Book Release — David and Goliath: Commentaries on the Russo-Ukrainian War by Serhii Plokhy

HURI Books is delighted to announce the publication of David and Goliath: Commentaries on the Russo-Ukrainian War by Serhii Plokhy, a renowned scholar of Ukrainian history. 

It is a collection of short essays, commentaries, and interviews written and delivered on the eve of and during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This book is available in print (paperback and hardcover), ebook, and online rental formats. It is volume 83 of the Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies. 

About the Book

The biblical image of David and Goliath captures fittingly the nature of the war that Russia, the world’s largest country by surface area, unleashed on neighboring Ukraine, a country that— while still the largest on the European continent—is almost thirty times smaller and has only over a quarter of Russia’s population. Yet Ukraine's stubborn resistance proves that it is possible to mount a successful defense against an enormously larger, more populous, and better equipped enemy, even despite Russia's threats of nuclear apocalypse should Ukraine refuse to submit and the West interfere. This volume shows that history can help reveal the reasons for Ukraine’s resolve and success both on the battlefield and in the public arena.

Collected here for the first time are short essays, commentaries, and interviews written and given by Serhii Plokhy, the world’s preeminent scholar of Ukrainian history, on the eve and during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Plokhy draws our attention to the unique nature of the largest war in Europe since the end of World War II as its events become part of history.

In David and Goliath: Commentaries on the Russo-Ukrainian War, Serhii Plokhy provides an overview of Ukraine’s fight during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion. To ensure the readers gain a broader understanding, he explores the legacy of the Soviet collapse, the manipulation of history in Russian propaganda leading up to the February 2022 invasion, and the origins and development of the conflict. Using international media interviews and essays, the book offers insight into the forces shaping and continuing to drive the war, giving readers a critical historical perspective on one of the most significant conflicts in modern Europe.

About the Author

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi Professor of History in the Department of History, Harvard University. His research interests include the intellectual, cultural, and international history of Eastern Europe, with an emphasis on Ukraine. He teaches courses and seminars on early modern and modern East European history that engage major problems in the history of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania.

Dr. Plokhy's many publications include the following monographs: The Nuclear Age: An Epic Race for Arms, Power, and Survival (W. W. Norton, 2025); Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone (W. W. Norton, 2024); The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History (W. W. Norton, 2023); Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters (W. W. Norton, 2022); Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (W. W. Norton, 2021); Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front: American Airmen behind the Soviet Lines and the Collapse of the Grand Alliance (Oxford University Press, 2019); Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe (Basic Books, 2018); The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine (Basic Books, 2015); The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union (Basic Books, 2015); The Cossack Myth: History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Yalta: The Price of Peace (Viking/Penguin, 2010; 2011); Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past (University of Toronto Press, 2008); and The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

His books have won numerous awards, including the Lionel Gelber Prize (2015), Antonovych Prize (2015), the Pushkin House Book Prize (2015 and 2019), Ballie Gifford Prize (2018), the Shevchenko National Prize (2018), and the Arenberg Prize (2024). Oxford University awarded Dr. Plokhii an honorary degree in 2025. 

Excerpt from Chapter 5 “The Western Alliance”

Ukraine can’t lose this war, because the very existence of the Ukrainian state and nation depends on its outcome. And ending it with an armistice resulting in the loss of people and territories and without NATO membership is tantamount to losing the war. Ukraine has been in that position before, in 2014–15, when the Minsk agreements never brought peace but provided Russia with the ability to build a stronger army and come back in force a few years later. The Russian policies targeting Ukrainian activists, kidnapping children, and replacing Ukrainian school curricula with Russian ones would lead to the eradication of anything politically and culturally Ukrainian in the occupied territories.