What is now referred to as Kyivan Rus formed in the 9th Century, ultimately evolving into modern day Ukraine. Do not let the “Rus” part fool you. Russia came much later, but they adopted much from Kyivan Rus, including Cyrillic letters. However, instead of gratitude, Russia responded with war and cultural appropriation.
Indeed, Naiem’s “brief history” is often illuminating, as when she explains, through character proxies, how Soviet propaganda successfully demonized Ukraine’s traditional folk heroes: the Cossacks. She spends considerable time on the Holodomor, the Soviet-engineered Ukraine genocide-by-famine. Frankly, she maybe gives the Soviet state too much credit for their ambitions of industrialization and the “foreign hostility” they allegedly faced. However, the horrific consequences for Ukraine are inescapable.
Educated readers should be familiar to some extent with the Holodomor—even though it is doubtful many students learn about it in American public schools. In addition, Naiem also offers nutshell lessons in less-publicized Soviet assaults on Ukrainian nationhood and identity, like “The Executed Renaissance,” the systemic purge and execution of Ukraine’s leading artists and intellectuals during the 1920s. History subsequently repeated itself in the 1960s, when the dissident activists known as the “Sixtiers” faced similar treatment from Khrushchev, the “reformer.”
Even well-read consumers will probably learn a lot from Naim’s sequential comic history. Her characters are rather thin, because they are largely devices to explain Ukrainian history and culture. Nevertheless, the initial pages depicting the narrator enduring an air raid are grimly dramatic. The art nicely balances color and stark black-and-white, capturing the brutality of war and the Orwellian vibe of the Soviet years. It is a good read and a valuable resource. Highly recommended, A Brief History of a Long War releases tomorrow (1/27) at book and comic retailers.
