This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Ukraine has been eight years in the making. Katchanovski (Univ. of Ottawa) updates the first edition, published just after the Orange Revolution, to include events from this period. This new edition expands articles on people, places, and events of post-1991 Ukraine. Aside from these much-needed updates, the original text by the highly qualified team of Zenon Kohut (Univ. of Alberta), Bohdan Nebesio (Brock Univ.), and Myroslav Yurkevich (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press) is mostly intact. The 700-plus entries are brief, but provide basic definitions and indicate the subjects' relevance to Ukrainian history. The excellent supplemental material includes maps, a list of abbreviations, a detailed but succinct chronology, an extensive bibliography, and a series of appendixes on post-1991 Ukraine (new to this edition). Boldface type indicates that a concept is mentioned elsewhere in the text, but sparse cross-referencing may make finding some topics confusing. For example, some topics often referred to by their Ukrainian names—Holodomor, Batkyvshchina, OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists)—are listed only under English headings. This dictionary will prove useful to a wide range of scholars interested in eastern Europe, European history, and modern European politics. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers.

Choice Reviews

This is the 2d edition of this work on Ukrainian history in English. It has more than 725 entries that cover biographies, places, historical events, institutions, economics, and social and cultural aspects of Ukraine. The book has a list of acronyms and abbreviations, nine maps, a chronology, and an introduction that summarizes the history of Ukraine. Then it goes into the entries, which are in the traditional A-to-Z format. The entries vary in length. Cross-references are indicated by having the topic or term in bold print. The authors use the modified Library of Congress system to transliterate Ukrainian and other East Slavic words and names. The authors are associated with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta. The book ends with an extensive bibliography that has its own introduction. The bibliography is subdivided into various subjects. Books, articles, and Internet sites are included. . . .This is a great one-volume reference on Ukrainian history that belongs in academic and larger public libraries with a Ukrainian or Eastern European reference section.

American Reference Books Annual

Researchers, PhD students, journalists and other readers interested in Ukraine’s history will find this comprehensive volume a very useful resource. Contemporary events in Ukraine highlight the value of this volume of reference to every academic library.

Reference Reviews

Very topical for 2014 are the colorful biographies of Ukrainian oligarchs, whose stories of gaining incredible wealth often look like ready-made material for Hollywood thrillers. . . .The special article about corruption and its methods widens our understanding of the causes of the recent Ukrainian Revolution. The dictionary is so well-researched that it is difficult to find anything absolutely essential missing from it. From the first article. . . .to the last one about Zviahilsky, Yukhym, we are dealing with the high-quality product of careful academic research by four distinguished scholars. . . .Researchers, PhD students, journalists and other readers interested in Ukraine’s history will find this comprehensive volume a very useful resource. Contemporary events in Ukraine highlight the value of this volume of reference to every academic library.

Reference Reviews