Prokletí impéria - Ukrajina, Polsko a scestí ruských dějin – Schulze Wessel Martin (2024)

The well-founded work of a leading German historian aims to shed light on the current Russian aggressive war and anti-Western attitudes from a historical perspective, tracing their historical roots. It follows the dynamics of building the Russian Empire over the last approximately three hundred years, starting from the time of Peter I. The focus of interest is on Russian-Ukrainian-Polish relations, specifically the confrontation of Ukrainian and Polish statehood with Russian expansion to the west. However, this is not a study of local conflicts – the author places it in broader European contexts and interactions, cooperation, or competition among major powers; particular attention is paid to the long-term cooperation between Russia and Germany, the negative consequences of which were evident until recently. The effort to build a Russian identity based on the imperial idea, with Ukraine as an internal empire and Poland as part of the external empire, has always led to fundamental conflicts that weakened the empire and directed it towards disintegration – what Schulze Wessel calls the 'curse of the empire.' In addition to power-political aspects, it also analyzes religious and ideological contexts, especially Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish nationalism, with particularly striking portraits of its three representatives – Pushkin,…