Description: The essays in this book explore the major developments, both domestic and international, that shaped the first quarter-century of Ukraine's independence: the simultaneous construction of a nation-state and the privatization of its economy; a formal democratization of the political process alongside the capture of state institutions by big business oligarchs; their efforts to gain social acceptance at home while maneuvering between competing Russian, EU, and American projects to hegemonize the region; the impact of the financial crises of 1997 and 2008 on Ukrainian society and the national economy's place in the world market; the growing inequality of society, the mass revolts in 2004 and 2014 against corruption and injustice; and the beginning of Russian military intervention in Ukraine.
Review Quotes: Marko Bojcun has written an outstanding political-economic work on the emergence of an independent Ukraine from the early 1990s when the USSR came to an end to the present. He details the political evolution of its representative institutions as the country evolves from total nationalisation to forms of privatisation. At the same time, he describes the development of a politically conscious and socially divided population trying to cope with a struggling economy. In short, he has provided a unique and detailed thirty-year history of the political, social, and economic relations in Ukraine. Anyone specialising on Ukraine ought to have it.--Hillel Ticktin, Emeritus Professor of Marxist Studies at the University of Glasgow