Serhii Plokhy

Vavisuttava ja ajankohtainen teos maailman vaarallisimmasta pelotteesta. Auttavatko ensimmäisen ydinasekilvan opit meitä estämään uuden, vai onko se jo täydessä vauhdissa? Maailma muuttui, kun ensimmäinen atomipommi räjäytettiin New Mexicon aavikolla 16.7.1945. Alkoi aika, jota fyysikko Robert Oppenheimer kuvasi hindulaisuuden pyhää kirjaa Bhagavad Gitaa lainaten sanoilla ”Nyt minusta on tullut kuolema, maailmojen tuhoaja”. Siitä lähtien olemme eläneet ydinaseiden, pelon ja voimapolitiikan varjossa. Historioitsija Serhii Plokhy selvittää, miksi valtiot ovat ylipäätään ryhtyneet ydinasevarusteluun, miksi merkittäviä aserajoitussopimuksia ei ole saatu aikaan ja miksi ydinsodan uhka on tänään suurempi kuin vuosikymmeniin. Venäjä uhkaa aseillaan Ukrainassa, Kiina rakentaa satoja uusia ohjussiiloja ja Intia sekä Pakistan ovat juuttuneet jatkuvaan kilpavarusteluun. Samalla uudet teknologiat kuten hypersooniset ohjukset ja tekoäly tekevät tulevaisuudesta yhä vaikeammin ennustettavan. Plokhy johdattaa lukijan Hiroshimasta ja Nagasakista kylmän sodan käännekohtiin, uusien ydinasevaltioiden syntyyn sekä aikamme uusimpaan varustelukierteeseen. Samalla hän esittelee ne henkilöt - valtiomiehistä kirjailijoihin - jotka ovat ruokkineet tai pyrkineet hillitsemään ydinaseiden pelkoa. Serhii Plokhy (s. 1957) on Harvardin yliopiston historian professori ja Ukrainan tutkimuslaitoksen johtaja. Plokhya pidetään yhtenä maailman parhaista Ukrainan ja kylmän sodan asiantuntijoista. Hänen teoksensa Tšernobyl on saanut sekä Baillie Gifford - että Pushkin House -tietokirjapalkinnot. Plokhyn teoksia on käännetty yli kymmenelle kielelle. Hän asuu Burlingtonissa, Massachusettsissa.

Hur driver man en kärnkraftsanläggning under attack, och var går gränsen mellan hjältemodig pliktuppfyllelse och förräderi? På eftermiddagen den 24 februari 2022, när ett nytt arbetslag hade gått på sitt skift, besattes kärnkraftverket i Tjernobyl av en invaderande rysk trupp. Utan insikt om Rysslands storskaliga invasion av Ukraina och med endast en skakig telefonförbindelse till huvudkontoret var det förmannens sak att hantera situationen. Med moralisk kraft stod han upp mot det ryska befälet och under en utdragen månad skyddade den ukrainska personalen kärnkraftverket mot de okunniga trupper som befann sig på platsen. Tjernobyl roulett bygger på de intervjuer som gjordes med medlemmar i arbetslaget när Tjernobylverket väl befriats, liksom på studier av regionen kring kärnkraftverket och de reella faror som uppstår på dessa platser i krigstider. Förutom att lyfta risker och hur vi kan hantera dem skildrar Serhii Plokhy hur det är möjligt att handla rätt även i till synes hopplösa lägen.

'Few historians write with Serhii Plokhy’s authority, clarity or global vision... Essential reading, and a marvellous book'From the bestselling author of Chernobyl comes a sweeping history of the geopolitics behind the nuclear arms race, from the first atomic bomb to todayOn 16 July 1945, the Nuclear Age began with the explosion of the first atomic bomb and the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer: 'Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.'While the threat of mutually assured destruction kept a lid on a simmering and tense geopolitical landscape, events like the Chernobyl disaster and near-misses like the Cuban Missile Crisis showed that total destruction was only ever one malfunction, mistake, or miscommunication away. Now, as governments re-arm their nuclear arsenals, treaties designed to limit the acquisition and use of nuclear weapons fall away, and nuclear weapons come increasingly within reach of non-state actors, we are on the brink of a renaissance of the nuclear industry. In The Nuclear Age, acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy paints an intricate picture of a world governed by fear. From the first artificial splitting of the atom in 1917 and the race to create the first atomic bomb in World War II, through the fraught arms race of the Cold War, to the imperialism, neo-colonial motivation and wars being waged today, the threat posed by nuclear weapons is as pertinent as ever. As he examines the motivations of key players, Plokhy confronts the crucial question of our age: what can we learn from the first nuclear arms race that can help us to stop the new one?

The nuclear age came into existence with the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945. The inauguration of this new era was epitomized by the bomb's principal creator, J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Since then, the era of the atom has become the age of the bomb?or two bombs: atomic and hydrogen. In The Nuclear Age, Serhii Plokhy, one of our preeminent Cold War historians, explores why governments have acquired and stockpiled nuclear weapons and reveals the global failure to reach meaningful nuclear arms treaties. Plokhy shows how, since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the risk of nuclear war has never been so high: Russia threatens nuclear aggression in its war on Ukraine; China is constructing hundreds of new missile silos; and India and Pakistan are locked in ongoing nuclear competition. Plokhy also examines how more countries than ever have come within perilous reach of acquiring nuclear arms, while new technologies, such as hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence, make the nuclear landscape increasingly unpredictable. From Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Castle Bravo test of 1954, to the rapidly developing nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, The Nuclear Age reveals the fear that governs the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Plokhy profiles the global players who have diagnosed, stoked, and influenced this fear, from H. G. Wells to Nikita Khrushchev and Vladimir Putin, and he outlines what we might learn from our past to control today's arms race. As the danger of nuclear war remains imminent, The Nuclear Age diagnoses our era of rearmament.

The biblical image of David and Goliath captures fittingly the nature of the war that Russia, the world’s largest country by surface area, unleashed on neighboring Ukraine, a country that—while still the largest on the European continent—is almost thirty times smaller and has only over a quarter of Russia’s population. Yet Ukraine’s stubborn resistance proves that it is possible to mount a successful defense against an enormously larger, more populous, and better equipped enemy, even despite its threats of nuclear apocalypse should Ukraine refuse to submit and the West dare to interfere. This volume shows that history can help reveal the reasons for Ukraine’s resolve and success on the battlefield and in the public arena. Collected in David and Goliath for the first time are short essays, commentaries, and interviews written and given by Serhii Plokhy, the world’s preeminent scholar of Ukrainian history, on the eve and during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Plokhy draws our attention to the unique nature of the truly historic events of the largest war in Europe since the end of World War II.

The biblical image of David and Goliath captures fittingly the nature of the war that Russia, the world’s largest country by surface area, unleashed on neighboring Ukraine, a country that—while still the largest on the European continent—is almost thirty times smaller and has only over a quarter of Russia’s population. Yet Ukraine’s stubborn resistance proves that it is possible to mount a successful defense against an enormously larger, more populous, and better equipped enemy, even despite its threats of nuclear apocalypse should Ukraine refuse to submit and the West dare to interfere. This volume shows that history can help reveal the reasons for Ukraine’s resolve and success on the battlefield and in the public arena. Collected in David and Goliath for the first time are short essays, commentaries, and interviews written and given by Serhii Plokhy, the world’s preeminent scholar of Ukrainian history, on the eve and during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Plokhy draws our attention to the unique nature of the truly historic events of the largest war in Europe since the end of World War II.

A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEARWhat if Chernobyl was just the beginning? The acclaimed winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize returns to Chernobyl to tell the gripping story of thirty-five days of warOn 24 February 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, armoured vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. It was the most direct way for them to reach the capital - and an extraordinarily reckless plan after the disaster that had taken place there three decades earlier. Russian occupation of the plant had begun. It would last thirty-five days. Closely reported and narrated from multiple perspectives, this is the story of the Ukrainians who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days to spare the world a new nuclear accident. We meet Valentyn Heiko, the foreman who had also been there for the clean-up of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and turned sixty during the occupation; plant workers who found a way to celebrate International Women’s Day despite all odds; Russian officers who had no knowledge of nuclear reactors; and four stalkers who were caught in the middle and stood in for the overworked cook. Gripping and unforgettable, Chernobyl Roulette sounds the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in an unprecedented time, when plant workers are left to fight on their own while the world holds its breath. In a book that reads like a thriller, Serhii Plokhy tells a remarkable story about human nature, uncertainty and courage.

On February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia's all-out attack on Ukraine, armored vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. Russian occupation of the plant, which would last thirty-five days, had begun. Only the dedication and resolve of Ukrainian personnel, who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days, spared the world a new Chernobyl accident. They had to make life-or-death decisions on cooperation or resistance, balancing loyalty to their families, their homeland, and innocent civilians in Ukraine and beyond who would suffer the consequences of a nuclear accident should it occur. The choices they made helped to save the world from another Chernobyl disaster. Meanwhile, a much more dangerous situation developed at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the largest such facility in Europe. Following an attack there in March 2022, the Russian military remains in control, and Ukrainian intelligence warns of the potential for nuclear terrorism. We must face up to a new reality: there has already been warfare at two nuclear sites, and others are vulnerable. In a book that reads like a thriller, Serhii Plokhy, a leading historian of the Cold War and Ukrainian history, joins the stories of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to sound the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in a time of heightened conflict. There are 440 such sites around the globe today, and Russia's aggression against Ukraine will not be the last war in human history. The story of the men and women of Chornobyl is more than recent history: it is also a glimpse into the not-so-distant future.

Despite repeated warnings from the White House, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. Why did Putin start the war--and why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways? Ukrainians have resisted a superior military; the West has united, while Russia grows increasingly isolated. Serhii Plokhy, a leading historian of Ukraine and the Cold War, offers a definitive account of this conflict, its origins, course, and the already apparent and possible future consequences. Though the current war began eight years before the all-out assault--on February 27, 2014, when Russian armed forces seized the building of the Crimean parliament--the roots of this conflict can be traced back even earlier, to post-Soviet tensions and imperial collapse in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Providing a broad historical context and an examination of Ukraine and Russia's ideas and cultures, as well as domestic and international politics, Plokhy reveals that while this new Cold War was not inevitable, it was predictable. Ukraine, Plokhy argues, has remained central to Russia's idea of itself even as Ukrainians have followed a radically different path. In a new international environment defined by the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the disintegration of the post-Cold War international order, and a resurgence of populist nationalism, Ukraine is now more than ever the most volatile fault line between authoritarianism and democratic Europe.

Til tross for gjentatte advarsler fra Vesten sjokkerte Russland hele verden med invasjonen av Ukraina i februar 2022. Hvorfor startet Putin krigen – og hvorfor har den utspilt seg på tidligere utenkelige måter? Ukrainerne har stått imot et overlegent russisk militære, Europa har styrket seg i kampen mot en felles fiende, mens Russland blir stadig mer isolert. Serhii Plokhy tar for seg krigen, bakgrunnen, forløpet og de mulige konsekvensene. Selv om krigen begynte åtte år før fullskalaangrepet i 2022, da russerne inntok Krym i 2014, kan røttene til konflikten spores enda lengre tilbake, til post-sovjetiske spenninger og tsardømmets kollaps på begynnelsen av forrige århundre. Ved å gi en bred historisk kontekst og undersøke sentrale ideer i ukrainsk og russisk kultur, avslører Plokhy at den nye kalde krigen var forutsigbar, selv om den ikke var nødvendig. Ukraina har vært sentral i Russlands idé om seg selv, selv om ukrainerne har fulgt en annen vei enn russerne. I dagens internasjonale klima, som igjen er preget av atomvåpen-trusselen, oppløsning av den internasjonale orden og en oppblomstring av populistisk nasjonalisme, er Ukraina nå mer enn noen gang den mest ustabile bruddlinjen mellom det autoritære og det demokratiske Europa.

