Serhii Plokhy

· En los últimos meses de 1991 las reformas emprendidas por los líderes soviéticos habían creado una situación insoportable. La Unión Soviética se encaminaba a su fin, pero los principales artífices del cambio estaban lejos de sospecharlo. · Gorbacho

En octubre de 1962 el mundo estuvo a punto de acabarse. Al descubrir la presencia de misiles atómicos en suelo cubano, John F. Kennedy se enfrentó a la Unión Soviética en un pulso que estuvo a punto de ocasionar la Tercera Guerra Mundial. Hoy, en el sexagesimo aniversario, con Ucrania en guerra, Serhii Plokhy analiza a fondo el contexto en que se desarrollo y las decisiones de sus protagonistas.Con nueva documentacion que revela errores de bulto de la inteligencia americana y del lado sovietico, Locura nuclear es tambien un retrato de la revolucion cubana, del clan Kennedy y del ascenso y caida de Jruschov dentro del Politburo.The Wall Street Journal lo ha llamado uno de los libros mas importantes jamas escritos sobre la crisis de los misiles y las relaciones internacionales del siglo XX

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine. While the world watched in outrage, this violation of national sovereignty was in fact only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the merging of imperialism and nationalism in Russia today by delving into its history. Spanning over two thousand years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin have exploited existing forms of identity, warfare and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. A strikingly ambitious book, Lost Kingdom chronicles the long and belligerent history of Russia's empire and nation-building quest.

A necessary book and I can think of no writer better qualified to write it Cal Flyn What if Chernobyl was just the beginning The acclaimed winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize returns to Chernobyl to tell the gripping story of thirty five days of warOn 24 February 2022 the first day of Russia s full scale invasion of Ukraine armoured vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine It was the most direct way for them to reach the capital and an extraordinarily reckless plan after the disaster that had taken place there three decades earlier Russian occupation of the plant had begun It would last thirty five days Closely reported and narrated from multiple perspectives this is the story of the Ukrainians who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days to spare the world a new nuclear accident We meet Valentyn Heiko the foreman who had also been there for the clean up of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and turned sixty during the occupation plant workers who found a way to celebrate International Women s Day despite all odds Russian officers who had no knowledge of nuclear reactors and four stalkers who were caught in the middle and stood in for the overworked cook Gripping and unforgettable Chernobyl Roulette s

From a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prizewinning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialism. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine -- only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the confluence of Russian imperialism and nationalism today by delving into the nations history. Spanning over 500 years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin exploited existing forms of identity, warfare, and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. An authoritative and masterful account of Russian nationalism, Lost Kingdom chronicles the story behind Russias belligerent empire-building quest.

· En los últimos meses de 1991 las reformas emprendidaspor los líderes soviéticos habían creado una situacióninsoportable. La Unión Soviética se encaminaba a su fin,pero los principales artífices del cambio estaban lejos desospecharlo.· Gorbachov, Yeltsin y Bush (padre) protagonizaron unosmeses decisivos que culminaron con la disolucion de laUnion Sovietica y el fin de la Guerra Fria. Pero, ¿y si elobjetivo de ee.uu no era que la urss cayera?· Una narracion trepidante sobre la caida del ultimogran imperio, que se aparta de la tesis de la victoriaestadounidense en la Guerra Fria y ofrece una nuevaperspectiva.

In the fall of 1961, KGB assassin Bogdan Stashinsky defected to West Germany. After spilling his secrets to the CIA, Stashinsky was put on trial in what would be the most publicized assassination case of the entire Cold War. The publicity stirred up by the Stashinsky case forced the KGB to change its modus operandi abroad and helped end the career of Aleksandr Shelepin, one of the most ambitious and dangerous Soviet leaders. Stashinskys testimony, implicating the Kremlin rulers in political assassinations carried out abroad, shook the world of international politics. Stashinskys story would inspire films, plays, and books-including Ian Flemings last James Bond novel, The Man with the Golden Gun. A thrilling tale of Soviet spy craft, complete with exploding parcels, elaborately staged coverups, double agents, and double crosses, The Man with the Poison Gun offers unparalleled insight into the shadowy world of Cold War espionage.

A New York Times bestseller, this definitive history of Ukraine is an exemplary account of Europes least-known large country (Wall Street Journal).As Ukraine is embroiled in an ongoing struggle with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence, celebrated historian Serhii Plokhy explains that todays crisis is a case of history repeating itself: the Ukrainian conflict is only the latest in a long history of turmoil over Ukraines sovereignty. Situated between Central Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, Ukraine has been shaped by empires that exploited the nation as a strategic gateway between East and Westfrom the Romans and Ottomans to the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. In The Gates of Europe, Plokhy examines Ukraines search for its identity through the lives of major Ukrainian historical figures, from its heroes to its conquerors.This revised edition includes new material that brings this definitive history up to the present. As Ukraine once again finds itself at the center of global attention, Plokhy brings its history to vivid life as he connects the nations past with its present and future.

