Stalingrad
by Antony Beevor | 
Nicholas and Alexandra
by Robert K. Massie | 
Voices from Chernobyl
by Svetlana Alexievich | 
Russian Roulette
by Michael Isikoff | 
The Spy and the Traitor
by Ben Macintyre | 
The Long Walk
by Slavomir Rawicz | 
Imperium
by Ryszard Kapuscinski | 
Bloodlands
by Timothy Snyder | 
Spies in the Family
by Eva Dillon | 
Gulag
by Anne Applebaum | 
The Billion Dollar Spy
by David E. Hoffman | 
Young Stalin
by Simon Sebag Montefiore | 
Lenin's Tomb
by David Remnick | 
A Writer at War
by Vasily Grossman | 
The Plot to Destroy Democracy
by Malcolm Nance | 
The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia
by Tim Tzouliadis | 
Iron Curtain
by Anne Applebaum | 
Revolution 1989
by Victor Sebestyen | 
Journey Into The Whirlwind
by Eugenia Ginzburg | 
Sliding on the Snow Stone
by Andy Szpuk |
Ukraine's struggle for a national identity plagued this former Soviet Union state long before the Cold War shook the world. Its central location between Eastern Europe and Western Asia invited many different cultures to settle the land, ultimately populating a powerful early medieval society known as Kievan Rus. However, readers will learn how Kievan Rus's Golden Age quickly crumbled with decades of Mongol invasions, Polish-Lithuanian occupation, and Russian empirical ruling. Explore how Ukraine flirted with independence in the early 20th century, only to be quickly taken over by harsh Soviet rule in 1922. Despite its independence from the USSR in 1991, devastating consequences of the socialist rule have allowed the world to witness Ukraine's ceaseless efforts to attain a stable government, struggling through the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, rigged elections, and the Orange Revolution. Kubicek's survey is comprehensive and concise-a perfect resource for high school students and undergrads, as well as general readers looking to further their knowledge of this up-and-coming nation.