I began writing this book in the summer of 2015, when the fate of Ukraine's nationhood hung by a thread. The tanking economy, drawn-out war, misguided political leadership, inexperienced nascent patriotic elite - everything about the situation was practically in zugzwang.
On these July days, I practically forced myself to go into town on business, tearing through the 40-degree heat. At some point, after coming out of another meeting, I understood: we cannot go a single step further unless we genuinely rethink what's happened to us - starting with the Maidan Uprising. Ukraine's recent history, paid for in blood, must at least be spoken aloud.
I knew that several accounts more or less describing the developments of the Maidan Uprising came out around that time, as well as Taras Berezovets's book, Annexation: Island of Crimea. As harsh as it sounds, I don't really trust "court chroniclers"; books like that should be written by independent historians or journalists. We became used to writing about dramatic events in recent history from the perspective of a participant on either side of the barricade. Me? I'm only a journalist. My aim is to find and make sense of information, which is what I attempted to do in this book.
