Sketches from a Secret War : A Polish Artist's Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine by Timothy Snyder. Hardcover. Yale University Press: November 28, 2005
The forgotten protagonist of this true account aspired to be a cubist painter in his native Kyiv. In a Europe remade by the First World War, his talents led him to different roles--intelligence operative, powerful statesman, underground activist, lifelong conspirator. Henryk Jozewski directed Polish intelligence in Ukraine, governed the borderland region of Volhynia in the interwar years, worked in the anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet underground during the Second World War, and conspired against Poland's Stalinists until his arrest in 1953. His personal story, important in its own right, sheds new light on the foundations of Soviet power and on the ideals of those who resisted it. By following the arc of Jozewski's life, this book demonstrates that his tolerant policies toward Ukrainians in Volhynia were part of Poland's plans to roll back the communist threat. The book mines archival materials, many available only since the fall of communism, to rescue Jozewski, his Polish milieu, and his Ukrainian dream from oblivion. An epilogue connects his legacy to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the democratic revolution in Ukraine in 2004.
The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999
by Timothy Snyder. Paperback. Yale University Press: July 11, 2004
"The Reconstruction of Nations is a brilliant and fascinating analysis of the subtleties, complexities, and paradoxes of the evolution of nations in Eastern Europe. Snyder highlights the success of contemporary leaders of Poland in bringing an end to the centuries of war, conquest, and ethnic cleansing, which have plagued that part of the world. His study has major implications for all of us who want to understand the processes of state collapse and nation-building in the world."--Samuel P. Huntington, Chairman, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
Timothy Snyder is Associate Professor at Yale University Department of History.
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