Zero Point Ukraine. * Four Essays on World War II
In her Four Essays on World War II, Olena Stiazhkina inscribes the Ukrainian history of World War II into a wider European and world context. Among other aspects, she analyzes the mobilization measures on the eve of the war, and reconsiders Soviet narratives on them. Scrutinizing social and political processes initiated by the Bolshe- vik leadership in the 1920s and 1930s, she outlines how mobilization and mili-tariza- tion became integral parts of Soviet politics.
Today, the Kremlin uses Soviet and post-Soviet Russian narratives of World War II to justify its aggressive policies towards a number of democratic countries. Russia is engaged in falsification of the past to underpin claims of a so-called “Russian World” and its ongoing war against Ukraine. Against this background, Stiazhkina offers a new understanding of what happened in Ukraine before, during, and after World War II.
“Here youget answers that will change your krtowledge both of Ukrainian history and how the ‘building of a new society’ by a totalitarian regime ajfected everyone, even children. This fascinating book reinforces interest not only in the history of Ukraine, but in the history ofall Eastern Europe. ”
—Andriy Kurkov, novelist and President of PEN Ukraine
“Each essay is written in an elegantyet precise, clear manner. This is not a frite ac- count ofthe past, but a profound reflection of a historian, an attempt to overeóme the limitations ofthe national history. Olena Stiazhkina is among those who put in mo- tion the tombstone ofthe Great Patriotic War ’ myth, under which, within the concept ofthe Great Russian People’, Ukrainians were immured.”
—Tamara Vronska, Principal Researcher, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU
