An exploration of how memories of the Holodomor famine shaped Ukraine's national identity, existential threat perceptions, and resistance against Russia
For many international observers of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Holodomor is the most important story they have never heard. When the Ukrainian Sun Rises explores the domestic, international, and geopolitical implications of this 1932–33 genocide—an artificial famine in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Ukraine that killed at least 4 million people and changed Ukrainian society forever.
Against the backdrop of the current war between Ukraine and Russia, Hook draws on multiyear ethnographic fieldwork across Ukraine, and probes the dynamics and legacy of the Holodomor through the eyes of today's Ukrainian leaders from the political, legal, activist, and academic fields. Never-before-published interviews uncover a paradox: Although this singular event nearly destroyed Ukraine, it also provided the narrative storyline by which contemporary leaders would one day seek to rebuild their nation.
Now, as the Kremlin wages a new genocidal war against Ukraine, this book explains how memories of the Holodomor have shaped Ukrainian leaders' existential threat perceptions since 2014 and have sparked a postcolonial reclamation process that undergirds the country's stunning resistance today. This book will appeal to policymakers and those in think tanks as well as to students and scholars of international relations and anthropology.
Reviews
"When the Ukrainian Sun Rises tells the story of how Russia's genocidal famine against Ukraine became a unifying component of Ukraine's national historical narrative. Based on extensive ethnographic research and superior scholarship, Kristina Hook's beautifully written book gives us a new lens on the Holodomor that incorporates modern warfare and Ukrainian resilience in the twenty-first century."—Emily Channell-Justice, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
"A searing indictment of imperial amnesia and a masterful study of memory as resistance. Hook shows how the Holodomor's suppressed past fuels Ukraine's defiance today, exposing Moscow's violence as both a historical pattern and a present strategy. Urgent, fearless, and indispensable."—Daria Mattingly, University of Chichester
"In this thoroughly researched and beautifully written book, Kristina Hook tells the story of modern Ukraine through the history of the recovery, preservation, and reinterpretation of the memory of the Holodomor, Stalin's genocidal famine. By doing so, she sheds unexpected light on the Russo-Ukrainian War and explains why Ukraine refused to fall and continues to fight against all odds."—Serhii Plokhy, author, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History
"Amid extensive scholarship on the Holodomor and Soviet repression and a growing literature on Russia's war against Ukraine, this book stands out by boldly connecting the two. Hook marshals extensive evidence to show how recovering the memory of the Holodomor helped forge a political nation determined to resist Russia's renewed imperial violence."—Oxana Shevel, professor of political science, Tufts University, and president, American Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
"Kristina Hook's insightful analysis uncovers the legacy of the Holodomor as a 'cosmologically annihilating event' that brought millions of deaths to Ukraine, destroying its culture, social structures, and economic systems. When the Ukrainian Sun Rises is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the context of the Kremlin's ongoing genocidal war."—Sophia Wilson, author, Maidan: Ukraine's Democratic Revolution
About the Author
Kristina Hook is assistant professor of conflict management at Kennesaw State University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. A former US State Department policy adviser, her award-winning research on the Russia-Ukraine war has been cited by the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, NATO, and the US government.
