The Cossack Myth History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires

In the years following the Napoleonic Wars, a mysterious manuscript began to circulate among the dissatisfied noble elite of the Russian Empire. Entitled The History of the Rus', it became one of the most influential historical texts of the modern era. Attributed to an eighteenth-century Orthodox archbishop, it described the heroic struggles of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Alexander Pushkin read the book as a manifestation of Russian national spirit, but Taras Shevchenko interpreted it as a quest for Ukrainian national liberation, and it would inspire thousands of Ukrainians to fight for the freedom of their homeland. Serhii Plokhy tells the fascinating story of the text's discovery and dissemination, unravelling the mystery of its authorship and tracing its subsequent impact on Russian and Ukrainian historical and literary imagination. In so doing he brilliantly illuminates the relationship between history, myth, empire and nationhood from Napoleonic times to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Introduction; Part I. The Mystery: 1. A call for freedom; 2. The Cossack annals; 3. The birth of the myth; Part II. On a Cold Trail: 4. A noble heart; 5. The Cossack prince; 6. The Kyiv manuscript; Part III. Pieces of a Puzzle: 7. A matter of time; 8. Uncovering the motive; 9. How did he do it?; 10. The Cossack treasure; Part IV. Unusual Suspects: 11. People and places; 12. The Cossack aristocrats; 13. The liberated gentry; 14. A history teacher; Part V. A Family Circle: 15. A missing name; 16. Family matters; 17. The rivals; Epilogue; Appendix: Cossack family networks.

Serhii Plokhy tells the fascinating story of The History of the Rus', one of the most influential historical texts of the modern era. In so doing he brilliantly illuminates the relationship between history, myth, empire and nationhood from Napoleonic times to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University. His previous publications include Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past (2008) and The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (2006).