Library
YAKEMCHUK ROMAN
Independence of Ukraine
This publication covers the history of Ukraine from ancient times to the formation of an independent state. Western author, professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (Kingdom of Belgium), Roman Yakemchuk, a renowned expert in the history of international relations and law, traces the key milestones of national history, presenting the Ukrainian theme in a European political and legal context, and creates his own concept of the national liberation movement and the statehood aspirations of Ukrainians. The book will be of professional interest to scholars in the humanities, students, and anyone interested in the history of Ukraine.
YAKEMCHUK Roman — a specialist in the field of international relations. He received his education at the Lviv Academic Gymnasium, the Munich Polytechnic, the Universities of Leuven and the Sorbonne, as well as the Hague Academy of International Law; in 1955, he obtained a doctorate in political and diplomatic sciences for his work on the UN.
From 1958, he worked as a research fellow at the Royal Institute of International Relations in Brussels, while simultaneously serving as an advisor to a number of industrial enterprises; from 1964, he was a professor at the University of Lovanium (Kinshasa), and from 1971, an ordinary professor and head of the Department of International Relations at the University of Leuven.
After retiring in 1990, he remained an advisor to the Royal Institute of International Relations and editor of the journal “Studia Diplomatica”; he published scholarly works in many languages, particularly on issues of Eastern European international politics.
Luuk van Middelaar
The Transition to Europe: How a Continent Became a Union
Luuk van Middelaar’s book Transition to Europe has an important subtitle: How a Continent Became a Union. This means understanding how the continent where we live is participating in the history of unity around the fundamental values proclaimed by the Declaration of Human Rights, in particular dignity and freedom. How does this perspective of dignity change our view after the Gulag, after the Holocaust, after the tragedies of the 20th and 21st centuries? The European Union is not only Brussels, Strasbourg, Berlin, Rome, Paris, but also Warsaw, Prague, Tallinn, Vilnius, and Kyiv. When we better understand the drama of Europe, which improvises and has no ready-made solutions, we come closer to a new understanding of Ukraine’s real role in the life of Europe.
Kostyantyn Sigov
Luuk van Middelaar
Europe's new policy: ten years of political crises
Luuk van Middelaar is a Dutch historian and political philosopher who served as the closest aide to Herman Van Rompuy, the first permanent President of the European Council, from 2010 to 2014. This book was first published in Dutch in 2017 under the title ‘The New Politics of Europe’; an authorised and updated French version was published in 2018 under the title ‘When Europe Improvises: Ten Years of Political Crises’; and the authorised English version in 2019 under the title ‘Hustle and Bustle: Political Improvisations on the European Stage’. The author continues the reflections begun in his previous book, ‘The Transition to Europe: How a Continent Became a Union’ (2013; Ukrainian edition 2019). in his new book, he analyses how the European Union has changed over the last ten years (2009–2018), what major challenges the EU faces today, and how these challenges can be most effectively addressed. On the author’s recommendation, the Ukrainian translation of the book is based on the latest English edition of 2019, taking into account the French edition of 2018.
SHTOMPKA PIOTR
Social capital. Theory of interpersonal space
The book Social Capital by the eminent Polish sociologist Piotr Sztompka thoroughly outlines a model of society in which the concept of social capital is a central category. The author argues that both economic growth and policy effectiveness depend to a large extent on the state of interpersonal relationships, especially moral ones, such as trust, tolerance, mutual respect, solidarity and justice. The value of the book lies in the fact that it fills a gap in the ‘social’ roots of the concept of social capital. Piotr Sztompka introduced this concept into sociological theory and also introduced the theory of interpersonal space into scientific discourse. This book includes recommendations and a number of practical tips on issues related to social capital.
This book is addressed to politicians, publicists, sociologists, political scientists and responsible citizens who want to be active creators of the state community.
Kostyantyn Sigov
NOVAK ANDREJ
How did the "evil empire" come into being? The experience of Central and Eastern Europe
The first Ukrainian-language book by Polish historian Professor Andrzej Nowak contains a variety of historical and essayistic texts discussing a wide range of issues in the history of Central and Eastern Europe: the emergence and self-presentation of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the origins and evolution of Polish ‘Prometheism,’ the paradoxes and contradictions of the development of American Slavic studies, as well as the place and mission of the professional historian in contemporary public debates.
