The Shadow of Mazepa: The Ukrainian Nation in the Era of Gogol

Sergey Belyakov — historian, literary scholar, author of the bestselling biography of Gumilev, son of Gumilev, winner of the BIG BOOK award. Combining the thoroughness of a historian with the talent of a storyteller, in his new book The Shadow of Mazepa he accomplishes what seems impossible: a fundamental study based on numerous sources turns out to be more captivating than a novel. Here, the hetmans shape the fate of the Zaporozhian Host, and Cossack speech can be heard; here, a magical world of Little Russian villages comes alive in vivid scents, sounds, and colors; here, the biographies of great writers and poets — even Shevchenko and Gogol — are just part of a larger biography and fate... Here, a nation is born. I wanted to prove that the history of nationalism is not a collection of boring “ideological” texts, not the history of political parties or movements, not the evolution of political programs. It is an interesting world, full of passion, energy, and creativity. Sergey Belyakov