The 2013-2014 Euromaidan Revolutions call for justice, dignity, and liberty brought Ukraine, which had disappeared behind the Iron Curtain for decades after the horrors of World War II, into the worlds public consciousness. Yet, the country was soon almost forgotten again. In early 2022, the rapid escalation of Putins war on Ukraine has put the country back into the spotlight. Without knowing the countrys past, one cannot understand its present. This anthology tackles the complex history of terror and violence in Ukraine - from the millionfold starvation of the Holodomor to the changing occupation regimes, from the Shoah by Bullets to the Chornobyl disaster. Those ready to delve deeper into the checkered, painful history of the country will better understand Ukraines current quest for independence, freedom, and democracy. The volumes contributors are Serhii Plokhii, Timothy D. Snyder, Anna Veronika Wendland, Anne Applebaum, Eduard Klein, Gelinada Grinchenko, Gerhard Simon, Irina Scherbakowa, Jan Claas Behrends, Karel C. Berkhoff, Kateryna Mishchenko, Klaus Wolschner, Nikolai Klimeniouk, Nikolaus von Twickel, Oksana Grytsenko, Ottmar Trasca, Rebecca Harms, Sebastian Christ, Sébastien Gobert, Viktoria Savchuk, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Wilfried Jilge, Christoph Brumme, and Yevhen Hlibovytsky.

Marieluise Beck has for decades been a notable German politician. She was, among others, Member of the German Bundestag for the Green Party and speaker of her parliamentary group for Eastern Europe. Beck co-founded, in 2017, the Center for Liberal Modernity (LibMod) in Berlin. LibMod is an independent think tank that stands for the defense of liberal democracy and accompanies Eastern European countries in their transition to internationally embedded, law-governed, and pluralistic societies.