Appropriation, or the White Sun of Crimea

I began writing this book in the summer of 2015, when the fate of Ukraine's nationhood hung by a thread. The tanking economy, drawn-out war, misguided political leadership, inexperienced nascent patriotic elite - everything about the situation was practically in zugzwang.On these July days, I practically forced myself to go into town on business, tearing through the 40-degree heat. At some point, after coming out of another meeting, I understood: we cannot go a single step further unless we genuinely rethink what's happened to us - starting with the Maidan Uprising. Ukraine's recent history, paid for in blood, must at least be spoken aloud.I knew that several accounts more or less describing the developments of the Maidan Uprising came out around that time, as well as Taras Berezovets's book, Annexation: Island of Crimea. As harsh as it sounds, I don't really trust "court chroniclers"; books like that should be written by independent historians or journalists. We became used to writing about dramatic events in recent history from the perspective of a participant on either side of the barricade. Me? I'm only a journalist. My aim is to find and make sense of information, which is what I attempted to do in this book.