Few historians write with Serhii Plokhy s authority clarity or global vision Essential reading and a marvellous book Peter FrankopanFrom the bestselling author of Chernobyl comes a sweeping history of the geopolitics behind the nuclear arms race from the first atomic bomb to todayOn 16 July 1945 the Nuclear Age began with the explosion of the first atomic bomb and the words of J Robert Oppenheimer Now I am become Death the Destroyer of Worlds While the threat of mutually assured destruction kept a lid on a simmering and tense geopolitical landscape events like the Chernobyl disaster and near misses like the Cuban Missile Crisis showed that total destruction was only ever one malfunction mistake or miscommunication away Now as governments re arm their nuclear arsenals treaties designed to limit the acquisition and use of nuclear weapons fall away and nuclear weapons come increasingly within reach of non state actors we are on the brink of a renaissance of the nuclear industry In The Nuclear Age acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy paints an intricate picture of a world governed by fear From the first artificial splitting of the atom in 1917 and the race to create the first atomic bomb in World War II through the fraught arms race of the Cold War t

The New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of Europe offers a stirring account of an extraordinary moment in Russian history (Wall Street Journal)On Christmas Day, 1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to declare an American victory in the Cold War: earlier that day Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned as the first and last Soviet president. The enshrining of that narrative, one in which the end of the Cold War was linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the triumph of democratic values over communism, took center stage in American public discourse immediately after Bushs speech and has persisted for decades -- with disastrous consequences for American standing in the world.As prize-winning historian Serhii Plokhy reveals in The Last Empire, the collapse of the Soviet Union was anything but the handiwork of the United States. Bush, in fact, was firmly committed to supporting Gorbachev as he attempted to hold together the USSR in the face of growing independence movements in its republics. Drawing on recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, Plokhy presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Unions final months, providing invaluable insight into the origins of the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the outset of the most dangerous crisis in East-West relations since the end of the Cold War. Winner of the Lionel Gelber PrizeWinner of the Pushkin House Russian Book PrizeChoice Outstanding Academic TitleBBC History Magazine Best History Book of the Year

1961. The height of the Cold War. Just hours before work begins on the Berlin Wall, a KGB assassin and his young wife flee for the West before the Iron Curtain comes down and traps them in the East forever.This gripping story of real-life espionage and intrigue began when the Soviets invented a special weapon that killed without leaving a trace and put it in the hands of Bogdan Stashinsky. It is a tale of exploding parcels, fake identities, forbidden love and a man who knew the truth about the USSRs most classified programme. By the time Stashinsky had his day in court, the whole world was watching.

World-renowned historian Serhii Plokhy presents a profoundly original, page-turning account of the Soviet Unions collapseBY THE AUTHOR OF CHERNOBYL: HISTORY OF A TRAGEDY, WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2018WINNER OF THE PUSHKIN HOUSE RUSSIAN BOOK PRIZE 2015On Christmas Day 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union. By the next day the USSR was officially no more and the USA had emerged as the worlds sole superpower. Award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy presents a page-turning account of the preceding five months of drama, filled with failed coups detat and political intrigue.Honing in on this previously disregarded but crucial period and using recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, he shatters the established myths of 1991 and presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Unions final months. Plokhy argues that contrary to the triumphalist Western narrative, George H. W. Bush desperately wanted to preserve the Soviet Union and keep Gorbachev in power, and that it was Ukraine and not the US that played the key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The consequences of those five months and the myth-making that has since surrounded them are still being felt in Crimea, Russia, the US, and Europe today.With its spellbinding narrative and strikingly fresh perspective, The Last Empire is the essential account of one of the most important watershed periods in world history, and is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to make sense of international politics today.***Fascinating and readable Beautifully written. SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, &&&&&&&&&&Written like a good thriller, The Last Empire recounts how chance events and quirky personalities led within a few months in 1991 to the disintegration of the empire built and maintained by generations.GUARDIANWonderfully well-written bracing and timely well worth reading. THE TIMES

Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize 2018An insightful and important book, that often reads like a good thriller, and that exposes the danger of mixing powerful technology with irresponsible politics - Yuval Noah Harari, author of SapiensAs moving as it is painstakingly researched. . . a cracking read - Viv Groskop, ObserverThe gripping story of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, from an acclaimed historian and writerOn the morning of 26 April 1986 Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine. The outburst put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation. In the end, less than five percent of the reactors fuel escaped, but that was enough to contaminate over half of Europe with radioactive fallout. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy recreates these events in all of their drama, telling the stories of the firefighters, scientists, engineers, workers, soldiers, and policemen who found themselves caught in a nuclear Armageddon and succeeded in doing the seemingly impossible: extinguishing the nuclear inferno and putting the reactor to sleep. While it is clear that the immediate cause of the accident was a turbine test gone wrong, Plokhy shows how the deeper roots of Chernobyl lay in the nature of the Soviet political system and the flaws of its nuclear industry. A little more than five years later, the Soviet Union would fall apart, destroyed from within by its unsustainable communist ideology and the dysfunctional managerial and economic systems laid bare in the wake of the disaster.A poignant, fast paced account of the drama of heroes, perpetrators, and victims, Chernobyl is the definitive history of the worlds worst nuclear disaster.

