<i>My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and Basic Books for the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

If you have the time to read just one book about the current round and historical precedents of Russia's attempts to erase Ukrainian identity and statehood, this is an excellent option. It is a very detailed and nuanced deep-dive into the historical background and the current genocidal rhetoric and policies, with many fascinating subplots along the way (from the connections between the Jewish and Ukrainian questions in the Russian imperialist thought to the politics of street renamings in occupied areas).

I was very excited to read the ARC, but, with the news getting progressively more horrifying since last spring, it took me months to muster the courage and actually get to it. I'm a wuss, what can I say. An accurate pictorial representation of me and this book:
<img src="https://i.ibb.co/0mdgwJs/Screenshot-2024-11-16-122246.png">

And yet, despite the grave subject matter, this book was balm to my soul. In a world of conspiracy theorists, Russia appeasers and homegrown realpolitikers, both basement-dwelling and haunting the hallowed halls of power, it was so soothing to read an in-depth and common-sense treatment of the events.


<i>The "why?"</i>
Pulling together multiple examples of texts and policies from the last two centuries, Finkel argues that Russia's aggression against Ukraine is driven by imperialist identity notions rather than any security concerns. The justifications for aggression are so stable over time that it would be comical, if not for the existential threat hanging over our heads: statements from Russian political and military leaders justifying their attempts to invade and subjugate Ukraine with claims about "brotherly nations" sound absolutely the same, whether they are coming from Putin, from someone in 1914, or from 1939. <i>"Russian emperors, Joseph Stalin, and now Putin have been intent on destroying Ukraine as a state, as an identity, and as an idea. At times, the goal of the political destruction of Ukraine morphed into physical annihilation of Ukraine’s residents":</i> their methods may differ, but the stated goals and their implementation show depressing consistencies.

Since the 19th-century Russian Empire, Russians believed that "creating" a Ukrainian nation required "unmaking" the Russian nation and depriving it of what they saw as their rightful patrimony (cf. the current Russian propaganda that often depicts Ukrainians as treasonous Russians that rejected their authentic and true Russian identity). Thus Ukraine was seen as an anti-Russia, often as a tool of the west. Ukraine’s democratic trajectory in the 2000s against the backdrop of Russia's increasing authoritarianism exacerbated that particular anxiety: Ukraine provided not just an alternative identity but also a political alternative. The growing jingoism at home and the complacent indifference of the West made Russia believe that it could act with impunity, and this put the world on the fast track to where we are now.

<i>Who's to blame?</i>

I mean, obviously, the genocidal Russian imperialism, so richly illustrated in this book, among others, but we shouldn’t forget about the Russian broad public (that supported the war that fed on their own deeply held beliefs and prejudices) and liberals, who by and large failed to see the independent Ukraine as anything other than "a curiosity that with time might come to its senses and rejoin democratic, prosperous Russia", and “failed to develop a coherent alternative vision of Russian identity, and thus share at least part of the blame for the disaster that followed.”
The politicians and IR specialists from the collective West were also spectacularly short-sighted in their choice to privilege Russia over very real concerns of its neighbors, thus walking us into the collapse of the rule-based international order and the post-Helsinki world--congrats, you blind cowards. The examples are numerous, from the notorious Chicken Kyiv speech, to the IR scholars who ridiculed Ukraine’s concerns when pressuring it it give up the nuclear arsenal, to the United States pressuring the government in Kyiv to avoid direct military confrontation during the annexation of Crimea.

<i>What should be done?</i>
Finkel stresses that <i>“Diplomacy could not achieve a solution to the crisis. It was Ukraine’s very existence as an independent state that offended Putin, not this or that specific policy it had pursued […] The sticking point is not Ukrainian policy but Russian perceptions of Ukraine and its right to exist as a sovereign state. Without addressing this, security arrangements alone cannot effect lasting change,”</i> especially since there was not a single political or security agreement that Russia had not violated when it wanted to--with little consequences. Therefore, while NATO accession is the best option that would prevent Russia from crushing Ukraine on the battlefield, it wouldn’t prevent Russia from trying to conquer Ukraine by other means (cf. Belarus, that was essentially annexed over the decades with not a single shot fired). Democratic transformations of Russia are not a guarantee of a sustainable and lasting peace either: <i>“Democracy in Russia is desirable for multiple reasons, but it alone is unlikely to prevent a future conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Indeed, if most of the Russian population retains its irredentist convictions, democracy could even exacerbate conflict by handing power to jingoists.”</i> Therefore, what is needed is a gradual change of perceptions in Russia and an identity construct that wouldn’t be based on age-old imperialist myths about the brotherly unity of nations, etc. Whether anybody in the West is willing to help Russia choose the path of those transformations is, ugh, an open question, so, while this book is an excellent read and I highly recommend it, the contrast between these propositions that seem very common-sense to me and the actual rhetoric of the elon musks of this world doesn’t fill me with optimism about Ukraine’s chances or my own chances to survive.