Books to Help Understand the Russo-Ukrainian War

If you’re looking for a Ukrainian perspective on the conflict and tensions between Russia, Ukraine, and the US, then you’ll want to read Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know. This book will help shed some light on Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election, how President Donald Trump’s impeachment trials affected relations between the three countries, and the history of conflict and the fight for democracy against staggering odds in Ukraine.

For a more contemporary history, reading The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America could give you that understanding you’re looking for. This book focuses on the rise of authoritarianism and the way Russia has had its goals to accomplish both domestically and abroad. Timothy Snyder utilizes research and personal reporting to bring an understanding to the choices the world has before it and helps bring understanding to the basis of our way of life, especially amid so much turmoil. If you recognize this author’s name, it might be from his popular release, On Tyranny.

For a deep dive into Stalin’s treatment of Ukraine during the 20th century, you’ll want to read Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine. It centers around the deadly famine caused by Stalin’s policy of agricultural collectivization that resulted in over 5 million deaths between 1931 and 1933, 3 million of those Ukrainians. In this book, Anne Applebaum argues that those deaths weren’t accidental, rather they were a targeted attack on the people of Ukraine, and it also discusses the way this history potentially foreshadows to further attacks on Ukraine’s independence in the 21st century.

This book is a gateway between past and present, examining the location of Ukraine as well as how the past has shaped the present. It’s an examination of the country’s identity as it has long been influenced by countries fighting to take its sovereignty away and how that colors today’s conflict. Serhii Plokhy was born in Russia, grew up in Ukraine, and is a noted scholar on both Ukrainian and Russian history. He has other books out on the history of Ukraine, so if you want to delve even deeper after finishing this book, then he’s a great author to continue to read!

If you’re looking for a book about how Russia became the country it is today, then you’ll want to read The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. This book explores how the country went from a dictatorship to a new autocracy even more hostile than the last in the span of a single generation. In this, Masha Gessen writes both a cautionary tale and shows how the Russian regime became what it is today while following four individuals as they grew up with unprecedented dreams juxtaposed against the regime crafted by some of their parents and grandparents.

For a book specifically about Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, you should pick up The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. This book follows Putin throughout his historical rise to power from a KGB officer to world leader, and it focuses on the way he destroyed years of progress and shattered all hopes of democracy once he gained power. Written by Masha Gessen, a journalist originally from Russia, this book taps into firsthand accounts as well as unused resources and perspectives previously utilized in other books about Putin.

This book is a detailed eyewitness account from a U.S. Diplomat formerly stationed in Ukraine who was present for the anti-corruption revolt that led to the removal from office of the former autocrat who was pro-Kremlin as well as Russia’s annexation of Crimea in retaliation. While this book focuses on events between 2012 and 2014, it will help inform today’s conflict as well as shedding a light on the events that have led us to this point.