Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, where he was also named Walter Channing Cabot Fellow in 2013. A leading authority on Eastern Europe, he has lived and taught in Ukraine, Canada, and the United States. He has published extensively in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. For three successive years (2002-2005) his books won first prize of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies.
‘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 of Russian tsars and Soviet apparatchiks’.
*Guardian*
'A poignantly accurate examination of the last four months in the
existence of the USSR...a grippingly captivating story'.
*International Affairs*
‘Incisive… [Plokhy’s] vibrant, fast-paced narrative style captures
the story superbly’
*Sunday Times*
‘Fascinating and readable… the cast is terrific… Beautifully
written’
*Sunday Telegraph, five star review*
'A riveting thriller’
*Mail on Sunday*
‘Fine-grained, closely reported [and] highly readable’
*FT*
'Almost a day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of the actions and
reactions of the main figures… Very relevant to today's Ukrainian
crisis... The dramatic events of the second half of 1991 are very
well recounted'
*Literary Review*
‘Serhii Plokhy’s great achievement in this wonderfully well-written
account is to show that much of the triumphalist transatlantic view
of the Soviet collapse is historiographical manure… The author
explains as no one in English has until now, just how central
Ukraine was to the viability of any sort of Soviet bloc… it’s
bracing and timely… well worth reading’
*The Times*
‘A superb work of scholarship, vividly written, that challenges
tired old assumptions with fresh material from East and West, as
well as revealing interviews with many major players...
masterly’
*Spectator*
'In this highly original reanalysis, drawing on rarely used sources
scattered from Texas to Ukraine, Serhii Plokhy gives us a whole new
perspective on the Fall of the Soviet Union. Did the USA really
‘win’ the Cold War, he asks – or did democracy undo the Soviet
Empire from the inside?'
*Ian Morris, Professor of History at Stanford University and author
of Why the West Rules – For Now*
'Gripping, vivid and incisive – essential reading for anyone
wanting to counter modern Russian myth-making about the Soviet
collapse.'
*Edward Lucas, senior editor at the Economist and author of The New
Cold War*
'Indispensable. At last, a definitive account of the breakup of the
USSR: for the first time, Serhii Plokhy tells the story not just
from the point of view of Moscow, and not from Washington, but also
from Ukraine and the other republics where many of the most
important decisions were actually made. If you don't understand
what really happened in 1991, then you'll find it impossible to
understand the politics of the region today.'
*Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag: A
History*
'A brilliant work of political narrative: vivid, original, urgent
and, above all, wise. Serhii Plokhy’s dramatic account of the high
politics behind the collapse of the Soviet Union could not be more
timely. In the context of what many see as a new Cold War between
Russia and the West, it is crucial that we understand what really
happened in 1991.'
*Rachel Polonsky, author of Molotov’s Magic Lantern: Travels in
Russian History*
'By far our best account yet of the death spiral of the USSR.
Serhii Plokhy’s fine book combines a colorful, fast-paced narrative
with trenchant analysis of key players in the Soviet collapse.'
*William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The
Man and His Era*
'A masterful account of the end of the Soviet Union. The narrative
tale alone, enriched by reams of new evidence, makes it well worth
reading for anyone interested in the making of the contemporary
world. But The Last Empire is equally notable for its penetrating
analysis. It is particularly revealing on the contradictions built
into US policy and on the contributions to the outcome of the many
nations of the USSR, including the Ukrainians, whose pivotal role
has often been neglected in previous studies.'
*Timothy Colton, Professor of Government at Harvard University and
author of Yeltsin: A Life*
'Masterful... Provocatively places Ukrainian independence as
the central factor in the Soviet Union’s collapse. Gripping
reading, full of surprises and revelations for everyone, especially
on the American role in this revolutionary event.'
*Vladislav Zubok, Professor of International History at the London
School of Economics*
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