Ukraine's Revolt, Russia's Revenge

by Christopher M. Smith

Overview

“This firsthand account of contemporary history is key to understanding Russia's latest assault on its neighbor."—USA Today

An eyewitness account by a U.S. diplomat of Russia’s brazen attempt to undo the democratic revolution in Ukraine

Told from the perspective of a U.S. diplomat in Kyiv, this book is the true story of Ukraine’s anti-corruption revolution in 2013—14, Russia’s intervention and invasion of that nation, and the limited role played by the United States. It puts into a readable narrative the previously unpublished reporting by seasoned U.S. diplomatic and military professionals, a wealth of information on Ukrainian high-level and street-level politics, a broad analysis of the international context, and vivid descriptions of people and places in Ukraine during the EuroMaidan Revolution. The book also counters Russia’s disinformation narratives about the revolution and America’s role in it.

While focusing on a single country during a dramatic three-year period, the book’s universal themes—among them, truth versus lies, democracy versus autocracy—possess a broader urgency for our times. That urgency burns particularly hot for the United States and all other countries that are the targets of Russia's cyber warfare and other forms of political skullduggery.

From his posting in U.S. Embassy Kyiv (2012–14), the author observed and reported first-hand on the EuroMaidan Revolution that wrested power from corrupt pro-Kremlin Ukrainian autocrat Viktor Yanukovych.

The book also details Russia’s attempt to abort the Ukrainian revolution through threats, economic pressure, lies, and intimidation. When all of that failed, the Kremlin exacted revenge by annexing Ukraine's territory of Crimea and fomenting and sustaining a hybrid war in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people and continues to this day.

Ukraine's Revolt, Russia’s Revenge is based on the author’s own observations and the multitude of reports of his Embassy colleagues who were eyewitnesses to a crucial event in contemporary history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815739241
Publisher:	Brookings Institution Press
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	1,065,103
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Christopher M. Smith is a career U.S. Foreign Service Officer who is currently at National Defense University. He has served in diplomatic positions in Estonia, Lesotho, China, Ukraine, and Washington, DC.

Read an Excerpt

FEBRUARY 21, 2014. A cold, tense night in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The main stage in Maidan Square. For three months Maidan has been the epicenter of a popular rebellion against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who heads a corrupt and increasingly autocratic government. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Oleh Tyahnybok, and Vitali Klitschko, the three main leaders of the political opposition, make their way to the stage through a crowd of thousands to announce details of a deal for political reorganization and reform that they have just struck with the embattled president.

Just the day before, the mounting tension inside Kyiv and throughout Ukraine had reached its brutal climax in a massacre relentlessly cheered on by the Russian media and government. Russia’s Prime Minister Medvedev crudely questioned Yanukovych’s manhood, declaring that he was nothing more than a ‘foot rag’ if he hesitated to spill protester blood. Government forces, including expert riflemen, their guns equipped with sniper sights, backed by thuggish pro-government auxiliaries, fired on demonstrators in Kyiv. Many were shot in the back. Sixty-seven were killed, 184 wounded by gunfire. Now the mood in the capital is blacker than the northern winter night. Justice for the dead and a change of regime is what people in Maidan Square demand, not political compromise with a detested and discredited national leader.

As the opposition leaders mount the stage, they are met by jeers, catcalls, and booing. The crowd passes several open caskets of yesterday’s victims overhead, their corpses brought to the stage accompanied by chants that Yanukovych must go. Volodymyr Parasyuk, a commander of the popular self-defense forces, a young man from Lviv in his mid-20s, grabs the microphone and gives an impassioned speech expressing the mood of the crowd. “Our kinsmen have been shot and our leaders shake hands with this killer. This is shameful. Tomorrow, by 10 o’clock, he has to be gone. ”

Table of Contents

Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1. My Road to Kyiv

2. Building Ukraine, from the Hetmans to Maidan

3. Corruption 101: My Introduction to Ukrainian Realities

4. Kyiv’s Tug-of-War: Putin Tilts the Balance

5. Blood-Stained Granite

6. Maidan’s Poetics versus Steel Shields and Black Helmets

7. Rules of Dictatorship, Fires of Resistance

8. “Who benefits from whipping up hysteria in our quiet little Crimea?”

9. Three Days in Hell: February 18–20, 2014

10. The Kremlin Fog Machine Hits Overdrive

11. Stealing Simferopol

12. Locking Down Crimea, Prying Open the East

13. Shockwaves of Terror in Donbas

14. The Lie Metastasizes

Epilogue

Index

Editorial Reviews

“Christopher Smith’s book is a must-read for all those who would like to gain a deeper understanding of Russia’s aggression both against Ukraine and Western democracies more broadly, and to recognize the urgency of a unified stand against the hybrid warfare that the Putin regime has unleashed upon those striving for democracy and civil freedoms.”
—Oleh Kotsyuba, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

From the Publisher