The story of the Ukraine by Clarence Augustus Manning
"The story of the Ukraine" by Clarence Augustus Manning is a historical account written in the mid-20th century. It presents a sweeping survey of Ukraine’s past—from Kievan Rus and the Cossack era through partitions, brief independence, Soviet rule, and the World Wars—arguing for Ukraine’s distinct nationhood. Emphasizing geography, culture, and politics, it counters long-standing claims that Ukraine is merely a regional label for Russia. The opening of the book frames Ukraine’s admission
to the United Nations as a symbolic recognition of a millennium of nationhood, then races through a vivid overview: Kiev’s medieval brilliance and European ties; the shattering blows of steppe invasions and the Mongols; the rise of the Kozaks and Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s bid for a national order that ultimately ceded leverage to Moscow; the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, the 19th-century cultural revival (with Shevchenko as a touchstone), a short-lived independence after the First World War, Soviet repression, wartime devastation, and guarded hope for the future. It next maps Ukraine’s geography—fertile black earth, mineral wealth, and river arteries—explaining how this crossroads position fueled both prosperity and vulnerability and how internal disunity often hampered state-building. The narrative clarifies the tangled names Rus, Russia, Ruthenia, and Ukraine, showing how Muscovy appropriated “Rus” while “Ukraine” emerged as the proud banner of a distinct people. It then sketches Kievan Rus: the Scandinavian-inflected beginnings, Volodymyr’s Christianization, cultural flourishing under Yaroslav, political fragmentation, the sack of Kiev by northern princes, the Mongol conquest, and the westward shift under Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary. A cultural revival follows through Orthodox brotherhood schools at Ostrih, Lviv, and Kyiv (notably under Peter Mohyla), set against Jesuit competition and the Union of Brest that split Orthodox and Uniate camps. Finally, the Kozaks appear as a democratic, martial force centered at the Zaporozhian Sich, famed for daring raids and staunch Orthodoxy, alternating between service to and conflict with the Polish state—energetic in war, but not yet organized to govern the lands they influenced. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Manning, Clarence Augustus, 1893-1972 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 47003132 |
| Title | The story of the Ukraine |
| Original Publication | New York: Philosophical Library, 1947. |
| Credits | Tim Lindell, Karin Spence and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | DK: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Russia, Former Soviet Republics, Poland |
| Subject | Ukraine -- History |
| Subject | Kievan Rus -- History |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78161 |
| Release Date | Mar 10, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 501 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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