SNYDER TIMOTHY
The Transformation of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569–1999 / 4th edition
In his book, renowned American historian and Yale University professor Timothy Snyder explores the phenomenon of the birth of modern nations. The book begins with an examination of the creation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century, the largest state in early modern Europe. At the end of the 20th century, which is where this study ends, the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were divided among states named after nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus. According to the most common understanding of nationality at the time, state borders were supposed to encompass linguistic communities. How did one early modern national idea give rise to four modern ones? The author’s answer is intended to attract the attention of professional historians, as well as people who are not indifferent to questions of their own identity.
Jonathan Littell
Our Common War
Jonathan Littell, an American-French writer, is the author of world-renowned bestsellers and a recipient of the Prix Goncourt. His works have been translated into more than forty languages. Littell has served as an observer and researcher of the crimes committed by Putin’s regime in Russia, Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria. From the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, he responded to Russian aggression with a series of articles in which he expressed unconditional solidarity with the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian people and persistently called on Western leaders to provide Ukraine with sufficient weapons to achieve victory.
Appended to this collection of articles is an open letter from the author addressed to the Ukrainian filmmaker and human rights defender Oleg Sentsov, written from a Russian concentration camp, as well as two conversations between Littell and Ukrainian intellectuals Volodymyr Yermolenko and Tetyana Ogarkova.
István Deák
Europe on Trial: The History of Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution during the Second World War
The book examines the history of collaboration, resistance, and retribution during the Second World War. These three themes are explored through the experiences of individuals and countries under German occupation, as well as under Soviet, Italian, and other military administrations.
Those living under foreign rule faced numerous moral and ethical dilemmas: whether to collaborate with the occupiers, to attempt to survive the war without any political involvement, or to risk their lives by joining the resistance. Many people chose all three options, depending on the circumstances of wartime. After the brutal conflict, the author discusses various acts of violence against real or suspected war criminals and collaborators, deportations, and trials at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal as well as in thousands of local courts. *Europe on Trial* helps us understand the numerous moral consequences of the war both during the conflict and in its immediate aftermath.
Serhii Plokhy
The Twilight of Empire: The Russo-Ukrainian War through the Eyes of a Historian
The new book by Serhii Plokhy, one of Ukraine’s most prominent historians and a professor at Harvard University, is primarily devoted to reflecting on the Great War. It brings together the author’s most significant interviews and conversations from 2021 to 2024. The range of topics covered includes the key pressing issues that concern Ukrainians and all those around the world who are not indifferent to our heroic resistance: why the aggressor failed to achieve a blitzkrieg, the European context of the war and the destruction of the world order, how the war may end and with what consequences, and so on. The sober perspective of a historian, viewed through the lens of decades and centuries, serves as a healing counterbalance to the whirlwind of passions that naturally accompanies the endless accounts and assessments of current events today.
Under the direction of Barbara Cassin
European Dictionary of Philosophies: Lexicon of Untranslatables
The Ukrainian version of the unique international project European Dictionary of Philosophies, carried out under the direction of Barbara Cassin, represents the first attempt in the history of philosophy to bring together untranslatables — that is, philosophical words and expressions whose translation from one language into another creates certain difficulties. The aim of this project is to deepen the dialogue between different philosophical traditions of Europe by clarifying the philosophical untranslatables of European philosophical languages. The French original, Vocabulaire européen des philosophies. Dictionnaire des intraduisibles, was published in Paris in 2004, with a second edition appearing in 2019. It was created by specialists from various countries in Europe, America, and Asia.
The idea of translating the Dictionary’s “untranslatables” into other languages belongs to Kostiantyn Sigov. It was the Ukrainian team of the Dictionary that proposed the strategy of a “step-by-step” multi-volume translation, in which articles are grouped into thematic sections. Having published the first volume in 2009, the Ukrainian team produced a significant body of texts from the Dictionary translated from French. Subsequently, the initiative to translate the Dictionary was taken up by other linguistic communities: today the texts of the Dictionary have been published in English, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Romanian. The fifth volume of the Ukrainian edition was published in 2024, opening a new dimension of the Dictionary: it consists exclusively of original texts written by Ukrainian authors.