Lost Kingdom by Serhii Plokhy

The Blurb On The Back:

An astonishing wide-ranging history of Russian nationalism from a pre-eminent scholar of Eastern Europe.

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine. While the world watched in outrage, this violation of national sovereignty was in fact only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the merging of imperialism and nationalism in Russia today by delving into its history. Spanning over two thousand years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin have exploited existing forms of identity, warfare and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. A strikingly ambitious book, Lost Kingdom chronicles the long and belligerent history of Russia’s empire and nation-building quest.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Serhii Plokhy is Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, director of its Ukrainian Research Institute and a leading authority on Eastern Europe. This book, written after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk, examines Russian history to explain its nationalistic view of Ukraine but although it’s informative, you need a background in the subject to keep up with Plokhy’s arguments and at times I was left confused.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.