L’invasion de l’Ukraine par la Russie en février 2022 a été un choc pour le monde entier. Pourquoi Poutine a-t-il déclenché cette guerre ? Et pourquoi cela paraissait-il inimaginable auparavant ? Les

Ce livre est une histoire de l’Ukraine, du territoire et des hommes qui l’habitent, depuis Hérodote jusqu’à Zelensky. Racontée avec brio à travers une suite d’événements et de portraits des protagoni

En los últimos meses de 1991 las reformas emprendidasnpor los líderes soviéticos habían creado una situación insoportable. La Unión Soviética se encaminaba a su fin, pero los principales artífices del cambio estaban lejos de sospecharlo. Gorbachov, Yeltsin y Bush (padre) protagonizaron unos meses decisivos que culminaron con la disolucion de la Union Sovietica y el fin de la Guerra Fria. Pero, ¿y si el objetivo de ee.uu no era que la urss cayera? Una narracion trepidante sobre la caida del ultimo gran imperio, que se aparta de la tesis de la victoria estadounidense en la Guerra Fria y ofrece una nueva perspectiva.

On 26 April 1986 at 1.23am a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. While the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate. The blast put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout.In Chernobyl, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy draws on recently opened archives to recreate these events in all their drama. A moment by moment account of the heroes, perpetrators and victims of a tragedy, Chernobyl is the first full account of a gripping, unforgettable Cold War story.'A compelling history of the 1986 disaster and its aftermath . . . plunges the reader into the sweaty, nervous tension of the Chernobyl control room on that fateful night when human frailty and design flaws combined to such devastating effect' Daniel Beer, Guardian'Haunting ... near-Tolstoyan. His voice is humane and inflected with nostalgia' Roland Elliott Brown, Spectator 'Extraordinary, vividly written, powerful storytelling ... the first full-scale history of the world's worst nuclear disaster, one of the defining moments in the Cold War, told minute by minute' Victor Sebestyen Sunday Times'Plays out like a classical tragedy ... fascinating' Julian Evans, Daily Telegraph'Here at last is the monumental history the disaster deserves' Julie McDowall, The Times

An astonishingly wide-ranging history of Russian nationalism chronicling Russias yearning for Empire and how it has affected its politics for centuriesIn 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine. While the world watched in outrage, this violation of national sovereignty was in fact only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the merging of imperialism and nationalism in Russia today by delving into its history. Spanning over two thousand years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin have exploited existing forms of identity, warfare and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. A strikingly ambitious book, Lost Kingdomchronicles the long and belligerent history of Russias empire and nation-building quest.

A necessary book and I can think of no writer better qualified to write it Cal Flyn What if Chernobyl was just the beginning?The acclaimed winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize returns to Chernobyl to tell the gripping story of thirty-five days of warOn 24 February 2022, the first day of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, armoured vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. It was the most direct way for them to reach the capital - and an extraordinarily reckless plan after the disaster that had taken place there three decades earlier. Russian occupation of the plant had begun. It would last thirty-five days.Closely reported and narrated from multiple perspectives, this is the story of the Ukrainians who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days to spare the world a new nuclear accident. We meet Valentyn Heiko, the foreman who had also been there for the clean-up of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and turned sixty during the occupation; plant workers who found a way to celebrate International Womens Day despite all odds; Russian officers who had no knowledge of nuclear reactors; and four stalkers who were caught in the middle and stood in for the overworked cook.Gripping and unforgettable, Chernobyl Roulette sounds the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in an unprecedented time, when plant workers are left to fight on their own while the world holds its breath. In a book that reads like a thriller, Serhii Plokhy tells a remarkable story about human nature, uncertainty and courage.

Few historians write with Serhii Plokhys authority, clarity or global vision... Essential reading, and a marvellous book Peter FrankopanFrom the bestselling author of Chernobyl comes a sweeping history of the geopolitics behind the nuclear arms race, from the first atomic bomb to todayOn 16 July 1945, the Nuclear Age began with the explosion of the first atomic bomb and the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.While the threat of mutually assured destruction kept a lid on a simmering and tense geopolitical landscape, events like the Chernobyl disaster and near-misses like the Cuban Missile Crisis showed that total destruction was only ever one malfunction, mistake, or miscommunication away. Now, as governments re-arm their nuclear arsenals, treaties designed to limit the acquisition and use of nuclear weapons fall away, and nuclear weapons come increasingly within reach of non-state actors, we are on the brink of a renaissance of the nuclear industry.In The Nuclear Age, acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy paints an intricate picture of a world governed by fear. From the first artificial splitting of the atom in 1917 and the race to create the first atomic bomb in World War II, through the fraught arms race of the Cold War, to the imperialism, neo-colonial motivation and wars being waged today, the threat posed by nuclear weapons is as pertinent as ever.As he examines the motivations of key players, Plokhy confronts the crucial question of our age: what can we learn from the first nuclear arms race that can help us to stop the new one?