Intent to destroy Russia's two-hundred-year quest to dominate Ukraine

Relentlessly grim but utterly necessary, this work points to a compelling conclusion: Russia's war against Ukraine, or something similar, would likely have occurred even if NATO, the EU, the CIA, or the US never existed. Finkel (Johns Hopkins Univ.) highlights two historical concerns of Russian/Soviet leaders: identity and security. Struggles over identity assert or contest the very existence of Ukrainian people and nation; Vladimir Putin claims that Ukraine and Russia are "one people," always under Moscow's heel. Autocracy's security reigns supreme even more than national security. Russia's rulers have long feared a democratic, independent Ukraine influencing Russians to seek their own truly representative government. Commencing with modern nationalism in the 1800s, Finkel details diverse strategies to dominate, even demolish, autonomous Ukraine: suppressing language, literature, and education; defeating independent republics in 1918--20; Stalin's 1932--33 Holodomor famine; meddling in post-Soviet Ukraine; and now a brutal invasion. Yet Ukraine has not perished. The 200-year sweep of Intent to Destroy effectively supports Finkel's argument, though the analysis could go further back to the early 18th century. It ends on a tentatively hopeful note, stressing essential (if difficult and distant) changes within Russia itself. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. --Thomas Pyke Johnson, University of Massachusetts, Boston

A Ukrainian-born political scientist examines Russia's centuries-long efforts to subject his homeland. "Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is the single most important event in Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991," writes Johns Hopkins professor Finkel. The tension between Ukraine and Russia, he writes, extends to the days of Kyivan Rus', the founding state of both modern nations, which, subjugated by Mongol invaders in the medieval era, gave way to the Podunk village of Moscow. The Muscovite elites, by Finkel's account, came to see themselves as the legitimate rulers of Rus'; especially in and after the expansionist regime of Peter the Great, Russia claimed Ukraine and proclaimed it as "Little Russia." That campaign is ongoing. Today, writes Finkel in his evenhanded but clearly pro-Ukrainian account, Russia is attempting to suppress the Ukrainian language and eliminate local traditions. What is worse, he adds, is that Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by the hundreds of thousands and taken to Russia, there to be "forced to become Russian." The intent is to erase Ukrainian identity generationally, and to some extent that horrific plan is succeeding. For all that, Finkel notes, the Russian invasion of 2022 has turned out to be disastrous: the Russian army and intelligence agencies assured Putin--who, by Finkel's account, hatched at least some of his war plans as a kind of Covid-19 isolation project--that they would be greeted as liberators and that the Ukrainians would fold in days. Instead, Ukraine has resisted bravely, despite casualties. The costs are many and will be long-lasting, Finkel concludes: "Even if Russia apologizes and pays reparations, it will take decades for Ukraine's wounds to heal." A book that does good service in deepening our understanding of what lies behind the headlines. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.