Ukraina betyder gränsland. Området norr om Svarta havet har verkligen varit en gränszon utanför och mellan imperier: det östromerska, det mongoliska, det polsk-litauiska, det Ottomanska, det Habsburgska och det ryska. Porten till Europa ger en sammanhållen skildring av Ukrainas mångskiftande historia, samt av den politiska, sociala och kyrkliga utvecklingen i området norr om Svarta havet med dess många och skiftande nationer och kulturinfluenser. Därmed är detta en, på svenska, unik bakgrund till inte bara dagens Ukraina utan till hela det forna Östblocket. Serhii Plokhy skriver för den intresserade allmänheten i spänstig berättarton, utan att ge avkall på akribi och stringens. Att han tar med faktorer som ekologi och geografiska förutsättningar i sina resonemang ger djup åt förståelsen för ett land så präglat av växlande naturförutsättningar: från Västukrainas skogbeklädda bergspartier till den sydliga svarta jorden och de många flodernas handels- och kontaktstråk. Porten till Europa publicerades första gången i USA 2015. Porten till Europa förenar akademisk auktoritet med berättarförmåga den är ofrånkomlig läsning för alla som vill förstå dagens Ryssland och Ukraina. Simon Sebag Montefiore Serhii Plokhy är författare och forskare med inriktning på östeuropeisk historia, och har skrivit ett flertal uppmärksammade böcker. Han innehar Mykhailo Hrushevsky-professuren i ukrainsk historia vid Harvard University, där han också är chef för Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Länsi sulkee rivejään ja sitoutuu tiiviimmin Natoon. Venäjä eristyy yhä enemmän. Uusi kylmä sota on syntymässä samassa osassa maailmaa, jossa se päättyi kolmekymmentä vuotta sitten. Venäjän hyökkäys Ukrainaan synnytti suurimman eurooppalaisen konfliktin sitten toisen maailmansodan. Hyökkäys oli shokki koko maailmalle, vaikka Venäjä oli tehnyt jatkuvasti sotavalmisteluja Ukrainan rajalla. Miksi Venäjä hyökkäsi? Ja miksi nyt? Putinin kiihkomieliset perustelut hyökkäykselle olivat länsitarkkailijoiden mielestä järjettömiä, joten niihin ei kiinnitetty suurta huomiota. Ja kun sota alkoi, länsi yllättyi jälleen, nytUkrainan voimasta puolustaa omaa itsenäisyyttään. Olemme todistamassa poikkeuksellista geopoliittista muutosta, joka sekoittaa maailmanjärjestyksen tuleviksi vuosikymmeniksi. Serhii Plokhy, Ukrainan yksi tärkeimmistä nykyhistorioitsijoista selittää, miten tähän on tultu. Hän jäljittää sodan juuret Neuvostoliiton romahtamisen jälkeisiin ratkaisemattomiin jännitteisiin ja tarkastelee, kuinka Ukraina on pysynyt Venäjän identiteetille tärkeänä vaikka ukrainalaiset ovat kulkeneet täysin erilaista tietä, kohti Eurooppaa ja läntistä demokratiaa. Serhii Plokhy (s. 1957) on Ukrainan historian professori Harvardissa ja yliopiston Ukrainan tutkimuslaitoksen johtaja. Häntä pidetään yhtenä maailman parhaista Ukraina-asiantuntijoista. Plokhy asuu Burlingtonissa, Massachusettsissa. Hänen teoksensa Tšernobyl sai vuonna 2018 Baillie Gifford -tietokirjapalkinnon.