Intent to Destroy

Russia's Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine

De: Eugene Finkel

Narrado por: Phillipe Bosher

'A masterpiece' Peter Pomerantsev

'Powerful' Serhii Plokhy

'Fascinating' Daily Telegraph

A history of Russian violence waged against Ukraine across the centuries.

Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. And yet this attack was in fact the latest episode in a centuries-long Russian campaign. In Intent to Destroy, leading scholar of genocide and Eastern Europe Eugene Finkel uncovers the deep roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Ever since the rise of Russian nationalism in the nineteenth century, the domination of this key borderland has become a cornerstone of Russian and Soviet policy. Using genocidal tactics - killings, deportations, starvation and cultural destruction - against ethnic Ukrainians and minorities including Tatars, Jews and Poles, Russia's long-standing policy has aimed to obliterate Ukrainian identity. This eradication has consistently been a part of the Kremlin playbook and leads inexorably to the violence we see today.

Told with the astonishing power of Finkel's connection to this living history, and the authority of two decades of research, Intent to Destroy casts today's war it its broadest historical context, illuminating as never before Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.©2024 Eugene Finkel (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Brilliantly written and sourced history of Ukraine

I believe this is the second or third full history of Ukraine and it's tortured relationship with Russia, and this is easily the most readable and well argued of them all.