Description
Book SynopsisTowards the Abyss presents searching analysis of a decade of war and upheaval in Ukraine. Volodymyr Ishchenko has been among the left's most significant commentators on Ukraine since 2014, when pro-EU protestors toppled the government in Kiev, Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatists seized parts of the Donbass. One of his first thoughts when he read the news of the full-scale Russian invasion on 24 February 2022 was that no matter how the war ends, he will no longer have a homeland.
What has happened in Ukraine ever since the Soviet collapse is a drawn-out process of de-modernization, and the downward spiral is getting faster. Ishchenko argues that the conflict being fought in Ukraine with tanks, artillery and rockets is the same conflict suppressed by police batons in Belarus and in Russia itself. The intensification of the post-Soviet crisis - the incapacity of an oligarchic ruling class in the territories of the former USSR to sustain political or moral leadership - is the root cause of the escalating violence.
Trade ReviewA nuanced, melancholy, sophisticated and gratifyingly intimate glimpse into war-torn Ukraine -- Yanis Varoufakis, author of
TechnofeudalismThe huge choruses of these times will probably go down in history as mere noise. Might the lone voice of Ishchenko then sound prophetic? -- Georgi Derluguian, author of
Bourdieu’s Secret Admirer in the CaucasusA brilliant
cri de cour from a Soviet Ukrainian searching the historical horizon for a political model beyond neoliberalism and regressive nationalism -- Dylan Riley, author of
Microverses[A] pugnacious debut ... those wanting a better understanding of the Russia-Ukraine conflict would do well to check out this left-wing analysis. * Publishers Weekly *
Table of ContentsPreface: A Wrong UkrainianEditorial Note2014
1. Ukraine Protests Are No Longer Just about Europe
2. Maidan Mythologies
3. A Comedian in a Drama
4. From Ukraine with Comparisons
5. The Vicious Post-Soviet Circle
with Oleg Zhuravlev2022
6. Three Scenarios for the Ukraine-Russia Crisis
7. NATO through Ukrainian Eyes
8. Behind Russia's War Is Thirty Years of Post-Soviet Class Conflict
9. Ukrainian Voices?
Interview: Towards the AbyssNotesAcknowledgementsIndex
