the strenght and the (less important) weekness of this style of writing, an could tell you about my reading of her book as preperation for a 3 weeks journey though Ukraine. Like a similar incident after reading Kapuscinski's story about Pinsk in Belarus, Reid has made me get off the train at 5 o'clock in the morning after a though night in the restaurant wagon caused by reading her chapter from this region - Chernivtsi is simply somewhere that you have to see before you die. The truth is a bit more complex. I guess what I try to say that her writing is better litterature than travel advice (read, to see what I mean).

I would like to add a few lines of why I think this book is as good as it is.

As I see it, A good hisoty of Ukraine aknowledges the following 3 things that Ukraine is, 3 things that Ukraine is not and 3 things as not important.

3 things you necesarily needs to find in a history of Ukraine is that
-It's history is above everything else multicultural and about a peasant culture
-The by far most significant buiding-blocks of Ukrainian national identity is to be found in the 1800s and 1900s.
-It is primary Ukraine itself that created the economic and political disaster of the 1990s (unlike in the 1920s, when Ukraine recovered after, say, 7 years of economic crisis the neo-Brezhnevism corruption is what probably makes the big difference)

Second to a cover picture of an Ukrainian peasant with a Russian bureucrate and a Jewish merchant on each side, the picture chosen for the front page is the perfect choice! Read the book and understand why. I am very surprised why someone have objections to the photo. What ever is the basis of their objection it is not Ukrainian history.

As of other peoples included in multicultural Empires in Eastern Europe up to World war I, national identity came late to Ukraine. Anna Reid gives a good and balanced understanding of this.

More important than any other explaination to the political and economic disaster of the 1990s was the policy of Ukraine itself. Anna Reid manages to give a good introduction to this not-so-proud recent past.

3 things you necesary *not* will find in a good history of Ukraine is:
-that Ukraine is an acient Eastern Slavonic Nation
-a history of Ukraine that is not closely related to Russian history
-a place in Ukraine that represents "real Ukraine"

Middle-age settlements in the Eastern Slavonic region was highly autonomious, there was several of them both in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and Kiev was an important but not the oldest of them.

The southern and Eastern Ukraine is both a crucial part of Russian and Ukraine and Ukrainian-Russian history. The Ukrainian impact on Soviet history and the great importance of the Soviet Union for Ukrainian national identity. Reid gives a good and balanced understanding of this. I take the objection of some reader that she puts to little emphasis of the collectivisation and starvation as a sign that she succeeds to present Ukraine as much more than victims of starvation. Also important, Ukraine was the politically most priviledged republic after the Russians in the Soviet Union.

Though this side of the story is included in Anna Reid's book, the fact that it is published in 1997 does that some important developments that we can see though the last 10 years is missing. I miss some important development lines in post Soviet Ukraine, compared to Russia and Belarus. When Yury Andropov introduced the perestroyka policy in Russia (yes, this was originally Andropov's and not Gorbies initiative) backed by the army and KGB, one might say that the Russians (who were in charge of the milirary powers, while the Ukrainians had a huge influence on the Post-Stalin political power) took over the political wing of the Soviet Union from Ukraine, who on their site continued the corruption and maleconomies of the disasterous Brezhnev years into the Kuchma era. Belarus, on thir side, seems to never got as badly hit by the Brezhnev's Dnipropetrovsk mafia as did Russia and Ukraine.

3 things a hsitory of Ukraine will reflect that is not important is
-whether you prefere to write Kyiv or Kiev
-what Ukraine really means
-what place is the orign of Eastern Slavonic civilisation

Anna Reid does not make a big deal out of any of this. Combined with good writing and the succsessful use of anecdotes from her personal experiences and research you have the reason why it is so interesting to read her book, while hardly interesting to read some of the polemics over this kind of choices in some of the customer reviews.

One final pice of advice. If you on this or other books of Ukrainian history finds single reviewers who has totally different views than the other reviewers - views that you find it difficult to fit with other reviews, you might want to check if the reviewer is a member of the Ukrainian Diaspora, especially Nothern American Diaspora. They often tend to have very unbalanced views on Ukrainian history and I would not give their views to much weight when it comes to how non-diaspora readers will experience the book.

Very complete. Great timeline in front of text so one can keep track of which Polish or Russian invasion the writer is explaining. HOWEVER, it needs extra chapters to explain the last 10 years of major change in Ukraine.

I bought this product on the strength of the interest generated by a visit to Ukraine, good reviews, and its inspired title. I have to say I was disappointed, in that instead of history I found, for the most part, patronizing British journalism, a bit too full of the kind of smart comments which are intrusive without being thought-provoking. Certainly I found here much of the historical information I was looking for, but with a bias towards colourful anecdote rather than explanation of background.

I have to say it picked up considerably in the chapters on the first half of the twentieth century. The obtrusive comments seem to recede as the grim story takes centre stage. Much of this is powerfully told, and I respect the way the writer does not pull her punches on the Famine.

I do not regret purchasing the book, and in view of the last paragraph, plus the absence as far as I know of better work with similar coverage, I think three stars is fair. Readers who like its journalistic style might find it worth four.

There are certainly connections between russian and ukrainian culture. But those of us who have gone to ukrainian schools know well how authorites can suppress the total picture of a culture. Get a taste of the beauty of Ukraine from this book, but be open to more and accurate info as well. Buy more books on Ukraine!