The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus

I have been reading the History of Eurasia and Central/Eastern Europe for the last 60 years. I have to say that when reading the history of Eastern Europe, it is very difficult to follow the history of any one nation in a linear fashion.This is the best book written on this topic by any historian and believe me I think I have read most of them.The first problem are the histories written by the victors and then histories written by the defeated.Second there is the problem of countries popping up and then disappearing and then popping up and so forth ad nauseum.Third is the problem of multi-national empires.Fourth there are Nations without political borders or a National ruling elite.Fifth the National Elites change their national allegiances.Ultimately we have the book written by Prof. Plokhy and finally all is clear!

This was a very interesting book that made me rethink what I know about Russian history.Plokhy's subject is the development of national identity, and he makes many good points about the development of Russian and Ukrainian national identity, revealing it to be a much longer, much more complicated process than I had realized.A strong feature of this book is the importance of religion in determining identity, showing that even the Reformation and Counter-Reformation had an impact in Eastern Europe.This is not a book for beginners in the subject, but anyone with a serious interest in the history of Eastern Europe should read this book. Highly recommended.

Great book that offers a chronology and history about Slavic people. Ukrainians are not Russians which the Russians want the world to accept. Rus existed way before Russia and unfortunately Rus is considered to be Russian. Ukraine should be proud of their history and historians should know this and not extol Russia.

Great for anybody interested in serious detailed work on the history of eastern Slavs. Supported by lots of research.OB

The book is very academic. Very well written, demands your attention. I learned a lot.

The Title of this book makes it highly important to read today against the background of the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine. Who are the Russians, Ukrainian and the Belarussians? The Subtitle tells us that this question will be answered from the perspective of what they themselves thought they were and not from any other standpoint.This is not a popular history book. It is not "fun" to read. It is pure work. Professor Serheii Plokhy are writing for serious students and academics and in order to fully appreciate the book it helps a lot if you know Russian and have a very good knowledge of East European geography. This is not a book you start with if your interest is Slavic history.The Book starts with the Kiev Rus state a thousand years ago. This is a problem since we know that the Slavs living in todays western Russia, Belarus and Ukraine arrived there at least 500 years earlier. The Whole platform for a discussion of who they are leaves out where they came from and if all of them came from the same place. There are some references to mythology but nothing at all about archeology or DNA research. There is no answer to the question if all Slavs have the same origin.The Book then continues to present seven hundred years (the book ends more or less in the early 1700-hundreds) of Slavic religious, political and ethnological discussion on the subject on what to call themselves. Russian, Ukrainian, Rus, White Rus, Ruthenian etc. Professor Plokhy takes us through a large amount of books, documents and letters between various historical figures as well as what other researchers have found out. All of these discussions are supported with a general outline of the history of these territories. There are also some maps that are of great help but as always you need more of them.It is a complicated history and there are a number of problems in the text that makes it a challenge to take in. There are a lot of different Slavic tribes in the text without any explanation who they were. There are important people with titles that are very hard to understand since they are not explained. Is it a bishop in todays language or a librarian? Even more problematic is the use of Russian words to explain or clarify something without translating these words. The Book only has two index. One over authors and one "General". What would have helped and made the book easier to take in are several more like:- an index over all Slavic tribes with information who they were and were they lived- a Russian vocabulary for those words used in the text- a timeline for the history of these areas since in some chapters the presentation jumps back and forward between centuries- more maps to sort out what the text presents.What goes through your mind reading the book is the question if it really is only what is in the minds of people that defines if they are Russian, Ukrainian or Belarussian? There is nothing on archeology and there is nothing on language. Did all the Slavs speak the same language 1500 years ago? Today we know that there is a big difference between Russian and Ukrainian (try Google translate and see the difference) but what was the case in 1500?The Book focuses on who is a Russian. Only in the last fifty pages are there any discussion on who is Ukrainian. There is almost nothing in the book about Belarus except that armies fought there. In fact, there is so little on Belarus that the word Belarus should be stricken from the subtitle of the book.What is important and well presented in the book is the tremendous importance of the Orthodox Church. Up until Peter the Great the willpower of the Orthodox Church was one of the most important factors in the Slavic history. When you read about the Orthodox Church and read todays news there are a lot of similarities.Having read the book you will get a clearer picture of what makes these people think and behave today. The Similarity of the problems 3-500 years ago and today are striking. You will recognize a lot of political statements and propaganda that are being said and used today as based on (or not on) their previous history. This is very important since there is a very strong political willpower coming out of Moscow today to claim historical background to various things that are simply not supported by what we know. Granted, professor Plokhy is Ukrainian but I found the book to present an objective story rather than a Ukrainian version of it.So, is Ukraine a part of Russia that got lost? No. Is Russia the true descendant from Kiev-Rus? No. Are Ukraine? No. Then who are these people? The Book gives us an important part of the answer but not the full answer.